Relearning Civil War History to Write a Novel

I was born and grew up in New Orleans, a city saturated with French, Spanish, American, and Black American history and culture. Louisiana law wasn’t based on English common law but Napoleonic Code. Counties are called parishes. Mardi Gras was an official holiday.

The state was, and to some extent still is, three regions, each with a distinct accent. North Louisiana, where my father came from, resembled East Texas and Mississippi, including the southern accent. Southwest Louisiana is Cajun country and where my maternal grandfather was born and raised. And then there was New Orleans, with its own distinct accent that sounds vaguely Brooklynese. My mother and her family were all born there, and that’s where I lived with my two brothers.

If one subject tied and unified the state of Louisiana, it was history, and specifically Civil War history. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Photograph: A publicity poster for the 1939 film "Gone with the Wind."

Some Tuesday Readings

Songs from the Kayak – poem by David Whyte.

Making & Unmaking Meaning: Interview with Wendy Wisner – Tweetspeak Poetry.

My Kite – poem by Mac Sumner at Story Warren.

“The Owl,” poem by Edward Thomas – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

That Bell in Your Hand – poem by Catherine Abbey Hodges at Every Day Poems.