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				Contact: Christine Payton	March 5, 2008
				(337) 482-6397, payton@louisiana.edu
				Pictured: Dianne and Ernest Gaines
				ERNEST J. GAINES CENTER COMING TO UL LAFAYETTE
				The University of Louisiana at Lafayette will soon become an international center for Ernest Gaines studies. Last week, the Louisiana Board of Regents approved creation of the Ernest J. Gaines Center in Dupré Library on campus. Gaines is one of the most significant American authors of the 20th century and UL Lafayette's writer-in-residence emeritus. He is most widely known for his novels “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” “A Lesson Before Dying” and “A Gathering of Old Men.” Gaines' work has been translated into at least 17 languages and has earned him a National Book Critics Circle Award, National Humanities Medal and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, popularly known as “the genius award.” “A Lesson Before Dying” was chosen by talk show host Oprah Winfrey as an Oprah Book Club selection in 1997. The author's relationship with UL Lafayette began in 1981 when he accepted an invitation to serve as a visiting professor of creative writing. In 1983, Gaines became the university's writer-in-residence; he retired in 2004. “ For 25 years, the university's faculty and students, and the people of Louisiana have had the privilege of having Ernest Gaines here and being able to interact with him on campus. With this center, his legacy will remain here,” said Dr. Marcia Gaudet, head of UL Lafayette's English Department, who proposed the center and will serve as its interim director. “I would like for people to see the center as something that is very much part of our university and part of the state.” The Ernest J. Gaines Center will be built in a now-vacant section of the third floor of the library. UL Lafayette will provide $250,000 to establish the center. Future funding sources include donations, grants and royalties from a book about Gaines to be published by the university's Center for Louisiana Studies The author has already donated some papers, manuscripts and memorabilia, such as handwritten drafts of some of his published work and the pens he used to write “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” and “Of Love and Dust.” They are in the Jefferson Caffery Reading Room of Dupré Library's Special Collections Department. The proposal submitted to the Board of Regents states that the new center will also include “all books, journal articles, essays, interviews, theses and dissertations on Ernest Gaines and his work. In addition, it would include a complete collection of all the published translations of Ernest Gaines's writing. It would anticipate, as well, the eventual donation/acquisition of the remaining Ernest J. Gaines papers to the university. It would be the site of the only complete collection of Ernest Gaines scholarship in the world.” In addition to being a repository of Gaines' work, the center will coordinate research related to the him and possibly other African-American writers in Louisiana. There are already plans to conduct an Ernest J. Gaines Scholars Conference at UL Lafayette in Spring 2009. Gaudet also envisions the Ernest J. Gaines Speakers and Writers Series in 2010, which would draw major scholars and writers to UL Lafayette. “ The availability of the author's papers will provide students with the opportunity to understand first hand the workings of literary genius,” the proposal states. The collection will also “enhance the university's historic commitment to diversity,” it continues. The Ernest J. Gaines Center will pursue publishing ventures in cooperation with UL Lafayette's Center for Louisiana Studies, Gaudet said. One of the first projects will help raise funds for the center. “ This Louisiana Thing That Drives Me: The Legacy of Ernest J. Gaines” is in press at the Center for Louisiana Studies. It is a coffee-table book of photographs compiled, edited and introduced by Gaudet; Reggie Young, an associate professor of English at UL Lafayette; and Wiley Cash, a doctoral student at UL Lafayette. The photos are accompanied by quotations from Gaines' fiction, essays and interviews. The first 100 copies will be signed collector's editions to be given to donors who contribute at least $1,000 each to the Ernest J. Gaines Center. Gaudet suggested the center in 2005. But the plan was shelved when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated parts of south Louisiana. State government temporarily suspended creation of new university centers until the hurricanes' economic impact could be assessed. Gaudet said scholars from across the globe will conduct research at the Ernest J. Gaines Center. Last year, a professor from Japan and a doctoral student from Egypt traveled to UL Lafayette to view Gaines' papers. According to the proposal submitted to the Board of Regents, Gaines' work has been the subject of 15 doctoral dissertations at various universities. More than 200 scholarly articles have been written and 12 books published about him. In December, The University of Louisiana System approved establishment of the center.

Document last revised Wednesday, March 5, 2008 4:48 PM

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