Alabama at the Louisiana Book Festival, 2023

On October 28 Dianne and I attended the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge. Our son Amos appeared on two panels as noted below in support of both his books, the new novel Petrochemical Nocturne and his 2018 collection of stories, Nobody Knows How It Got This Good. We were also at the 2018 festival shortly after his first book was published. 

As you can see from the schedule below, this book festival is a one-day event packed with panels of authors, demonstrations of various sorts, and a massive book tent where signings and lots of purchases take place. Oh, and food trucks. Despite pretty warm weather, the event drew hordes of people, kids, and dogs.

The festival also attracts authors of all sort of books--fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoirs, children's, cookbooks, etc. Naturally, Amos wasn't the only author with Alabama connections. Others included Kari Frederickson, a history professor at the University of Alabama and author of Deep South Dynasty: The Bankheads of Alabama, and prolific novelist Carolyn Haines, who was inducted into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame in 2020. Novelist and freelance author Terah Shelton Harris and poet Rodney Jones also appeared. 

You can read more about Amos and his writing here.  

Copies of Petrochemical Nocturne be purchased from Livingston Press, Amazon, or Bookshop,org, which supports independent bookstores. 

Copies of Nobody Knows can be purchased from Livingston Press, Amazon, or Bookshop,org, which supports independent bookstores.

The book wall in the Louisiana State Library goes up each year; these photos from the festival's Instagram account show it in progress. Amos' book can be seen on the lower right, second row up.

These two photos were taken by AJWIV

The Louisiana State Capitol is an imposing building.

Photo by AJWIV

The steps up to the capitol's main entrance features each state and its year of statehood.

Photo by AJWIV

Many of the panels took place in the House meeting rooms in the basement.

We could watch lots of traffic along the mighty Mississippi from our hotel room. 

My Son Amos Has a New Book Out, Part 2!

Our son Amos Jasper Wright IV is an urban planner by profession, but he has been writing and publishing fiction for some years. In 2018 his collection of short stories Nobody Knows How It Got This Good was published by Livingston Press. This summer his first novel, Petrochemical Nocturne, has appeared, also published by Livingston. 

When Nobody Knows came out, I naturally wrote a blog post about it. The Kirkus review of the book is here. An interview with him about the book is here. In October 2018 Amos appeared on a panel alongside two other writers with new short story collections at the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge. 

So here we are with Amos' first novel, Petrochemical Nocturne. Kirkus has reviewed this title, and so has Bill Plott for the Alabama Writers Forum. Bradley Sides interviewed Amos for the Alabama Writers Cooperative. Once again Amos will be appearing at the Louisiana Book Festival. 

Both books are available from Bookshop.org, a book vendor where every purchase supports independent bookstores. The link for Petrochemical is here and Nobody Knows is here. 

If you have read or do read either of these books, please go to their GoodReads pages, say a few words, and rate the book. In the first paragraph above the books' titles link to those pages. Of course, if you buy from Amazon or other outlet,  reviews there would be greatly appreciated. And you can always request that your local library purchase one or both titles. 

"A bristling, lurching, and often insightful investigation of the past."  Says Kirkus about Petrochemical

In his review, Bill Plott wrote about the novel, "Although a novel, this is also an extraordinary work of history. Using Cancer Alley as a setting, Wright has penned a book that is essentially about racism – the systemic and pervasive racism of not just the South but also the nation. Perhaps no white historian has told it with quite the passion that Wright brings to the table."

My Son Amos Has a New Book Out!

In March 2014 I wrote a blog post entitled "Three Generations in One Library" that discussed our family's presence on the shelves of UAB's Sterne Library. Covers of books by dad and myself are below. I also included this passage:

"My son Amos IV finished his M.A. in creative writing at UAB in 2011, and a copy of his thesis, a collection of three short stories, is held at Sterne along with all theses and dissertations done at the university. The library's catalog record for "Nobody Knows How It Got This Good" can be found here. Maybe one day Sterne will be able to buy a more formally published version."

After more than a year of anticipation since manuscript acceptance, my son Amos' collection of short stories has finally been published by Livingston Press at the University of West Alabama. The blurb on the publisher's web site notes,

"Drawing heavily on the author's experiences growing up in Central Alabama, Nobody Knows How It Got This Good explores themes of racial injustice, class, the Civil Rights Movement, environmental catastrophe, imprisonment, suburbanization, and the perennial themes of love, life and loss. 

Through sixteen stories sharing common environments and characters – a used car salesman, a cook on death row, a lynching survivor, a U.S. Census enumerator – Nobody Knows How It Got This Good, the author’s first short story collection, attempts to come to terms with the modern South. Though set in the Deep South, these stories aspire with humor and pathos to address national dilemmas."

The stories are set in the Birmingham area, and follow these characters as they move their own personal damaged landscapes in a place as problematic as Alabama and the "Magic City". Serious and funny combine in unexpected ways in this collection.

The book is available from various independent bookstores and libraries around the country, and online from Small Press Distribution, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million. The book has been reviewed by Kirkus Reviews and New Southern Fugitives. The Louisiana Book News blog has recently picked son Amos’ new collection of stories set in the #Birmingham #Alabama area for its list of “Exciting new releases by Louisiana authors”. 

Amos was interviewed about the book by Alina Stefanescu of the Alabama Writers Conclave. Deep South Magazine published a "cover reveal" back in February. The cover photo was taken by William Widmer and the cover design is by Paul Halupka. 

His fiction and poems have appeared in Arcadia, Birmingham Arts Journal, Clarion, Fieldstone Review, Folio, Grain Magazine, Gravel, The Hollins Critic, Interim, New Ohio Review, New Orleans Review, Off the Coast, Pale Horse Review, Roanoke Review, Salamander, Tacenda Literary Magazine, Union Station Magazine, Yes, Poetry and Zouch. 

After years living in Boston and Lafayette and Baton Rouge, he now lives and works in New Orleans. His author website can be found at www.amosjasperwright.com

Alabama has produced a number of short story authors, including Truman Capote and Mary Ward Brown. I'm proud to see Amos join such distinguished company!