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Acadiana
Poetry. In Reddy's south Louisiana, gods, saints, and sibyls walk among us. Set against the approach and aftermath of a hurricane, Acadiana's swamps and bayous are liminal spaces where the boundaries between this world and the next, between comfort and catastrophe, are porous. In this sometimes lyrical and sometimes sinister polyvocal collection, the sibyls' oracular voices foretell the approach of the storm and the disaster it leaves in its wake; before her death, the folk-saint Saint Charlene whispers her last invocation to the Lord she can no longer hear; a girl tells the story of being momentarily possessed by the Holy Spirit; and Saint Catherine sits in a lawn chair before a storm, reading the sky for 'The sky's a still and cloudless blue / and tells us nothing. Only certain birds // can guide us. They do not appear.' By placing the rituals of Catholic faith alongside ancient practices like augury and divination, these poems ask about the role of ritual and faith in warding off and making sense of disasters, both natural and man-made. The collection closes with the stark, oracular pronouncement of the sibyls, after the 'Saved and spared are different / and you will learn that now.'
"The poems in Nancy Reddy's ACADIANA explore the disaster-ravaged Louisiana landscape that exists in 'the space of / after.' Ranging in location from the bayous to the levees to the I-10 expressway that cuts through the state, Reddy's poems meditate on the wreckage of the Gulf Coast and give us its story through the voices of women. How do we live now, she asks in the poem 'The Thibodeaux Girl Speaks, After,' 'with levees and spillways that hold the river / to its shores, with water / rising yearly in the gulf'? Reddy's poems reckon with these large questions with eloquence and urgency." —Nicole Cooley
"In Nancy Reddy's ACADIANA, myths walk among us; their favor and their disdain are equally damaging. A woman whom 'the god has loved, however briefly' is 'sun-split,' and fit now only for prophesy. A sleeping girl might be 'still unharmed,' but harm, we know, is coming. These women and girls, touched by the disastrous divine, transform from mortals to sybils and back again, speaking truth with all the destructive power of a storm. Reddy says, 'The wrong gods / roar into our lungs now' but doesn't tell us which ones are the right ones. She knows there is no easy answer." —Rebecca Hazelton
"It is Nancy Reddy's brilliance in ACADIANA to render the natural beauty and hostility of the Louisiana swamp in all its humid detail, while at the same time writing myths that transcend the bayou. These poems resound with zydeco and the howl of hurricanes, but it's the incantatory rhythms of sibyls and sirens that lead us from mystery to mystery. Here the gods—violent, alluring, electric with unspeakable passions—are never more than a storm, a spell, a spark away."—George David Clark
"The poems in Nancy Reddy's ACADIANA are brewing with storms & spells, with 'swamp teeth,' sirens, sibyls, & sin. The soundtrack is made of wails, howls, screams, & weeping from women, prophets, & gods. These poems are poems of transfixion, tongues, and transformation; girls become women, women become birds, & birds swoop down to eat children. There is no mercy here, just the flooded landscape of sorrow. Reddy teaches us what new & broken worlds sound like, how to make music out of ruin, and how to navigate 'the space of / after.' ACADIANA will touch and leave you like a god—unharmed, but gasping." —Meghan Privitello
"The poems in Nancy Reddy's ACADIANA explore the disaster-ravaged Louisiana landscape that exists in 'the space of / after.' Ranging in location from the bayous to the levees to the I-10 expressway that cuts through the state, Reddy's poems meditate on the wreckage of the Gulf Coast and give us its story through the voices of women. How do we live now, she asks in the poem 'The Thibodeaux Girl Speaks, After,' 'with levees and spillways that hold the river / to its shores, with water / rising yearly in the gulf'? Reddy's poems reckon with these large questions with eloquence and urgency." —Nicole Cooley
"In Nancy Reddy's ACADIANA, myths walk among us; their favor and their disdain are equally damaging. A woman whom 'the god has loved, however briefly' is 'sun-split,' and fit now only for prophesy. A sleeping girl might be 'still unharmed,' but harm, we know, is coming. These women and girls, touched by the disastrous divine, transform from mortals to sybils and back again, speaking truth with all the destructive power of a storm. Reddy says, 'The wrong gods / roar into our lungs now' but doesn't tell us which ones are the right ones. She knows there is no easy answer." —Rebecca Hazelton
"It is Nancy Reddy's brilliance in ACADIANA to render the natural beauty and hostility of the Louisiana swamp in all its humid detail, while at the same time writing myths that transcend the bayou. These poems resound with zydeco and the howl of hurricanes, but it's the incantatory rhythms of sibyls and sirens that lead us from mystery to mystery. Here the gods—violent, alluring, electric with unspeakable passions—are never more than a storm, a spell, a spark away."—George David Clark
"The poems in Nancy Reddy's ACADIANA are brewing with storms & spells, with 'swamp teeth,' sirens, sibyls, & sin. The soundtrack is made of wails, howls, screams, & weeping from women, prophets, & gods. These poems are poems of transfixion, tongues, and transformation; girls become women, women become birds, & birds swoop down to eat children. There is no mercy here, just the flooded landscape of sorrow. Reddy teaches us what new & broken worlds sound like, how to make music out of ruin, and how to navigate 'the space of / after.' ACADIANA will touch and leave you like a god—unharmed, but gasping." —Meghan Privitello
- GenresPoetry
32 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2018
28 people want to read
About the author
Nancy Reddy
8 books69 followersNancy Reddy is the author of The Good Mother Myth. Her previous books include the poetry collections Pocket Universe and Double Jinx, a winner of the National Poetry Series. With Emily Pérez, she’s co-editor of The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood. Her essays have appeared in Slate, Poets & Writers, Romper, The Millions, and elsewhere. The recipient of grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Sustainable Arts Foundation and a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, she teaches writing at Stockton University and writes the newsletter Write More, Be Less Careful.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 14, 2025
Witchy, mysterious, rooted in mythology and place. This poetry feels clean and brutal. It calls repeatedly on figures like the Sybils. The lens through which the landscape and world are viewed is a primal, vengeful, protective, feminine lens, like the furies of Aeschylus before they are rendered toothless by “law.” I realize I’m using pretty strong, harsh language, but the poems themselves are not especially gory or violent. I think there is just so much force to them, as if something is rumbling, as if something will erupt very soon, and when it comes it will be from a woman.
A deceptively easy read, this is a collection to return to.
A deceptively easy read, this is a collection to return to.
March 8, 2018
‘You ask small questions and for this you will not be forgiven.’
New Jersey poet Nancy Reddy teaches writing at Stockton University in southern New Jersey. She is a prize-winning poet – the National Poetry Series – and has won grants and fellowships from the Sewanee Writers' Conference, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation. In addition to this new collection of poems she has published DOUBLE JINX: POEMS and her poems have appeared in 32 Poems, Blackbird, The Iowa Review, Smartish Pace, and other anthologies and publications.
The title of this thoughtful collection ACADIANA, when exploring Wikipedia, is the official name given to the French Louisiana region that is home to a large Francophone population. Many are of Acadian descent and are now identified as Cajun. But the poems are less about history than about natural disasters and the strange events and sights that accompany such disasters as hurricanes and the dark swaps of the area. Nancy finds the interplay between myth and reality, often painting one over the other to produce a sense of the mystical that somehow explains the devastating physical events she observes.
THE FIRST MIRACLE
After sunrise service papa walked us to the marsh’s edge
and we raised our palms up to the pinking skyline,
one by one he lit a box of barnburners and held each glowing tip
against the thin web of skin beside my thumb
and while the little ones looked on, he peeled the blister back
to show the new skin risen opalescent beneath my worldly
flesh. Papa breathed a wish into my palm and the wound bloomed
a cloud of honeysuckle. The sweet scent made me sick
and mama called us all to come inside, to change and
start our chores. Tell no one, papa said.
FOG DANCING
And when the low planes came
to spray for mosquitoes,
the townspeople danced in the fog,
Green and gauzy as it was
And when the babies grew crooked and raw-spined,
they didn’t know
which gods to blame,
the white-walled Christ of town
or the wild-haired gods of the swamp.
Follow Nancy Reddy – she is a poet of note who has that gift to speak in a language apparently different than we hear – and it makes frightening sense.
New Jersey poet Nancy Reddy teaches writing at Stockton University in southern New Jersey. She is a prize-winning poet – the National Poetry Series – and has won grants and fellowships from the Sewanee Writers' Conference, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation. In addition to this new collection of poems she has published DOUBLE JINX: POEMS and her poems have appeared in 32 Poems, Blackbird, The Iowa Review, Smartish Pace, and other anthologies and publications.
The title of this thoughtful collection ACADIANA, when exploring Wikipedia, is the official name given to the French Louisiana region that is home to a large Francophone population. Many are of Acadian descent and are now identified as Cajun. But the poems are less about history than about natural disasters and the strange events and sights that accompany such disasters as hurricanes and the dark swaps of the area. Nancy finds the interplay between myth and reality, often painting one over the other to produce a sense of the mystical that somehow explains the devastating physical events she observes.
THE FIRST MIRACLE
After sunrise service papa walked us to the marsh’s edge
and we raised our palms up to the pinking skyline,
one by one he lit a box of barnburners and held each glowing tip
against the thin web of skin beside my thumb
and while the little ones looked on, he peeled the blister back
to show the new skin risen opalescent beneath my worldly
flesh. Papa breathed a wish into my palm and the wound bloomed
a cloud of honeysuckle. The sweet scent made me sick
and mama called us all to come inside, to change and
start our chores. Tell no one, papa said.
FOG DANCING
And when the low planes came
to spray for mosquitoes,
the townspeople danced in the fog,
Green and gauzy as it was
And when the babies grew crooked and raw-spined,
they didn’t know
which gods to blame,
the white-walled Christ of town
or the wild-haired gods of the swamp.
Follow Nancy Reddy – she is a poet of note who has that gift to speak in a language apparently different than we hear – and it makes frightening sense.
October 8, 2020
Black Lawrence Press is known for publishing cutting-edge poetry and fiction in a style that is all thier own. Acadiana is a chapbook of poetry by Nancy Reddy. Reddy is the author of Double Jinx (Milkweed Editions, 2015), a 2014 winner of the National Poetry Series. She teaches writing at Stockton University in southern New Jersey.
Growing up in the north the view I had of Acadiana which mostly came from popular music. “Amos Moses” and “The Legend of the Wooley Swamp” come to mind immediately. As an adult who migrated to Texas almost thirty years ago, I can say my most interesting travel stories are about Lousiana. Stories of Mr. Wilkes, trying to get a company car out of police impound, hand pumping gasoline, and being deep enough in the state that I could not even get AM radio in my car. There is something a different under the surface that you can catch out of the corner of your eye, sometimes.
Although a chapbook Reddy speaks volumes to the reader. The poetry is fairly standard in format but it captures the deepest of the South in a very big way. Surface Catholicism, left over from the French, covers a deep near voodoo topsoil. The words will give a tingle to your spine by the eerieness of the words and phrasing. There is something more to the words than just the words themselves just as there is more to the region than just the land and people.
As the red dog’s fur sends smoke skyward
to whatever gods may still watch over us,
I sprinkle holy water along the fence posts, place
the blessed palms along the shuttered windows
and above the doorframes. I make of matches a cross
and light them quick to stop the rain.
from “Saint Catherine Takes the Auspices”
This is a remarkable collection poetry that is much bigger than its thirty pages. Highly recommended.
Growing up in the north the view I had of Acadiana which mostly came from popular music. “Amos Moses” and “The Legend of the Wooley Swamp” come to mind immediately. As an adult who migrated to Texas almost thirty years ago, I can say my most interesting travel stories are about Lousiana. Stories of Mr. Wilkes, trying to get a company car out of police impound, hand pumping gasoline, and being deep enough in the state that I could not even get AM radio in my car. There is something a different under the surface that you can catch out of the corner of your eye, sometimes.
Although a chapbook Reddy speaks volumes to the reader. The poetry is fairly standard in format but it captures the deepest of the South in a very big way. Surface Catholicism, left over from the French, covers a deep near voodoo topsoil. The words will give a tingle to your spine by the eerieness of the words and phrasing. There is something more to the words than just the words themselves just as there is more to the region than just the land and people.
As the red dog’s fur sends smoke skyward
to whatever gods may still watch over us,
I sprinkle holy water along the fence posts, place
the blessed palms along the shuttered windows
and above the doorframes. I make of matches a cross
and light them quick to stop the rain.
from “Saint Catherine Takes the Auspices”
This is a remarkable collection poetry that is much bigger than its thirty pages. Highly recommended.
April 21, 2018
A lyrical and striking collection that takes ecopoetry on a mythically inflected tour of post-Katrina Lousiana, Reddy's collection will surely resonate with anyone interested in how we use our foreknowledge - from prophecy to geoscience - to respond to climate change. Do we invite the black dog of misfortune into our lives, do we question the gods, or do we bear witness to the power of our actions, from pesticides to oil drilling, on the planet?
July 7, 2018
I like the sense of myth flowing through the poems in this chapbook. I'm always intrigued by poems that speak from a "we," a collective voice; in this collection, that voice (often female, feminine) is searching the mysteries, but not necessarily to fully make sense. I like the reveling these poems do in the unknowing.
From "After, The Sibyls Fall Out of Words"
"No god moves us now
so we are wordless and unhinged,
like the dark-ribbed maidens
lost to the gulf."
From "After, The Sibyls Fall Out of Words"
"No god moves us now
so we are wordless and unhinged,
like the dark-ribbed maidens
lost to the gulf."
September 7, 2018
So brutally honestly wonderful imagination. It doesn’t come so easy, so quick! What Nancy’s book has is, similarly, nothing so easy, so quick — it takes time and it stays.
“The stories say the river held us in its mouth.
Then the river
shifted west again
and we were left dry-boned and sorrowful.”
“The stories say the river held us in its mouth.
Then the river
shifted west again
and we were left dry-boned and sorrowful.”
November 25, 2024
If magic realism and ancient mythologies crashed into hurricane-ravaged Louisiana, this would be the map to get through that place. Brilliant and powerful poems!
Read for the 2024 Sealey Challenge.
Read for the 2024 Sealey Challenge.
March 2, 2018
Obscenely good. Obviously.
March 25, 2018
I love Nancy Reddy’s haunting, lyrical style.
December 27, 2019
A haunting mythologized meditation on Louisiana swamps, beautiful and dangerous at once.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews