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LSU Press invites the public to celebrate the publication of Louisiana Aviation: An Extraordinary History in Photographs, by local author Vincent P. Caire, at the Wedell-Williams Memorial Aviation Museum, 118 Cotten Road, Patterson, LA 70392, on Saturday, May 12 from 2–4 p.m. The event is free and will feature a book talk by Caire, followed by a signing and reception with light refreshments. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

As an aviator who learned to fly at Baton Rouge Downtown Airport, now transformed into Independence Park and State Police Headquarters, it was great to be able to read and see some of the aviation history of Louisiana.  Vincent Caire has given pilots a chance to look back on a different time when we were able to go out to the airport, walk on the ramp and watch airplanes arrive and depart.  On my twelfth birthday, I was given a trip from Baton Rouge to New Orleans on Eastern Airlines.  The flight down was on a DC-3 and the return was on a Lockheed Constellation.  We had dinner on the return flight, served on actual china, on a tray that was balanced on a pillow on your lap.  After learning to fly, I remember flying into Moisant Airport when general aviation actually had a place at the terminal where you could park your aircraft.  I look forward to the launch event for this book, 12 May, at the Wedell-Williams Memorial Aviation Museum so I can thank the author for this great “look-back” at an important part of our state.

Alfred T. Spain
Co-founder, JetBlue Airways

Ephemeron, by LSU Press author T.R. Hummer, received this year’s Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters (MIAL) Poetry Prize. The MIAL awards recognize the “artistic achievements of living Mississippians.” Ephemeron was selected as the winner by poet Joshua Weiner, who called the collection “an ambitious, distinctive book.” Ephemeron also recently won the Faculty Achievement Award for Best Performance or Artwork at Arizona State University.

T. R. Hummer is the author of nine books of poetry, including The Infinity Sessions and Bluegrass Wasteland: Selected Poems. He has been editor of Kenyon Review, New England Review, and Georgia Review. A native of Mississippi and longtime devotee and practitioner of jazz, he lives in Phoenix, where he teaches creative writing at Arizona State University.

Photo by Frank Veronsky

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