Literary Louisiana: Benito Juárez, Walkin’ Blues and more

Season of the Swamp
Yuri Herrera

It’s not often you get to read speculative fiction set in the past, but Yuri Herrera’s “Season of the Swamp” is able to achieve just that, by filling in the blanks of what Mexican patriot Benito Juárez’s time in New Orleans was like. It is a known fact that Juarez spent about 18 months in New Orleans in 1853, but what encompassed those months (before Juárez would become president of Mexico) is far less certain. Herrera writes about Juárez and a group of Mexican exiles’ experiences as they travail through the unique city in the young country of the United States, steeping the novel with the history of Mexico and New Orleans, with the beautiful style of writing for which Herrera is known. 160 pages, $26

Walkin’ Blues
Kalamu ya Salaam

“Walkin’ Blues” is the first novel by renowned New Orleans author, activist and thinker, Kalamu ya Salaam. The novel follows famed bluesman Robert Johnson, one of the most mythicized musicians in United States history, as he tries to go through Mississippi and makes it to Louisiana. “Walkin’ Blues” fills in the gap of what Robert Johnson was doing before the infamous recordings he made in 1938. The novel is a great addition to the biographies and myths written about Robert Johnson and the South. 300 pages, $19.95

The Flat Woman
Vanessa Saunders

Vanessa Saunders’ “The Flat Woman,” is an experimental novel set in the not-so-distant future in a world where seagulls fall from the sky and the government blames women for climate change. In “The Flat Woman,” we follow an unnamed female protagonist as she raises herself, after her mother is incarcerated for “climate crimes.” The protagonist questions her passion for the environmental movement as she begins a romance with an activist. This book blends humor, the absurd and drama in a way that almost makes the world feel more lifelike. Saunders won the FC2’s Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize. 160 pages, $18.95

That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America
Amanda Jones

A part memoir, part nonfiction exploration of the U.S. political climate that has increased book banning and the fight for the right for books to be readily available for the public to read. Jones’ book addresses book banning but also her personal journey, dealing with death threats and online harassment ever since defending books. Jones is a renowned librarian who teaches in the same middle school (now for 22 years) that she attended in Livingston Parish. She is the founder of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians. 288 pages, $29.99