Lewis Nordan’s Followers (72)

Lewis Nordan

Born

in Forest, Mississippi, The United States

August 23, 1939

Died

April 13, 2012

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Short Stories, Nonfiction

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lewis Nordan (August 23, 1939 – April 13, 2012) was an American writer.
Nordan was born to Lemuel and Sara Bayles in Forest, Mississippi, grew up in Itta Bena, Mississippi. He received his B.A. at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, his M.A. from Mississippi State University, and his Ph.D. from Auburn University in Alabama. In 1983, at age forty-five, Nordan published his first collection of stories, Welcome to the Arrow-Catcher Fair. The collection established him as a writer in the grotesque Southern tradition of William Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell, and Flannery O'Connor. It also established a place for Nordan’s fiction, the fictional Arrow Catcher, Mississippi, a small town in the Mississippi Delt From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lewis Nordan (August 23, 1939 – April 13, 2012) was an American writer.
Nordan was born to Lemuel and Sara Bayles in Forest, Mississippi, grew up in Itta Bena, Mississippi. He received his B.A. at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, his M.A. from Mississippi State University, and his Ph.D. from Auburn University in Alabama. In 1983, at age forty-five, Nordan published his first collection of stories, Welcome to the Arrow-Catcher Fair. The collection established him as a writer in the grotesque Southern tradition of William Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell, and Flannery O'Connor. It also established a place for Nordan’s fiction, the fictional Arrow Catcher, Mississippi, a small town in the Mississippi Delta based loosely on Nordan’s hometown of Itta Bena.

After the short-story collection The All-Girl Football Team (1986) followed Music of the Swamp (1991), a novel/short-story cycle featuring Nordan's spiritual alter ego, the young Sugar Mecklin, as the protagonist. The book features aspects of magic realism that would become one of Nordan's trademarks, along with a peculiar mix of the tragic and the hilarious.

Wolf Whistle (1993), Nordan's second novel, was both a critical and public success. It won the Southern Book Award and gained him a wider audience. The book deals with one of the most notorious racial incidents in recent Southern history: the murder of Emmett Till.

The novel The Sharpshooter Blues (1995) is a lyrical meditation on America's gun culture, as well as another portrait of the grotesque lives in Itta Bena. With the coming-of-age novel Lightning Song (1997), Nordan moved from Itta Bena to the hill country of Mississippi. The novel still features Nordan's magic Mississippi realism, complete with singing llamas and poetic lightning strikes.

In 2000, Nordan published a "fictional memoir," Boy With Loaded Gun.
Before retiring in 2005, Lewis Nordan lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he taught Creative Writing at the University of Pittsburgh.
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Average rating: 3.76 · 18,723 ratings · 1,289 reviews · 24 distinct works • Similar authors

	Wolf Whistle 3.99 avg rating — 1,109 ratings — published 1993 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Music of the Swamp 4.07 avg rating — 654 ratings — published 1991 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Sharpshooter Blues 4.08 avg rating — 517 ratings — published 1995 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lightning Song 3.89 avg rating — 290 ratings — published 1997 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sugar Among the Freaks 4.22 avg rating — 220 ratings — published 1996 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Boy with Loaded Gun: A Memoir 3.59 avg rating — 222 ratings — published 2000 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Welcome to the Arrow-Catcher Fair 4.02 avg rating — 110 ratings — published 1983 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The All-Girl Football Team 3.91 avg rating — 104 ratings — published 1986 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Would You Shut Up, Please 3.72 avg rating — 18 ratings — published 2014	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	THE SHARP SHOOTER BLUES. 2.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Lewis Nordan (?)

“There were happy days, with watermelon, and sad days of whiskey.”
― Lewis Nordan

tags: happiness, sadness

22 likes

“A thousand times, when the train slowed or stopped, I thought of jumping off. I wanted to die in a ditch. I wanted to disappear. I wanted a different history and geography. In rhythm with the wheels I said I want I want I want I want I stayed on the train.”
― Lewis Nordan, Music of the Swamp

tags: mississippi

8 likes

“Louis said, "There ought to be a comic book about geeks."

Dr. McNaughton said, "There are books about geeks."

He said, "There are?"

Dr. McNaughton said, "I'll read you some Faulkner sometime. I'll read you some Eudora Welty, some Flannery O'Connor. Geeks, midgets, anything your heart desires. Better than comic books."

Louis looked at his father. He said, "You'll read to me? Really?”
― Lewis Nordan, The Sharpshooter Blues

tags: mississippi, reading

6 likes

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Polls

What shall we read in July, 2024? Books published after 1990.

Lambs of Men, by Charles Dodd White

15 votes 30.6%

Paradise, by Toni Morrison

13 votes 26.5%

Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell

7 votes 14.3%

The Saints of Swallow Hill, by Donna Everhart

6 votes 12.2%

Music of the Swamp, by Lewis Nordan

4 votes 8.2%

The House on Tradd Street, by Karen White

4 votes 8.2%

49 total votes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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The Seasonal Read...: 15.2 (ADVENTURES WITH ALICE AND LEWIS)	67	212	Feb 22, 2010 02:25PM
On the Southern L...: * Moderator's Choice - February, 2015: The Sharpshooter Blues, by Lewis Nordan	28	63	Feb 24, 2015 03:23PM
On the Southern L...: * Moderator's Choice - February, 2015: The Sharpshooter Blues, by Lewis Nordan	10	25	Feb 28, 2015 08:21PM
On the Southern L...: * Wolf Whistle Initial Impressions, March, 2015	8	17	Mar 11, 2015 02:20AM
On the Southern L...: Wolf Whistle	10	47	May 24, 2015 03:17PM
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Lewis Nordan’s Followers (72)

Lewis Nordan

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