Tales from the Bayou City

Overview

With heart and humor, Tales from the Bayou City chronicles fifteen years in the life of Houston, Texas, as the city negotiates volatile changes in economic health, race relations, immigration laws, and neighborhood viability. George Palmer, a freelance folklorist, and a keen traveler of Houston’s broken byways, gathers stories few ever hear among backstreets few choose to wander. He shoulders the burdens borne by “Mama Houston’s” children and struggles to redefine “family” in a culture determined, it seems, to tear communities apart.

Author Biography

Tracy Daugherty is Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing at Oregon State University. He has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has written biographies of several important 20th-century American writers, including his recently published Larry McMurtry: A Life. He has also written ten books of fiction, including four prior novels: Desire Provoked, What Falls Away, The Boy Orator, and Axeman's Jazz.