Bio
Two decades ago, I stopped at a red light at Esplanade and Claiborne, admired the crumbling mansion that still resides there and imagined a man hanging from a rope.
Who is that man? I wondered.
The Night Walker’s Song answers that question.
At the time, writing a novel, a childhood goal, seemed an unlikely pursuit. Another childhood goal, writing for a big-city newspaper, consumed my energy.
Under the byline of Dawn Ruth, the name I still use for non-fiction, I wrote for the New Orleans Times-Picayune for seventeen years. Early in my career, I was awarded a Rotary Club Journalism Fellowship that allowed me to study at the School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy.
On my return to New Orleans, I covered education and state and city politics. Peak moments included winning the American Association of University Professors Higher Education Writers Award and interviewing Eudora Welty, Walker Percy and Robert Penn Warren.
Meeting those literary greats reactivated my novel-writing dreams, so I packed up my one-of-a-kind photo of a 90-something Robert Penn Warren -- still cocky in a seersucker suit -- and headed to New York University to pursue an MA in fiction.
After learning all I could from E.L. Doctorow and other talented writers, I returned to New Orleans with a partially finished novel and need for employment. Teaching seemed a good match, so I took a position at Nunez Community College. I never went back to daily journalism, but I continued to freelance travel articles, book reviews and point-of-view columns.
Freelance pieces published in Louisiana Life and New Orleans Magazine led to a monthly education column, which I have written for New Orleans Magazine since 2007. Last year, my column was a finalist in the National, City and Regional Magazine Awards.
My love of story-telling developed early. Mother subscribed to a mail-delivered book club of royal blue, leather-bound classics such as David Copperfield and Wuthering Heights. Printed on quality paper in tiny print, I discovered them packed away in the 1950s, four-square ranch house my parents bought soon after their marriage.
They provided entertainment until the sun’s intensity lessen enough for me to go outside without risking sunburn on an already freckled face. My mother warned that excessive reading would ruin my eyes, so maybe that’s why I am so near-sighted today.
Those formative years dining at a yellow Formica table made an impression because I now live in a 1940s cottage furnished with mid-century collectibles with Rosie, an excitable poodle, and Jaime, the possible feline reincarnation of Buddha.
Who is that man? I wondered.
The Night Walker’s Song answers that question.
At the time, writing a novel, a childhood goal, seemed an unlikely pursuit. Another childhood goal, writing for a big-city newspaper, consumed my energy.
Under the byline of Dawn Ruth, the name I still use for non-fiction, I wrote for the New Orleans Times-Picayune for seventeen years. Early in my career, I was awarded a Rotary Club Journalism Fellowship that allowed me to study at the School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy.
On my return to New Orleans, I covered education and state and city politics. Peak moments included winning the American Association of University Professors Higher Education Writers Award and interviewing Eudora Welty, Walker Percy and Robert Penn Warren.
Meeting those literary greats reactivated my novel-writing dreams, so I packed up my one-of-a-kind photo of a 90-something Robert Penn Warren -- still cocky in a seersucker suit -- and headed to New York University to pursue an MA in fiction.
After learning all I could from E.L. Doctorow and other talented writers, I returned to New Orleans with a partially finished novel and need for employment. Teaching seemed a good match, so I took a position at Nunez Community College. I never went back to daily journalism, but I continued to freelance travel articles, book reviews and point-of-view columns.
Freelance pieces published in Louisiana Life and New Orleans Magazine led to a monthly education column, which I have written for New Orleans Magazine since 2007. Last year, my column was a finalist in the National, City and Regional Magazine Awards.
My love of story-telling developed early. Mother subscribed to a mail-delivered book club of royal blue, leather-bound classics such as David Copperfield and Wuthering Heights. Printed on quality paper in tiny print, I discovered them packed away in the 1950s, four-square ranch house my parents bought soon after their marriage.
They provided entertainment until the sun’s intensity lessen enough for me to go outside without risking sunburn on an already freckled face. My mother warned that excessive reading would ruin my eyes, so maybe that’s why I am so near-sighted today.
Those formative years dining at a yellow Formica table made an impression because I now live in a 1940s cottage furnished with mid-century collectibles with Rosie, an excitable poodle, and Jaime, the possible feline reincarnation of Buddha.
