Baton Rouge writer looking for crawfish stories

Baton Rouge-based writer and Breaux Bridge native Sam Irwin is at work on a book about Louisiana crawfish, and he is looking for personal anecdotes from those who recall the industry’s advance across Acadiana. Irwin spent much of his youth at his grandfather’s fish market Amy’s Fisheries in Henderson, originally established in Butte la Rose in the 1920s and one of Henderson’s earliest businesses. Irwin expects his book, Louisiana Crawfish: A Succulent History of the Cajun Crustacean, to be published by History Press in spring 2014. He says he hopes to broaden his research with stories from Acadiana natives who remember when crawfish consumption was considered “low class.” He is also looking for residents from the eastern side of the Atchafalaya Basin and Louisiana’s rice-growing parishes who can share stories about the crawfish industry’s development. Contact Irwin at [email protected] or call (225) 924-2756. —Maggie Heyn Richardson