Juyanne James, project leader of Separation Myth: A Louisiana Study, is the author of The Persimmon Trail and Other Stories (Chin Music Press, 2015), a collection of stories, and Table Scraps and Other Essays, a memoir (Resource Publications, December 2019). James received a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature (University of New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana) and later an M.F.A. in Writing (Spalding University, Louisville, Kentucky). Her stories and essays have been published in journals, such as The Louisville Review, Mythium, Bayou Magazine, Eleven Eleven, Thrice, and Ponder Review, and included in the anthologies New Stories from the South: 2009 (Algonquin) and Something in the Water: 20 Louisiana Stories (Portals Press, 2011). Her essay “Table Scraps” was a notable essay in The Best American Essays 2014, and she was commissioned to write a story for Symphony Space’s Selected Shorts Project. James has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize three times.