Description

-Winner of the 2026 Summerlee Book Prize

The Berceuse International Youth League & The St. Herménégilde Society for General Upkeep & Social Benefaction Presents A Melancholic Fantasia in the Tradition of Lonely Swamp Pop, a Collage of the Culture & Peculiar History of Our Parish as Figured in the Tragicomic Soleil Family, Especially Our Unofficial Town Poet Laureate, Burnside Soleil, in Conjunction with Gus Babineaux, an Historian of Dubious Origins & Compiler of This Fine Book, Berceuse Parish

Through discovered letters, poems, clippings, and ephemera, the story follows Gus Babineaux as he pieces together the lives of a family rooted in Acadiana, Sicily, and the Philippines. The fragments trace complex generational relationships while exploring the poet's sister Maggie, his friends Jeremy and Nel, and an extended cast bound by memory and place. French phrases, biblical echoes, and childhood slang weave together into a distinct Louisiana dialect shaped by loss, longing, and resilience. More than a collection of narrative poems, Berceuse Parish serves as a community record: part elegy, part songbook, part myth, and ultimately a love letter to a disappearing Louisiana.

The Sabine Series in Literature, No. 13