Clark, Joshua 1975-

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Clark, Joshua 1975-

PERSONAL:

Born 1975, in Washington, DC. Education: Yale University, B.A.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Light of New Orleans Publishing, 828 Royal St. #307, New Orleans, LA 70116. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Journalist, writer, photographer, publisher, editor, economist. President and founder of Light of New Orleans Publishing; associate editor of Scat (magazine). Director of the Katrina Arts Relief and Emergency Support fund and executive board member of the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival and the Kohlmeyer Circle of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. Has worked as a bartender and is a certified personal trainer.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Regional Book of the Year, 2003, for French Quarter Fiction: The Newest Stories of America's Oldest Bohemia: An Anthology of the Best Works by Living Writers on the Heart of New Orleans; National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, National Book Critics Circle, 2007, for Heart Like Water: Surviving Katrina and Life in Its Disaster Zone.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) French Quarter Fiction: The Newest Stories of America's Oldest Bohemia: An Anthology of the Best Works by Living Writers on the Heart of New Orleans, Light of New Orleans Publishing (New Orleans, LA), 2003.

(Editor) Louisiana in Words, Pelican Publishing Company (Gretna, LA), 2007.

Heart Like Water: Surviving Katrina and Life in Its Disaster Zone, Free Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor of fiction, travel essays, and photographs to periodicals and Web sites, including The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Lonely Planet, Consumer Affairs, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald, Poets & Writers, Louisiana Literature, Time Out: New York, and Salon.com.

SIDELIGHTS:

Joshua Clark, a native of Washington, DC, who has lived in Spain, Australia, and Argentina, adopted New Orleans as his home, becoming a spokesperson for its literature and its environmental and social challenges. He produces freelance journalism, photography, travel essays and fiction and founded Light of New Orleans Publishing. Clark earned a degree in economics from Yale University before pursuing his writing career. Bookreporter.com reviewer Carole Turner called Clark "an adventurer at heart."

Clark's first anthology, French Quarter Fiction: The Newest Stories of America's Oldest Bohemia: An Anthology of the Best Works by Living Writers on the Heart of New Orleans (2003), garnered the regional Book of the Year award for this compilation of stories by various writers including Robert Olen Butler, Richard Ford, James Nolen, and many others. Included, too, is a previously unpublished story by Tennessee Williams. Each section is preceded by a hallmark New Orleans drink recipe, a testament to the bartending job that Clark held when he first arrived in "The Big Easy." Not long after publication, French Quarter Fiction reached Amazon's top twenty-five best-seller status. A second anthology, Louisiana in Words (2007), presents brief sketches by local writers, each depicting a single minute of one day in the state of Louisiana. Gambit Weekly Online reviewer Katie Walenter found that Louisiana in Words "elegantly juxtaposes the threads and fishing line and sinews that entwine the people of Louisiana."

In 2005, Clark and his photographer girlfriend defied the evacuation order in New Orleans to brave Hurricane Katrina, and he documented the experience in Heart Like Water: Surviving Katrina and Life in Its Disaster Zone (2007). What began as an adventure quickly turned dangerous, but Clark retained his sense of humor, and courage, recording the stages of destruction for his memoir. While Nicole McClelland, writing for Mother Jones Online, found that Heart Like Water "isn't exactly a literary masterpiece," Bookreporter. com contributor Carole Turner called it "honest, raw and graphic reporting," which "captured on paper the broken hearts and souls of the legion of folks whose lives were forever altered by Katrina." Likewise, Times-Picayune reviewer Susan Larson pronounced it "a riveting memoir," that "reads as if it were written on pure adrenaline." Heart Like Water was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Clark, Joshua, Heart Like Water: Surviving Katrina and Life in Its Disaster Zone, Free Press (New York, NY), 2007.

PERIODICALS

Advocate, August 5, 2007, Greg Langley, review of Heart Like Water, p. 3.

Booklist, July 1, 2007, Vanessa Bush, review of Louisiana in Words, p. 1.

Books, September 1, 2007, "Weathering the Storm: Powerful Memoirs Explore New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina," p. 9.

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2007, review of Heart Like Water.

New Orleans May, 2003, Faith Dawson, review of French Quarter Fiction: The Newest Stories of America's Oldest Bohemia: An Anthology of the Best Works by Living Writers on the Heart of New Orleans, p. 28.

Publishers Weekly, May 21, 2007, review of Heart Like Water, p. 49.

Times-Picayune, February 2, 2003, Susan Larson, review of French Quarter Fiction, p. 6; March 14, 2007, Susan Larson, review of Heart Like Water, p. 23; July 15, 2007, Susan Larson, review of Heart Like Water, p. 23.