by Juyanne James
 
"Filled with ballads of hope, truth, and redemption, this powerful collecion sings with the voices of Louisiana."
-Rachel M. Harper, Brass Ankle Blues
 
Against the backdrop of the Louisiana Bayou, Juyanne James' collection of short stories are filled with strong women and interesting men, struggling to survive. While the women are African American, James doesn't dwell on race. "The characters are not so much concerned with color as they are concerned with survival," she writes.
 
James has been a teacher for ten years, including nine years at Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans. Her stories and essays have been published in journals such as The Louisville Review, Mythium, Bayou Magazine, and Eleven Eleven, and included in the anthologies New Stories from the South 2009 (Algonquin) and Something in the Water: 20 Louisiana Stories (Portals Press). She was also commissioned to write a story for Symphony Space’s Selected Shorts Project. James has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize twice.