New Orleans writers round up: Lara Naughton, Jesmyn Ward, Justin Nobel, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Kristin Sanders, and Yuri Herrera

Countless writers in New Orleans are ever plucking away at their keyboards, conducting research or interviews, or simply probing their memories and inner lives to create worthwhile work. Much of this is published online, scattered disparately throughout cyberspace. Here are a few things we at Room 220 read recently that compelled us to gather them together and share.

Refinery29 published an excerpt from Lara Naughton’s Jaguar Man. In this memoir, Naughton tells the story of a vacation that took a turn for the unexpected, resulting in her kidnap and assault by a local cab driver in Belize. Naughton, whose play Never Fight a Shark in Water debuted in 2010, is slated to headline an event during Room 220’s Fall Reading Series.

Tulane Professor Jesmyn Ward edited the recently published The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race. Ward’s introduction for the anthology appeared on lithub earlier this month.

This summer, Longreads featured an essay about the miseducation of John Muir from Justin Nobel. In this essay, Nobel discusses Muir’s early obsession with trees and his “ugly feelings about people.”

Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s essay “Stanislavski in the Ghetto” appeared on AGNI‘s blog earlier in August. The piece discusses, among other things, the voice of the child narrator of his story “Children in New Orleans,” which appeared in AGNI 83.

An interview with RM220 contributor Kristin Sanders about her new chapbook, This is a map of their watching me, recently appeared on chapbookinterviews. Her first full-length book, CUNTRY, is forthcoming from Trembling Pillow Press.

We’re also enjoying all the press that Yuri Herrera’s The Transmigration of Bodies continues to receive, including a mention on NPR’s Fresh Air in July.