$14.99
–Julie Kane
In City of Hey Baby, Patrice Melnick captures and celebrates the heart and soul of post-Katrina New Orleans, from the trials, endurance, and rebirth of human spirit to the music and cuisine that flood waters could not destroy. With nuance and detail that only a lover of the city can see, Melnick patiently and artfully stitches patches of images, feelings, and reflections into a patchwork that is uniquely New Orleans and worth cuddling with.
–John Warner Smith, State Poet Laureate of Louisiana
https://www.weirdsouth.com/post/city-of-hey-baby
–Review by Cheré Dastugue Coen
Interview: https://mockingheartreview.com/2021/01/15/city-of-hey-baby-an-interview-with-patrice-melnick/
City of Hey Baby
by Patrice Melnick
$14.99, paper
978-1-64662-336-5
2020
Patrice Melnick writes poetry and literary nonfiction. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Patrice Melnick’s memoir is entitled Po-boy Contraband: from Diagnosis Back to Life. The City of Hey Baby is her first poetry collection. Patrice Melnick lives in Grand Coteau, Louisiana with her loving and very patient husband, Olan.
Brittany T. Prejean –
The City of Hey Baby By Brittany T. Prejean
Grand Coteau-Patrice Melnick has lived and traveled from one end of
the world to the other for her love and passion for exploring culture,
discovering people, and soulful music. From Peace Corps Central African
Republic to grad school in Alaska, from the jazz music in New Orleans to
the zydeco music in Grand Coteau, Patrice has taken these encounters
and turned them into writings for others to explore the world through her
experiences and views.
Her newest book City of Hey Baby, forthcoming in October is a collection
of narrative poems focused on the liveliness of New Orleans as well as
Acadiana. Poems to reel you into the streets of New Orleans secondline parades, post-Hurricane Katrina’s blue tarp roofs and duct-tape
refrigerators, jazz festivals, and Acadiana’s zydeco two steps featuring the
book cover’s artwork done by talented Opelousas artist Jerome Ford; a
New Orleans native.
In her poem “City of Hey Baby”, Patrice Melnick learns the sincere relation
of ‘Hey Baby’ to her new city:
New Orleans is the city of “Hey Baby,”
from the co ee shop waitress, the delivery
man, the telephone operator, and “Hey
Baby,” from men who follow and men
who don’t and “Hey Baby,” ies
from balconies and slowing cars because
Hey Baby that means nothing and
Hey Baby means too much.
Patrice Melnick’s poem “Refrigerator Lesson” takes you to the aft ermaths
of Hurricane Katrina:
“I still dream every night of mountains
Of closed clams baking in the south
Louisiana sun. ink of ripening meats and
Dented metal boxes
Exploding with despair.”
Writing and journaling have become Patrice’s form of meditating, a prayer; processing thoughts, and keeping herself centered. Along with writing, Patrice is an active board
member for the Festival of Words Cultural Arts Collective planning literary arts festivals, literary readings, and storytelling sessions.
Patrice Melnick’s additional writings include Turning Up the Volume; prose and poetry and Po-Boy Contraband; a memoir.
Whether you are from the area or long to visit, take a step where everyone says ‘Hey Baby’ on the balconies of New Orleans fi lling your heart with jazz, second-line parades, and
music-fi lled bars to Acadiana’s boudin, trail rides, and zydeco two steps.
Th e City of Hey Baby can be preordered from Finishing Line Press https://www.fi nishinglinepress.com/product/city-of-hey-baby-by-patrice-melnick/.