Looking Inward: “Secret Keepers,” “Midnight Self” and more

Secret Keepers 

Teresa Tumminello Brader’s second book, “Secret Keepers,” is a collection of short stories. The stories are steeped in characters who are struggling in their relationships with loved ones and the world around them. We deal with characters worried about their partner possibly having an affair, but also a story that follows families who are struggling to rebuild among the onslaught of hurricanes. The stories are filled with people and a New Orleans that will seem familiar to any local reader, as Tumminello Brader uses her lived-in experience to capture her hometown. We feel this experience in how she writes about hurricanes, but also how she captures local neighborhood bars such as the Parkway Bakery & Tavern. 160 pages, $17.95

Midnight Self

“Midnight Self” is Adrian Van Young’s second collection of short stories. Here, Van Young writes short stories that are equal parts surreal, horrifying and human. He takes the reader into different worlds with each story, but one feels more emotionally impactful than the next. In the short story, “The Man Who Wore Death,” we see all of Van Young’s writing strengths. The story, despite its title, starts with the line, “There once was a man who wore high khaki pants,” which makes it hard to not smirk. But Van Young writes a story about Death’s emissary and makes it human, personal, as every name on the planet is on the soon-to-be-dead list. Van Young is a professional freelance editor in New Orleans, where he lives with his family. 234 pages, $21.95

An Arm Fixed to a Wing: Poems

“An Arm Fixed to a Wing: Poems” is the second book of poems by writer, Olivia Clare Friedman (published by LSU Press). The book mixes the joy and complexity of motherhood with themes of nostalgia and mixes free verse with poetic forms like the elegy. Friedman finds the spiritual in our physical and shared world, such as in her poem titled “Elegy for Gone Sounds,” which starts with the lines “Turn off all music. If I can’t have / sounds I remember—my father / coming home.” These poems capture not just the physical world, but the absences that hover over us, as we continue to try to hold on to our love. 72 pages, $19.95

She Danced with a Redfish: A Play in Two Acts

Carolyn Nur Wistrand’s play, “She Danced with a Redfish,” was published by UL Press. The play follows the famous voodoo practitioner, Marie Laveau, as she navigates the world of the French Quarter and the spiritual practices that happen in New Orleans. This play finds a way to capture Laveau in a new and fascinating light. In this play, we see ghosts, spiritual practices and the landmarks in the city of New Orleans such as the Vieux Carre and Congo Square. Wistrand is a professor at Dillard University. 126 pages, $19.95