Eileen M. Julien, Professor of Comparative Literature, African American and African Diaspora Studies, and French and Italian at IUB, will read from her recent book Travels with Mae: Scenes from a New Orleans Girlhood at the Lilly Library next Thursday, February 11, 2010 at a reception honoring the 2009 publication.
“Travels with Mae is a series of vignettes at once tender and full of doubt. Eileen Julien tells the story of her girlhood, young womanhood, and cultural and political awakening against the backdrop of New Orleans in the 1950’s and 60’s. Not only the story of the author’s coming of age, this is a loving portrait of family life. Julien gives an insider’s perspective on New Orleans culture. With her we attend Carnival balls and parades, family picnics and swimming parties, and survive hurricanes Betsy and Katrina. Along the way, we meet countless aunts, uncles and cousins, and are privy to family spats, her mother’s upstairs closet, and kitchens stretched from New Orleans to Washington, D.C., rural Louisiana to New York, Paris to Bordeaux and Dakar.” Read the full IU Press description.
The reception will be held on Thursday, February 11, 2010 from 4–6pm in the Lilly Library; at 4:30pm, Sandra Zagarell, Department of English, Oberlin College, will speak and Eileen Julien will do a short reading. This event is presented by Indiana University Press, the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, the Department of Comparative Literature, the Department of French and Italian, and the Lilly Library.