Author

Drew Hawkins

Drew Hawkins

Drew Hawkins is a writer and journalist in New Orleans. He’s the producer and host of Micro, a literary podcast on LitHub. You can find his work in The Guardian, Scalawag Magazine, Southerly, Antigravity Magazine and elsewhere.

A packed audience watches the Monday, March 27, 2023, meeting of the St. Tammany Parish Library Control Board meeting.

With heated opposition, St. Tammany library board keeps challenged books on shelves

By: - March 28, 2023

MANDEVILLE – The St. Tammany Library Control Board voted to keep five challenged books on library shelves Monday night in a long meeting marred by heckling and interruption. Four of the five books were children’s picture books, and several were previously challenged in December when the board voted to keep the materials on the public […]

Theryn Henkel handles sediment from core sample taken from land built by the Davis Pond freshwater diversion project in St. Charles Parish.

Researchers clash over whether freshwater diversion is helpful or harmful to coast

By: - January 9, 2023

Standing on a crude wooden boardwalk and wielding a 5-foot-long shiny metal instrument called a Russian peat corer, Theryn Henkel drives its spear-like end deep into the marsh of the Davis Pond freshwater diversion on the west bank of St. Charles Parish.  Henkel, a coastal resources scientist at the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA), […]

St. Tammany library meeting

St. Tammany sees showdown over library books

By: and - December 14, 2022

COVINGTON – More than 100 people packed into a meeting room at the Covington library Tuesday night, eager to weigh in on how the St. Tammany Library Board of Control handles books a local conservative activist group has said are inappropriate for children.  St. Tammany is the latest venue for the fight over library content […]

Anti-censorship group in St. Tammany seeks to join frontlines in library battles

By: and - December 8, 2022

To uproarious applause from a crowded auditorium full of St. Tammany Parish Republicans, local activist and attorney David Cougle decried pedophilic material in libraries, likening children’s books to the experience of walking down Bourbon Street at night.  Cougle spoke to the local Republican Executive Committee meeting as a representative of the St. Tammany Library Accountability […]