Biography

Marcia Gaudet is Professor of English Emeritaand a Lifetime Fellow of Center for Louisiana Studiesat University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where she was founding director of the Ernest J. Gaines Center. Her book, Carville: Remembering Leprosy in America,was awarded the 2005 Chicago Folklore Prize. Her other books include Porch Talk with Ernest Gaines, "This Louisiana Thing That Drives Me": The Legacy of Ernest J. Gaines,and Ernest J. Gaines: Conversations.

Schedule

9 a.m. to 9:45 a.m.
State Capitol Building, House Committee Room 4
Book Talk
Ernest J. Gaines: Conversations

10 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.
Barnes & Noble Bookselling Tent
Book Signing

Ernest J. Gaines: Conversations

Collected interviews with the acclaimed author of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and A Lesson Before Dying

As the acclaimed author of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest J. Gaines (b. 1933) has been publishing stories and novels for more than sixty years. His brilliant portrayals of race, community, and culture in rural south Louisiana have made him one of the most respected and beloved living American writers.

Ernest J. Gaines: Conversations brings together the author’s own thoughts and words in interviews that range from 1994 to 2017, discussing his life, his work, and his literary legacy. The interviews cover all of Gaines’s works, including his two latest books, Mozart and Leadbelly: Stories and Essays (2005) and The Tragedy of Brady Sims (2017). The book provides a retrospective of his work from the viewpoint of a senior writer, now eighty-five years old, and gives an important international perspective on Gaines and his work.

Among the many things Gaines discusses in his interviews are the recurrent themes in his works: the search for manhood, the importance of personal responsibility and standing with dignity, the problems of fathers and sons, and the challenges of race and racism in America. He examines his fictional world and his strong sense of place, his role as teacher and mentor, the importance of strong women in his life, and the influence of spirituality, religion, and music on his work. He also talks about storytelling, the nature of narrative, writing as a journey, and how he sees himself as a storyteller.