When Books Are Your Life
ABOUT
Books really are my life--they’re my work and my passion. I have a Ph.D. in Southern/American literature, am an English professor, and a Eudora Welty scholar (and fan). Much of my academic writing focuses on her short fiction.
I'm also the publicist for the Tennessee Williams and New Orleans Literary Festival and the Saints and Sinners LGBTQ+ Literary Festival and editor of the southern culture magazines, Louisiana Life and Acadiana Profile.
My short stories, one of which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, have appeared in South 85 Journal, Deep South Magazine, The Arkansas Review, and Acentos Review. When Books Are Your Life, my short story collection, will be published next Spring.
BOOK
When Books Are Your Life (Mercer University Press, March 2027)
When Books are Your Life is a linked short story collection that explores the desires, isolation, and separateness of characters living in New Orleans and the nearby fictional town of Harmon.
Within these twelve stories that all revolve around books, there are a frustrated librarian, mothers and daughters locked in constant battle, a book club leader who doesn’t even read the books she chooses, a young boy trying to protect his mother, a writer who steals bits of people’s lives for her stories, and a janitor who repairs old books while trying to keep his family close. Appearing in several stories is librarian Eleanor Reed, who is devastated at being forced into retirement and must figure out how to navigate the rest of her life and her changed relationship with books.
While these quiet characters grapple with life’s challenges in a harsh world, the thread that runs through all of the stories is a love of or need for books. The power of words and stories, the beauty of books themselves, the deep-seated passion readers share--all of these things enable characters to find solace, meaning, and connection. This collection is full of everyday stories that are tender and at times, heartbreaking, but each contains a promise of hope, often arising from the books and the comfort characters find in each other.