A couple of weeks ago, during the last ten days of March, I used the funds from my Oregon Literary Fellowship to travel to southwest Louisiana to research the final details of my Civil War novel, Hagridden. I stayed in Cameron and travelled all over the region, visiting libraries and wildlife refuges, touring museums and historical villages, talking with experts in history and botany, listening to locals and walking the streets and bayous and beaches.
During the coming week, I’ll be posting about the trip. Tomorrow, look for a lengthy post of photos from the trip, accompanied by quotes from my novel and some details about the research. Later this week, I’ll post a bibliography of the material I read, before and during the trip, in print and online. And then I’ll wrap things up with a kind of retrospective of the whole experience.
In the meantime, I want to thank, again, Literary Arts for giving me this amazing opportunity through the fellowship. And if you haven’t read the opening excerpt from the novel, you can find it online at SOL: English Writing in Mexico.
Related articles
- Louisiana research trip: the photos (snoekbrown.com)
- Louisiana research trip: the bibliography (snoekbrown.com)
- Louisiana research trip: the people (snoekbrown.com)
Samuel Snoek-Brown 
It must be such a high to be traveling for a writing project. Lucky, lucky you!
I’ll watch for your further tales.
I was giddy. It was a perfect trip — everything I’d hoped for, and occasionally a bit more. 🙂
I love the music the Cajuns make, but would die from their cooking.
Yeah. I actually love the flavors, but as a vegetarian, I have a hard time finding good Cajun food I can still eat.