With disastrous flooding fresh on the minds of so many here in northeast Louisiana, it is timely that the University of Louisiana Monroe welcomes author Elise Blackwell this week. Blackwell has written several novels, two of which deal with the flood of 1927 and Hurricane Katrina.
Blackwell spoke with creative writing students on Tuesday April 26, to discuss the students work, the life of a writer, and the world of publishing. This affords the students the chance to get feedback and first-hand advice from an accomplished professional author.
"We like our students to be able to talk to other writers. I know they often get tired of listening to me and my colleague, Bill Ryan. So, we like to have fresh voices, and we feel so lucky and happy to have a writer of Elise's quality here at the University this week," said creative writing professor Jack Heflin.
Blackwell traveled from her home in Columbia, South Carolina through a grant from the ULM College of the Arts, Education, and Science.
Blackwell read her work in the ULM Library Conference Center at 7 p.m., including a selection from her book The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish and her latest novel The Lower Quarter.
"One of my characters' job is restoring water damaged art, so that whole idea about how you recover from a natural catastrophe and how you rebuild is at the heart of book," said Blackwell.
The reading is free and open to the public.
