Hurricane Katrina

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

National Book Critics Circle

The National Book Critics Circle is an American tax-exempt organization for active book reviewers. Its flagship is the National Book Critics Circle Award....

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

Vieux Carre

Vieux Carré may refer to:*New Orleans's French Quarter* Vieux Carré, a play by Tennessee Williams...

 Pontalba Buildings

Pontalba Buildings

The Pontalba Buildings form two sides of Jackson Square in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana.These are matching red-brick block long 4‑story buildings built in the 1840s by the Baroness Micaela Almonester Pontalba...

 overlooking Jackson Square

Jackson Square, New Orleans

Jackson Square, also known as Place d'Armes, is a historic park in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960.-Design:...

, remained in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

 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

Narrative

A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...

 that reads like a novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

. After the storm, Clark corresponded for National Public Radio (NPR).

Earlier works

Clark previously edited two Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

-based anthologies, 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

Barry Gifford

Barry Gifford is an American author, poet, and screenwriter known for his distinctive mix of American landscapes and film noir- and Beat Generation-influenced literary madness....

'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

Tennessee Williams

Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...

/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 French Quarter

French Quarter

The French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. When New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré as it was known then...

 of New Orleans.

External links

• Light of New Orleans Publishing

Video

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ANZRtZYZyI