Table Scraps and Other Essays

“On her graceful path to the truth, Juyanne James travels through a vivid landscape of humor, blues, and a vivid kind of personal revelation available only in a rare writer. . . . James brings the reader not only into her upbringing in rural Louisiana, but into the heart of a family, with all its challenges, complexities, and, above all, love.”


—David Rutledge, author of Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?





“Table Scraps is a memoir resolute in its beauty, achieving the impossible yet essential: it enters so wholly and gloriously into that region of immemorial love, both universal and entirely intimate, at once exile and Eden. James’s prose sings as it rises and dips along the many perfumed gardens of time, carving within us the prophetic, the holy, and the secret yet inimitable wisdom of the child. Here the invisible is visible, and grace is the experience.”


—Caitlin Gilson, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Holy Cross





“Table Scraps is a collage of memory whose composite forms a heartfelt search for meaning and understanding through familial histories. James weaves prose and poetry into a tapestry of rich memoir forming this collection rooted in southern lore and circumstance.”


—CoCo Harris, Founding Editor, Telling Our Stories Press





“Set in the cathedral of the southern landscape and rural life of Sunny Hill, Louisiana . . . the stories told here move me with an appreciation for food, music, God, nature, and the overriding goodness in all of us.”


—Carol Scott, Professor Emeritus, University of Holy Cross