Table Scraps and Other Essays with Juyanne James

Author Juyanne James discusses her book "Table Scraps and Other Essays." Presented by PGCMLS and the Prince George's County Human Relations Commission.

"Table Scraps and Other Essays" is for all intents and purposes memoir writing. At the heart of the twenty-two true stories is an African American female who, as a child, along with her siblings, must learn the value of hard work as hired hands. James’s young spirit is often at odds with her growing family, especially with a father figure who ignores his duties as husband and provider. She has a strong, loving mother who insists on keeping the family together. James learns to trust and depend on the “guardians” of her small Louisiana community—teachers who are eventually forced to move away from the area when the local schools are integrated. Many years later, James returns home figuratively, and literally on occasion, from the apartment where she lives in New Orleans, and reconnects with a father who seeks forgiveness for his earlier betrayal. He spends each day attempting to make up for the ill treatment of his wife and children. In these essays, James shares her love of nature, both as a means of escape from her troubled family and as inspiration for her writing.

Juyanne James is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Holy Cross, New Orleans, Louisiana. She teaches American Literature, African American Literature, Creative Writing (Fiction and CNF), World Literature, and English Composition. She is the author of The Persimmon Trail and Other Stories (Chin Music Press, 2015), her debut collection of stories in which she interprets the African American experience in Louisiana, as well as a collection of essays titled Table Scraps and Other Essays (Resource Publishers, 2019). James received a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature (University of New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana) and later an M.F.A. in Writing (Spalding University, Louisville, Kentucky). Her stories and essays have been published in journals, such as The Louisville Review, Mythium, Bayou Magazine, Eleven Eleven, Thrice, and Ponder Review, and included in the anthologies New Stories from the South: 2009 (Algonquin) and Something in the Water: 20 Louisiana Stories (Portals Press, 2011). Her essay “Table Scraps” was a notable essay in The Best American Essays 2014, and she was commissioned to write a story for Symphony Space’s Selected Shorts Project (“You Don’t Know Me, Child”). James has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize three times.

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