AAN News
Alt-Weekly Editor is Main Character in Katrina Novelnew
Tom Piazza's new novel City of Refuge, released yesterday by Harper books, features an editor of a fictional New Orleans alt-weekly named Gumbo who evacuates to Chicago after Hurricane Katrina. As the Times-Picayune points out, that character "certainly bears a resemblance to Michael Tisserand, former Gambit editor." But Piazza explains that all the characters are fictional. "Even if a writer is writing a novel about his or her best friend, in the course of that writing, the friend turns into something else -- a character," he says. When asked about the resemblance, Tisserand tells Gambit that "the scaffolding [for the character] is in part me, but the building is all Tom's."
The Times-Picayune |
08-20-2008 10:07 am |
Industry News
Former Editor Expands AAN-Commissioned Piece Into a Booknew
After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, Michael Tisserand began writing what would become the "Submerged" series, 11 stories about the aftermath written for AAN and run in many member papers. One of the pieces was about the school that the Tisserands and other refugee parents started in New Iberia, La., which the former editor of Gambit Weekly expanded into the recently published book Sugarcane Academy. He tells Tucson Weekly he felt that experience best illustrated what it meant to be a Katrina evacuee. "It was a story with a beginning, a middle and an end, and I think the title of the school -- that the kids and teacher came up with together -- encapsulated how we felt," Tisserand, who has since relocated to Evanston, Ill., says. "(The school) was a place we could feel not just safe, but a place where we again felt the power to make decisions, to move forward."
Tucson Weekly |
09-05-2007 9:08 am |
Industry News
Tags: Michael Tisserand
Article from 'Submerged' Series Wins Press Association Contest
Former Gambit Weekly Editor Michael Tisserand won first place in the Individual Feature Writing Category of the 2005 Louisiana Press Association journalism competition, the LPA announced this weekend. Tisserand won for an entry from his "Submerged" series that also ran as a cover story for Lafayette's Independent Weekly, which competes in the Free Circulation/Special Interest Publication category against other weeklies in the state. Tisserand's ten-part series chronicling the Katrina-evacuee experience was commissioned by AAN and ran in dozens of AAN member papers and Web sites. The Independent, a three-year old publication applying for AAN membership this year, earned 50 awards in the competition, including 21 first-place honors. Gannett's competing weekly in Lafayette, the Times of Acadiana, picked up 27 awards.
05-16-2006 9:46 am |
Industry News
Gambit Weekly Celebrates 25 'Earthshaking' Yearsnew
Gambit's bittersweet anniversary issue includes reflections from a number of notable former staffers on the history of the paper and of New Orleans. "There could not be a time when the mission we imagined 25 years ago could be more relevant, or more urgent," writes Gambit founder Gary Esolen. AAN and its members who helped out in the weeks following Hurricane Katrina are given thanks in an article by Eileen Loh Harrist on Gambit's role in the alt-weekly world. And Publisher Margo DuBos says that the Gambit's current small staff and tight temporary quarters remind her of the paper's early days in "a wonderful way": "Everyone here is doing the work of three people and doing it with such strong feelings and emotional ties to their jobs."
Gambit Weekly |
03-27-2006 11:57 am |
Industry News
Tisserand's Latest Essay Available for Free to AAN Members
Michael Tisserand, who wrote the "Submerged" series about the evacuee experience in post-Katrina New Orleans, argues for a National Mardi Gras in the Jan. 24 issue of Gambit Weekly. "It's time to honor the dead and celebrate the living," Tisserand writes. The article is available to AAN member newspapers for reprint at no charge.
01-24-2006 12:30 pm |
Industry News
Former Gambit Editor Michael Tisserand Involved in Election Lawsuit
According to the The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, Tisserand is one of four plaintiffs suing in federal court to overturn Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco's decision to postpone the city's mayoral and City Council elections indefinitely. Tisserand plans to relocate to the Chicago suburbs. He chronicled his post-Katrina experiences and decision to leave New Orleans in "Submerged," a series of articles commissioned by AAN.
12-15-2005 2:28 pm |
Industry News
Gambit Weekly Publishes Staff Updatesnew
Gambit Weekly |
11-20-2005 11:43 am |
Industry News
Gambit Weekly to Return Nov. 1
Even though Hurricane Katrina left its office (pictured) submerged under more than two feet of water, co-owners Margo and Clancy DuBos always knew the paper would make a comeback. "We're about to celebrate our 25th anniversary [at Gambit]," says Margo. "How could I work that hard and get the company where it is and walk away from that?" The paper will initially operate from a temporary office space in Metairie, La., but it will have to do so without editor Michael Tisserand, who has made the difficult decision to relocate with his family to the Chicago area.
(FULL STORY)
Joy Howard |
10-12-2005 8:27 am |
Industry News
"Submerged" Gets Props From NBC News Anchor
In an entry in his MSNBC blog on Monday, network newsman Brian Williams called Part 4 of Michael Tisserand's AAN-commissioned series on the evacuee experience, "a fine piece of journalism" and a "sobering and instructive piece of writing." Speaking of the displaced Gambit Weekly editor, in addition to producing fine journalism, he and some of his former neighbors recently started a new school for their children in New Iberia, La. In case you missed it yesterday on CBS' The Early Show, you can read about the Sugar Cane Academy here.
10-05-2005 5:17 pm |
Industry News
AAN Commissions Weekly Series by Gambit Editor
Michael Tisserand (pictured at left, with family) this week launched a series of weekly columns available to all AAN-member papers that will focus on the evacuee experience in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. "Although the voice of these pieces will be personal," says Tisserand, "this is going to be a heavily reported column seeking to give specific voice to the general evacuee population." The 2,000-word columns will be available free of charge each Monday to member papers for use in their pages or on their Web sites.
(FULL STORY)
09-13-2005 1:03 pm |
Association News
Michael Tisserand Interviewed on Australian Radio
The Gambit Weekly editor was one of three American guests
on Late Night Live, an ABC Radio National program broadcast from Australia. He gives an account of his own family's evacuation from New Orleans and discusses the far more difficult plight of the city's poor. He also describes AAN's efforts to cover the issues raised by the catastrophe. You can download the September 5 program on Hurricane Katrina from this page.
09-06-2005 6:55 pm |
Industry News
What It's Like to Be a Refugeenew
"New Orleans is gone and I can’t say when it will come back," writes Gambit Weekly editor Michael Tisserand, encamped with his family (pictured) at a friend's home near Lafayette. Tisserand describes what it feels like after the floodwaters have washed away your home, your job, and your city, and you don't know whether they're ever coming back.
AltWeeklies.com |
08-31-2005 5:57 pm |
Industry News
What's Going on With Gambit Weekly?
A lot of people in AAN are asking that question this evening as reports of flooding and chaos in New Orleans fill the news. Unfortunately, there is no good answer as communication along the Gulf Coast has been crippled in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. But one thing is clear: It will be weeks, if not months, before the paper is back on its feet again. Fortunately, we have learned the whereabouts of at least three Gambit staffers. Editor Michael Tisserand, managing editor Shala Carlson, and arts and entertainment editor David Lee Simmons, and their families, are all staying with friends 130 miles west in Lafayette. Tisserand has agreed to write something for AAN about his experience. We hope to be able to post it on both of our Web sites tomorrow afternoon.
08-30-2005 12:40 am |
Industry News
Tags: Gambit, Michael Tisserand
In Harm's Way, Alt-Weeklies Weather Hurricanes
Readers of Gambit Weekly, New Times Broward-Palm Beach, Miami New Times, Weekly Planet (Tampa), Weekly Planet (Sarasota), Folio Weekly and Orlando Weekly have lately seen Mother Nature at her worst. Distributed in areas affected by the hurricanes that have pounded Florida and surrounding states since August, these alt-weeklies have come out on schedule -- thanks to determined staffers and contingency plans.
(FULL STORY)
Ann Hinch |
09-17-2004 6:06 pm |
Industry News
