Ernest Gaines

[CajunFun]

Pretty cool stuff, the guy who did it is a highly successful NBC reporter.

I also like the fact that the 'expert' they interviewed is an LSU prof...

...who has spent his career studying a UL prof.

http://ultoday.com/node/3170

[CajunFun]

http://ultoday.com/node/4392

[CajunFun]

Ernest J. Gaines, writer-in-residence emeritus at the University of Louisiana, will give his first public reading at the university’s Ernest J. Gaines Center on Tuesday, Oct. 18 at 2 p.m.


http://ultoday.com/node/4392

[Turbine]

Starts in :13

[CajunSaint]

truly sorry i had to miss it. i have heard him at a reading before. a very special treat for anyone interested in classic literature, which i consider his to be. more special because he is a native son of our fair state.

[NewsCopy]

The Ernest J. Gaines Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette recently received a collection of over 1,000 books. The books belonged to two UL Lafayette professors: English Professor Emerita Dr. Patricia Rickels and History Professor Bradley Pollock. Both died in 2009.

These books will provide a large collection of materials relating to African American literature, history, sociology and many more disciplines. The donation will add to the existing resources located in the Edith Garland Dupré Library. This donation was made through the generosity of James D. Wilson, assistant director of the Center for Louisiana Studies and UL Press, and Dr. Julia Frederick, director of UL Lafayette's Honors Program.

The donated collection includes a first edition of Native Son by Richard Wright and many other unique monographs. "This generous donation of books related to African American studies helps the center to fulfill its mission and honors the memory of two former colleagues who contributed so much to African American studies at UL Lafayette," said Gaines Center Director Marcia Gaudet.

The rest of the story

[NewsCopy]

University of Louisiana's Ernest J. Gaines Center is inviting high school students to participate in the Ernest J. Gaines Young Writer Apprentice Program this February in which 12-15 students will attend sessions at the Gaines Center where professional writers ...

The Rest of the story

[NewsCopy]

A pair of Louisiana natives who distinguished themselves in different artistic disciplines, novelist Ernest Gaines and composer/musician Allen Toussaint are among a half dozen who will receive the prestigious National Medal of Arts from President Obama this week.

Author of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, A Lesson Before Dying and other works, Gaines is a native of Point Coupee Parish who has also served as a distinguished professor at University of Louisiana.

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	Allen Toussaint, left, and Ernest Gaines

Toussaint was instrumental in the development of the New Orleans rhythm-and-blues sound that emerged in the 1950s and '60s and remains an active architect of the Crescent City's musical identity.


The rest of the story

[NewsCopy]

The literary career of Ernest J. Gaines, writer-in-residence emeritus at the University of Louisiana, will be recognized with a series of film screenings, book talks, lectures and readings.


Gaines, 81, is the author of nine books of fiction, and was a faculty member at University of Louisiana for 21 years before he retired in 2004.

A total of about a dozen events have been planned to commemorate several anniversaries related to the writer’s work, said Dr. Matthew Teutsch, interim director of the Ernest J. Gaines Center. The center, which is located in the University’s Edith Garland Dupré Library, holds the only complete collection of the author’s papers and manuscripts.

The events begin with screenings of the short documentary “An Obsession of Mine: The Legacy of Ernest J. Gaines” and the film adaptation of Gaines’ short story “The Sky is Gray” at 6:30 p.m. at the Lafayette Public Library’s south regional branch. They will conclude on Nov. 21 with the second annual Ernest J. Gaines Lecture, by Dr. John Lowe, which will be held at 1 p.m. at the Gaines Center.

“Catherine Carmier,” Gaines’ first novel, was published 50 years ago, in 1964. The film version of “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” the first-person narrative of a fictional 110-year-old woman born into slavery, aired 40 years ago, in 1974. The TV movie received nine Emmy Awards. The novel, Gaines’ third, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize after its publication in 1971. It has sold more than one million copies in the United States, according to Amazon.com.

“A Lesson Before Dying,” Gaines’ last novel about an illiterate man condemned to death that was published in 1993, won a National Book Critics Circle Award. “The Chicago Tribune” called the novel “an instant classic, a book that will be read, discussed and taught beyond the rest of our lives.” The novel was selected for Oprah Winfrey’s popular book club.


Gaines accepted a National Medal of Arts last July from President Barack Obama during a ceremony at the White House. The citation reads: “Drawing deeply from his childhood in the rural South, his works have shed new light on the African-American experience and given voice to those who have endured injustice.”

Gaines has received a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” and has been inducted into the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, or Order of Arts and Letters. His works have been translated into 18 languages.

“I just tried to write as well as I could,” said Gaines recently. “I tried to write about the human condition in every book.”

A complete schedule of events and more information about Ernest J. Gaines and his work is available at Ernest J. Gaines and his work is available at http://ernestgaines.louisiana.edu/.

Louisiana.edu