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June 9, 2007 Section: Accent Page: 7
Louisiana publishers witn Franklin awards at BookExpo america ChereCoen
Louisiana publishers win Franklin awards
The Benjamin Franklin Awards, celebrating excellence in independent publishing, were awarded to two Louisiana books at the recent BookExpo America in New York.
Morgana Press of New Orleans, publisher of Orleans Embrace with the Secret Gardens of the Vieux Carre, won the Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book - Nonfiction, one of the awards' highest honors. The coffee table book with 100 percent of the profits going to French Quarter preservation also took Best New Voice - Nonfiction.
Face to Face with Katrina Survivors: A First Responder's Tribute by Dr. Lemuel A. Moye and published by Open Hand Publishing won the Multicultural Award.
TJ Fisher, who wrote the introduction to Orleans Embrace, accepted the award in a flowing dress of purples and magentas.
"I wanted everyone to remember New Orleans, so I wore something flashy," she said.
The Bourbon Street resident took every opportunity to encourage people to come back to the Crescent City and help in its recovery.
"Come back and visit us," she implored. "Please come back. We need tourists."
Open Hand Publisher Richard A. Koritz was highly critical of the many layers of government involved in Katrina relief and recovery when he accepted the award for Face to Face. He praised Moye for his work in "capturing the depths of character of the poor who had to live through the horrors of Katrina and the aftermath," but encouraged audience members to keep up the "commitment to fight for the rights of New Orleanians."
Face to Face is also the winner of the 2007 Skipping Stones Honor Award for Teaching Resources, the winner of the Eric Hoffer Award for Best New Writing on Culture, Foreword Magazine Book of the Year finalist, both for Best Regional Book and for Family & Relationships, and the Ippy Award finalist for Best Autobiography/Memoir.
The audiobook of Rampart Street (BBC Audiobooks America), written by David Fulmer, won for Best Audiobook - Adult Fiction and Pelican Publishing's Mardi Gras Treasures: Jewelry was a finalist in the Regional category.
Nathalie Dupree's Shrimp & Grits Cookbook (Gibbs Smith) won the Franklin award in the cookbook category and, although it's not a regional title, the publishers were serenaded by the music of Lafayette's BeauSoleil when they took the stage.
Little-known stories make for big books
Two fascinating non-fiction titles have just emerged from LSU Press, both examining two relatively obscure facets of Louisiana history.
Mary Gorton McBride, a former LSU at Shreveport English professor takes on a little known but highly intriguing Bayou State native in Randall Lee Gibson of Louisiana, Confederate General and New South Reformer (LSU Press, $45). Gibson's family owned a large plantation in Terrebonne Parish in an area where a town now bears his name. He was educated at Yale, where he was highly regarded by his peers, studied law at the University of Louisiana and traveled throughout Europe. When the Civil War came, he believed in succession and fought heroically at the Battle of Shiloh, the campaigns of the Army of Tennessee and the Battle of Spanish Fort.
What's intriguing about Gibson is his strong leadership qualities and progressive politics that have escaped notice. After the Civil War, Gibson favored a unified government with African-American involvement, steadfastly worked for levee and flood control measures after his property was flooded by the Mississippi River and proposed funding for public schools. He was elected to Congress where he peacefully solved the disputed and volatile 1876 election. At the end of the century, Paul Tulane hired Gibson to create Tulane University. To the end a progressive, Gibson urged the Tulane board to admit female students.
The book recalls a tumultuous time in Louisiana history, where riots, chaos and corruption ruled the day. Gibson was a rational mind during this turmoil -- one of the few according to the author -- and readers have to wonder where Louisiana would be without him.
Baton Rouge author Mary Ann Sternberg traces the winding waters of Bayou Manchac in Winding Through Time: The Forgotten History and Present-Day Peril of Bayou Manchac (LSU Press, $19.95). Few people notice this Mississippi River tributary, but the bayou has seen Native Americans, French fur trappers and Canary Islanders settle upon its banks.
Sternberg recounts this colorful history, beginning with the "Kleinpeter" Indian mounds that later became the site of the Country Club of Louisiana and which dates back to 250 B.C. The Bayou Goula helped Iberville find an alternate route to Lake Pontchartrain from the Mississippi by way of Bayou Manchac. When the British built forts nearby, Spanish Gov. Galvez seized them when France backed the colonists in the Revolution and Spain backed France. The area later became a melting pot of Acadians, Canary Islanders and Germans.
Sternberg will be reading from and signing her book at 6 p.m. at Octavia Books, 513 Octavia St. in New Orleans.
Book News
June Shaw of Thibodaux's debut novel Relative Danger has been nominated for the David G. Sasher award for Best Mystery Novel of 2006. Twelve novels are up for the award, which will be presented by Deadly Ink Press at its annual conference later this month in New Jersey. Shaw calls Relative Danger "a mystery with a Cajun flair." It was published by Five Star and will be reprinted by Harlequin in December for its mystery book club members.
Acadiana resident ChereCoen is an author under the pen name of Cherie Claire. She teaches Mass Market Novel Writing at UL's Potpourri. Write her at bacoen@cox.net.
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