Macon Fry is an author and educator, born in Virginia. After graduating from University of Virginia Fry arrived in New Orleans in 1981 to write about the unique culture and folkways of South Louisiana. His first book, Cajun Country Guide, explores the vibrant artifacts of the region: prairie dancehalls, small town recording studios, meat markets, crawfish “boiling points” and shrimp docks. For the past thirty years Fry has lived on the watery fringe of New Orleans, occupying a self-built stilt house over the Mississippi River, hidden by the huge levees that keep the city dry. In his new book, They Called Us River Rats, he traces the movement of people down the river and their accumulation in settlements along the shore in New Orleans. The book explores the miraculous survival of the vestigial outsider colony where the author lives today- a fascinating intersection of people and place. It is both a personal story of life on the river, and a history rich with accounts Fry collected from of a century of river rats.
