Left Bank Books is pleased to present Jewell Parker Rhodes for a discussion and signing of her new book, Yellow Moon on Thursday, August 21, 7:00 pm at Left Bank Books. This event is free and open to the public.

Jewell Parker Rhodes came to Left Bank Books nearly fifteen years ago for the release of her first novel, Voodoo Dreams. Join us in celebrating her return. Before the public event at 7pm, we will hold a small wine & cheese reception at 6pm. It's a great chance to talk to an author and professor about writing or anything else. If you would like to come, please RSVP to danielle@left-bank.com. We would love to have you there!

DATE: Thursday, August 21 TIME: 7:00 pm LOCATION: Left Bank Books 399 N. Euclid Ave. Additional Event Information.

...superb sequel... hypnotic thriller... the plot sizzles, and the themes explored are grand.

-Publishers Weekly


A compelling, mystical ride. Rhodes has created an exciting contemporary heroine battling New Orleans's racist past and preparing for post-Katrina times. Empowered, sassy, comfortable with her sexuality, Dar. Laveau is expert at spiritual and medical healing and at solving crimes. Dr. Laveau- is all woman-all the time. Doctor, mother, voodooienne-a heroine dispelling evil, raising her daughter, and living large in New Orleans.

-E. Lynn Harris

A jazzman, a wharf worker, a prostitute, all murdered. Wrists punctured, their bodies impossibly drained of blood. What connects them? Why are they rising as ghosts?

Marie Levant, the great-great granddaughter of the Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau, knows better than anyone New Orleans's brutal past-the legacy of slavery, poverty, racism, and sexism-and as a doctor at Charity Hospital's ER, she treats its current victims.

When she sleeps, she dreams of blood. Rain, never ending. The river is rising and the yellow moon warns of an ancient evil-an African vampire- "wazimamoto"-a spirit created by colonial oppression.

The struggle becomes personal, as the "wazimamoto" is intent on destroying her and all the Laveau descendants. Marie fights to protect her daughter, lover, and herself from the "wazimamoto's" seductive assault on both body and spirit.

Echoing with the heartache and triumph of the African- American experience, the soulful rhythms of jazz, and the horrors of racial oppression, Yellow Moon gives us an unforgettable heroine-sexy, vulnerable, and mysterious-in Marie Levant, while it powerfully evokes a city on the brink of catastrophe.

Yellow Moon is part two of the New Orleans trilogy that began with Voodoo Season- magical realist fiction that takes the legend of the voodoo priestess Marie Laveau, as imagined by Jewell Parker Rhodes in the bestselling Voodoo Dreams, into the present day.

Jewell Parker Rhodes is a professor of American literature and creative writing at Arizona State University. She writes both fiction and nonfiction. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Award in Fiction, she lives with her husband and two children in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Sincerely,