To the Community of Writers, Readers, Teachers, Students, Editors
and Anyone Else Within the Sound of This Email--
Bret Lott here, editor of The Southern Review on the campus of LSU
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I am writing to you and to everyone you
can forward this email to with an opportunity to help victims of
the hurricane. Forgive this rather long email, but it is important
to the welfare of many hurricane evacuees in our area -- please
read this all the way through.
No doubt you know the sorrow and hardship that has been visited on
residents of our state because of Hurricane Katrina and the
flooding caused by the breach of the levee in New Orleans. No doubt
you know as well of the thousands of displaced persons who have
lost everything because of the evacuation of that city.
As a result of so many New Orleans area universities and colleges
closing down for who knows how long, LSU has taken on almost 2800
new students who were displaced by losing their homes and their
schools; in addition, many students who were already enrolled at
LSU have also suffered great losses. These students have
experienced hardships that few of us will ever know: they have
lost their homes, their personal belongings, their books, their
food -- everything, including, for many, the college or university
at which they were enrolled. To help meet their needs -- and these are
IMMEDIATE and GENUINE needs -- the LSU Foundation has set up
Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund.
Strangely and beautifully and sadly enough, the latest issue of The
Southern Review -- mailed to subscribers just week before last,
right as the hurricane was making way for the Gulf Coast -- has
turned out to be a very special issue for the artwork on the cover
and that featured inside. The artist, Billy Solitario, lives near
GULFPORT (and I trust you have seen the pictures of the devastation
there); as of this writing, we have not been able to contact him.
The paintings themselves are of the Gulf Coast --one of them is
even titled "Spiral Cloud over Levee," another one titled "Storm
Over the Mississippi"; still others in the portfolio are of barrier
islands on the Gulf Coast -- places that don't even exist anymore.
The artwork was selected about a year ago, and the synchronicity of
this is a little too much to think about -- the issue, which went
out just two weeks ago, celebrates a coastland that is, suddenly,
gone. Also, and again the synchronicity of this is too much to
behold, the lead poems in this issue are by Peter Cooley, poet at
now-closed Tulane University; we have heard that he is safe in
Houston at the time of this writing.
Here is where the community of folks to whom this email is
addressed can help (and please read the following instructions
CAREFULLY as they are being written this way so as to allow all of
us to help each other legally!).
1 -- YOU SEND THE SOUTHERN REVIEW A CHECK FOR $8 (EIGHT DOLLARS)
MADE OUT TO "LSU FOUNDATION," AND WRITE ON THE MEMO LINE "HURRICANE
STUDENT RELIEF FUND." MAIL THAT CHECK TO:
THE SOUTHERN REVIEW
OLD PRESIDENT'S HOUSE
LSU
BATON ROUGE LA 70803
PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR NAME AND MAILING ADDRESS WHEN SENDING THE CHECK.
Or
CALL THE SOUTHERN REVIEW AT 225-578-5108 or 225-578-5041 AND GIVE
US YOUR VISA NUMBER AND NAME AND ADDRESS
2 -- I SEND YOU A FREE COPY OF THIS ISSUE OF THE SOUTHERN REVIEW.
Please note that these two actions -- your donation, our sending
you a free copy -- are MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE (does anyone out there
recognize yet the legal hoops I am having to jump through in order
simply to help students in dire need of help? Sheesh!). Please note
as well that it just so happens that the cover price for an issue
of The Southern Review is $8 (eight dollars), BUT YOU ARE FREE TO
DONATE AS MUCH AS YOU WISH.
Order as many as you want -- use them as gifts with the good
knowledge that because of your generosity help is going to students
in need; use them in your classes as a means to help your students
rally to the aid of their comrades here at LSU; give them to anyone
and everyone you know. And please forward this email to as many
people as you know so that they might also be able to contribute to
a worthy fund, and to enjoy the issue itself.
But finally, please note that NOT A SINGLE PENNY WILL COME EVEN
REMOTELY CLOSE TO THE COFFERS OF THE SOUTHERN REVIEW; THIS IS
SOLELY AN EFFORT TO GET MONEY TO STUDENTS IN NEED AND TO CELEBRATE
THROUGH THE PAGES OF THE SOUTHERN REVIEW THE BEAUTY OF A COAST THAT
HAS LARGELY BEEN LOST.
I know that to many out there this may sound like some sort of
mercenary effort to advertise our journal and somehow to make money
through the loss of others. Indeed, we will in fact be losing money
in all this.
But you have my word -- Bret Lott -- that we will in no way profit
from these mutually exclusive actions.
I know the outpouring will be a great one, and please know that we
here at The Southern Review are prepared to handle the deluge of
good will you are already sending our way. Thank you for reading
all the way through this email, and thank you as well for what you
have already done for the hurricane relief efforts.
Sincerely, and with thanks to all --
Bret Lott
Editor and Director
