bayoubro.com/the ken wells website
Journalist, novelist, photographer, digital artist; musician, song writer, gumbo chef; proud native of the Louisiana bayous and citizen of the world; fisherman, adventurer and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize...
Come and meet and gree Ken as he talks gumbo on Wednesday, Nov. 13 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on the campus of the University of Louisiana/Lafayette and learn how...bear lard--yes, bear lard!--forever changed the gumbo roux. Book signing afterwards.
Exciting news!
Gumbo Life: A Journey Down the Roux Bayou,
Ken's much lauded social and cultural history of gumbo, is now available in a revised and updated paperback edition from
Blair, a highly regarded independent publisher of Southern-centric novels, non-fiction and poetry.
Order now!
Read the fabulous
Economist review
Read my summer YA adventure
and survival novel
recommendations on Shepherd...
More news! Ken just signed a contract with LSU Press to write a book on...boudin...for the Press' Louisiana True series. Watch this space for updates.
My blog on why I write...
Getting paid to fish! See my recent story on Maine's Penobscot River in
Meanwhile...Ken's sixth novel in collaboration with his niece, Hillary Wells...
"A mesmerizing tale of love and survival..."
--J.C. Sasser
Ken's sixth novel, Swamped!, a fast-paced young-adult survival story set in Louisiana's Great Atchafalaya Swamp, from Virginia-based Koehler Books. Ken has taken on a writing partner, his bright, talented and niece, Hillary Wells, to help with the dialogue and other writing chores. Click here for a summary of the novel.
Praise for Swamped!
“No surprise for a Wells novel, Swamped! is propelled by crisp, evo
cative writing, a delicious sense of place, and a tale that will keep you reading and break your hearts, in a good way. Read it now.” —Bryan Gruley, award-winning author of the Starvation Lake Trilogy
“An immersive, atmospheric ballad of the Great Atchafalaya, Swamped! is a mesmerizing tale of love and survival set in the most hazardous of stews—a story that deftly whispers the mysterious beauty in which nature gives and takes away. I happily drowned in this novel.”
—J. C. Sasser, author of Gradle Bird
"A great and hugely entertaining novel about relentless challenges facing a couple of very different teenagers thrown together in one of the most dangerous and isolated areas of North America...A good tale told by really good storytellers."--Gary Lavergne , author of A Sniper in the Tower
See Hilllary's reading of the first chapter...
See a video trailer for the plot...
Bookshop.org Here Amazon.com Here B&N.com Here
Post a review on Amazon or Goodreads...
Signed copies available while they last at:
Outside & In boutique, Houma, La.
Southdown Planation Museum Gift Shop, Houma, La.
Novels...
Narrative Non-Fiction and Anthologies...
New--Biography!
Available on Amazon...Ken's dad's memoir...with a forward by Ken
Rex Wells
The Right Place at the Right Time
A Memoir of Childhood, Family and War
written by a member of the "Greatest Generation"
Praise for Wells' previous literary efforts...
"Wells is the Cajun Carl Hiaasen"--Tom Wolfe
"No writer brings Louisiana's wondrous bayou country to life more vividly, or with more affection, than Ken Wells..." --Carl Hiaasen
"One of the most compelling voices in fiction of the last decade..."--The Los Angeles Times
"An adventure storyteller "of the first order..."--The Atlanta Constituion
"In the tradition of Tom Wolfe, Wells writes energetic satire....” —William J. Cobb
The Dallas Morning News
New from Crawdiddy!
Chanky-Chank Music!
The groundbreaking album from Ken and his talented musical brother, Pershing Wells, and featuring two of Cajun music's greatest fiddlers, Michael Doucet & Waylon Thibodeaux recording together for the first time ever!
Available for streaming and downloading at Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify and other digital-music sites.
Sing along: lyrics here!
Listen to
our hearbreak ballad, Jessie, I'm Lost
Ken and Hillary on booktour, March 2023...
An original SwampDreams 'photopainting' from Ken...Click here to see more...
or visit swampdreamsphotography.com
The rap on Wells...Hear "Mama's Cookin' Gumbo," the song Ken wrote about his momma's famous gumbo...Produced and recorded by Pershing Wells at Digital Sac-a-Lait Studios, Houma, La.
Glossary--'envie', a craving
loup garou--the Cajun werewolf.
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updated November 2024