Joshua Clark is an American

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

, editor and publisher who resides in the

French Quarter The French Quarter, also known as the (; ; ), is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans () was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Square" in English), a ...

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

Hurricane Katrina

Clark's book ''Heart Like Water: Surviving Katrina and Life in a Disaster Zone'' was a

National Book Critics Circle The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is an American nonprofit organization (501(c) organization, 501(c)(3)) with more than 700 members. It is the professional association of American book review editors and critics, known primarily for the N ...

nominee in the category of Memoir/Autobiography. Clark, who lives in the

Vieux Carré The French Quarter, also known as the (; ; ), is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans () was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Square" in English), a ...

Pontalba Buildings The Pontalba Buildings form two sides of Jackson Square in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. They are matching red-brick, one-block-long, four‑story buildings built between 1849–1851 by the Baroness Micaela Almonester Pontalba. ...

overlooking Jackson Square, remained in

during

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

and the collapse of the levees. Refusing to leave the city at an epic time in American history, Clark tape-recorded impressionistic interviews with fellow storm survivors. Clark documented a devastated city, with keen eyewitness notes and recordings. His book is a first-person account, a

narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller ...

that reads like a

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

. The memoir records his own experience of how the sight of the disaster changed him from self-absorbed to empathetic. After the storm, Clark corresponded for

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

(NPR).

Earlier works

Clark previously edited two

-based

anthologies In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...

, ''Louisiana in Words'' and ''French Quarter Fiction''. He runs the KARES (Katrina Arts Relief and Emergency Support) writers relief fund and covered New Orleans in the hurricane's aftermath for Salon.com. Clark, the founder of Light of New Orleans Publishing, has edited such books as Judy Conner's ''Southern Fried Divorce'', Barry Gifford's ''Back in America'', and others. A past editor for SCAT Magazine, he contributes to many publications including The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Lonely Planet anthologies, Consumer Affairs, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald, Poets & Writers, Louisiana Literature, Time Out: New York, and he represents Louisiana in the anthology ''State by State''. Clark also serves on the executive boards of the

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three ...

/New Orleans Literary Festival and the Kohlmeyer Circle of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and in 2008 started an initiative called QuarterSafe.com to decrease crime in the

References

Sources

Times-Picayune
(archives)

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Joshua Year of birth missing (living people) Writers from New Orleans Living people Place of birth missing (living people)