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The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

    Armand accredits university mentors for new honor

    English instructor David Armand engages in a discussion session during his English 372-Creative Writing Fiction course. Armand was recently named writer-in-residence of the university. Larshell Green/The Lion’s Roar

    University English instructor and acclaimed local author David Armand was recently named the university’s writer-in-residence.

    Armand cited Dr. Jack Bedell and Dr. Tim Gautreaux as his mentors after being taught by them at the university.

    “They encouraged me to continue doing what I was already doing, and they gave me faith in myself as a writer,” said Armand. “They also got me to read authors whose work I may have otherwise never been exposed to.”

    Armand currently directs graduate student theses, teaches both the undergraduate and graduate fiction-writing courses and works with the Dual Enrollment Program. Armand describes being named as the university’s writer-in-residence as “humbling” based on his knowledge of the writers who have served before him. 

    “I plan on doing the best work I know how to do in order to honor this position,” said Armand.

    As writer-in-residence, Armand’s responsibilities will include continuing to direct graduate student thesis and consulting with students who are interested in creative writing. 

    “I would also like to possibly give some craft talks and maybe even organize a reading for other faculty creative writers on campus,” said Armand.

    He explained what advice he hopes to give to graduate students.

    “I want them to realize that writing is a process,” said Armand. “It’s always challenging, but that when you get to work with someone who’s invested in your writing, you have an opportunity to look at your work in new ways.”

    Armand grew up in the village of Folsom, Louisiana, which is about a half hour away from Hammond. He admits that his passion for literature developed in the early stages of his life.

    “I loved reading books and writing stories as far back as I can remember, but what was strange was that no one in my family read or wrote,” said Armand. “The only books we had in our house were a set of old encyclopedias and a phone book.” 

    After graduating from the university with an undergraduate degree in the English program in 2004 and a degree in the program’s master’s level creative writing program in 2006, Armand decided to begin his career as an educator. He explains why his connection to his alma mater remains strong.

    “I’ve never really had a grand plan for my life,” said Armand. “That is, things just sort of happened along the way. I went to Southeastern as an undergraduate fell in love with the study of literature after reading Tim O’Brien’s ‘The Things They Carried’ in a literature class. Before that, I wasn’t even an English major, then after I finished my degree, I decided to pursue graduate studies. After that, the timing was just right for me to start teaching in the English department. I’m now in my tenth year teaching at Southeastern.”

    Bedell, who was named Poet Laureate of Louisiana earlier this year, admits that Armand’s dedication to writing was present on the first day of class, but what Armand did next made him stand out. 

    “What set him apart, though, was his willingness to help the other writers in class with their work, and his ability to take my advice and put it into play in his own writing,” said Bedell.

    Gautreaux retired from the university after 30 years of full time teaching in 2003, however he remains a teacher in a creative writing independent study course and retains status as an honorary writer-in-residence. He explains why he believes Armand is so deserving of recognition. 

    “David Armand has dedicated much of his adult life to Southeastern,” said Gautreaux. “He’s made many personal sacrifices to stay here, to pay back the university’s support and confidence in him. Not only does the quality of his work deserve this recognition, but his qualities as a human being deserve all of the recognition that we can give him.”

    In 2016, Armand received the university’s President’s Award for Artistic Activity and was named the St. Tammany President’s Artist of the Year. “The Puglist’s Wife,” Armand’s first novel, earned the George Garrett Fiction Prize. His second novel, “Harlow” was listed as Amazon’s best novel about dysfunctional families. His novel, “My Mother’s House” was the runner-up in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Competition. 

    Despite his many accolades for his writing, Armand describes his aesthetic as “pretty simple.”

    “I just want to tell a good story and to tell it the best way I can,” said Armand. “I want my work to always contain a sense of hope, no matter how dark things might get in the story. Since I was trained initially as a poet, sounds and rhythms in sentences are important to me as well. At the end of the day, though, I just want the reader to leave a story I’ve written with a feeling that they’ve encountered something new, different, something relatable on a human level. It’s something that can not necessarily be put into words, but it’s also something that you know what it is when you encounter it.”

    Armand explains why he believes that a writer’s job is never done and describes what he regards as his favorite published work.

    “It’s honestly very hard for me to go back and look at things that I’ve published,” said Armand. “Even now, years after the fact, I still want to ‘fix’ it and make it better. But that’s art, and I tell my students that all the time: that nothing we do is ever really finished, but that we still have to put it out there in the world. That being said, the work of mine that I have the most affection for is my second novel, ‘Harlow,’ mainly because of the autobiographical elements in it.”

    Gautreaux describes the qualities that he believes make Armand a great writer.

    “David is well-read in contemporary southern fiction and is able to be inspired by the tone, subject matter and characterizations of writers such as William Gay and Cormac McCarthy,” said Gautreaux.  “The interesting thing about teaching David was that he was able to use whatever I told him about fiction to his advantage.  He is very serious about his writing, and a teacher respects that. Years ago I read his first novel and admired his use of language and the types of characters he drew for the reader.”

    Bedell appreciates Armand’s aesthetic as a writer because of the bluntness contained in his work.

    “David’s writing blends urgency and honesty in a truly unique way,” said Bedell. “It’s a joy to read his work because there is no doubt he means it and that it is dead-on accurate.”

    Armand is currently working on his next novel, “The Lord’s Acre,” which he plans to have completed by next summer. He explains what the process and contents of this novel will hold. 

    He explained, “Like in my own life, I never plan anything, so I might write a scene or edit a previous chapter, but eventually, after a year or two, the first draft is done and then I go back and work on edits until I feel as though it’s ready to go out into the world. This new novel so far is different from what I’ve done before in that it’s the first novel I’m writing in first person, but it still takes place in Louisiana and deals with the themes I’ve always been interested in: family, loyalty, childhood, place.”

    Despite not being exposed to literature in his home at an early age, Armand has managed to become an acclaimed local author who still finds time to inspire his students.

    “I never thought being an author was something that happened to people like me,” said Armand. “As I got older and especially after going to college and taking creative writing courses, I realized that it was possible to be an author just like it is possible to be anything else. It just requires a lot of hard work. And I mean a lot, but it’s all been worth it.”

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