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I'm best known as a darkly comic literary novelist whose books are set in New Orleans--pre- and post-Katrina. Library Journal reviewed one book as "A Confederacy of Dunces meets The Corrections." Probably my best known works are Eleanor Rushing, Secondhand Smoke, and Too Jewish. I've had some honors, including Discover Great New Writers, Original Voices, Book Sense 76 selections, and Faulkner Competition first runner-up. Secondhand Smoke was among 30 novels--including Gone With the Wind, Deliverance, and A Lesson Before Dying--chosen by Oxford American as the Greatest Underrated Southern Novels. I've also published a number of short stories, essays, and reviews, and two stage pieces in Native Tongues, a New Orleans production.
My daughter Esme and my son Werner survived to adulthood and have given me three grandchildren who make me forget everything else.

I'm best known as a darkly comic literary novelist whose books are set in New Orleans--pre- and post-Katrina. Library Journal reviewed one book as "A Confederacy of Dunces meets The Corrections." Probably my best known works are Eleanor Rushing, Secondhand Smoke, and Too Jewish. I've had some honors, including Discover Great New Writers, Original Voices, Book Sense 76 selections, and Faulkner C... More