Hard to believe it was a year ago that I was glued to the various news and weather outlets watching Katrina make its way toward the northern Gulf. We all know what happened that day, but what is happening now especially in the arts community, which is essential to New Orleans both past and hopefully future, reminds me of the first sprigs of green that spurt from the ashes after a forest fire. From the Mobile Press Register:
Unlike the original, fearless settlers, we maintain the uncomfortable division in our minds -- before Katrina and after Katrina. The new literary magazine Intersection/New Orleans addresses this mental crossroads. Beautifully designed by Tom Varisco, this slim volume commemorates, in the words of its editors, "the literal intersections of the streets, as well as that of visual art and writing." Here some of our finest writers -- in episodic, anecdotal, meditative pieces -- consider the changes in a place that never seems to change, catalogue the secrets of a place it takes a while to discover and yet is never fully known.
For more information or to find out how to order a copy, go here.
The Miami Herald's Fred Grimm takes a look at the most recent edition of New Stories from the South:
This year's edition is the 20th annual collection that could pass most years for the nation's best short stories and the first since the departure of founding editor Shannon Ravenel. Allan Gurganus, author of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, and a master of the short story himself, has taken over. The quality holds, and the 2006 edition is much funnier than the 2005 version. The dark and weird abound -- hey, this is still the South -- but stories here, such as J.D. Chapman's "Amanuensis," come stoked with humor.
Speaking of Southern writers, over five hours of video footage of Eudora Welty has been found in the archives at the NEA. The video will be put on display at Welty's home in Jackson, Mississippi.
Everything you ever wanted to know about the University of Missouri Press.
The NY Times has an interesting piece on what happens when the Coen brothers invaded Marfa, Texas, to shoot their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men while at the same time Paul Thomas Anderson was around shooting their movie version of Upton Sinclair's Oil. Mayhem ensues.
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