Literary Louisiana: Culture, Race, History and lore

Let Us Descend
Jesmyn Ward
Jesmyn Ward’s newest novel gets its title from the Dante Alighieri quote “’Let us descend,’ the poet now began, ‘and enter this blind world.’” Ward, who has won the MacArthur “Genius Grant” and is a professor at Tulane, has published numerous books and essentially won or been nominated for every literary award imaginable for her writing about the Black South. “Let Us Descend” reimagines slavery, as the book follows the protagonist, Annis. The book goes back and forth between the brutally visceral physical world of slavery, and Annis’s own headspace, where she navigates through her own memories and her mother’s stories. Ward’s newest book starts with the line, “The first weapon I ever held was my mother’s hand.” $28, 320 pages

Settling St. Malo
Randy Gonzales
Randy Gonzalez’s Settling St Malo, published by UL Press, explores Louisiana history, centered around the 19th and early 20th century, when Louisiana had the largest Filipino/a community in the country. These poems mix factual information with lyricism, acting as a history of Filipino/a culture in Louisiana in verse. This book looks at the Filipino/a experience both up close (with poems dedicated to individuals and families) and from afar (with other poems focusing on the political hardships that the United States government put on this community, and how climate change is taking away the places they once resided.) $18.95, 111 pages

I’ll Give You a Reason
Annell López
Annell López is a Dominican immigrant who moved to New Orleans and got her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of New Orleans. Her short story collection, “I’ll Give You a Reason,” won the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize from Feminist Press, which awards “debut women/nonbinary writers of color.” López’s book explores race, identity, womanhood and the immigrant experience with character-driven stories that are centered around the ironbound neighborhood of Newark. López’s stories come with both a strong sense of humor but also devastating emotional truths. $16.95, 208 pages

Ghost Forest: Poems
Jack B. Bedell
Former Louisiana Poet Laureate Jack B. Bedell’s “Ghost Forest: Poems,” evokes spirits in damn near every way imaginable, from memories to fantasies to actual visitations. Bedell’s poems embody everything from famous boxers to our state’s eroding coastline; they personify the forest and the ghosts that live within them. With this poetry collection, Bedell uses his linguistic chops to accentuate the arc of the book, that shows how truly alive all our ghosts are, as individuals, but also as a collective. “Ghost Forest: Poems” is Bedell’s third collection with Mercer University Press, all of which have had his patented flair of revolving around the environment and the stories it tells us. $20, 84 pages