About

R. Reese Fuller is a chaplain and teacher at the Episcopal School of Acadiana in Cade, Louisiana. He is also the author of Angola to Zydeco: Louisiana Lives. His award-winning writing has appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Louisiana Life, Louisiana Cultural Vistas, and other publications. He also really enjoys music.

Education

Northwestern State University (Natchitoches, Louisiana)
2018 – 2019
M.A. in English, with a concentration in folklore & Southern studies

Bread Loaf School of English (Middlebury, Vermont)
2013 – 2015

Millsaps College (Jackson, Mississippi)
B.A. in history, 1995

Pineville High School (Pineville, Louisiana)
Editor of The Yahoo, 1991

Employment

Episcopal School of Acadiana, (Cade, Louisiana)
Chaplain, August 2021 to present
Teacher, August 2009 to present

The Independent Weekly, (Lafayette, Louisiana)
Managing editor, June 2005 to March 2009
Senior writer, January 2004 to June 2005

The Times of Acadiana, (Lafayette, Louisiana)
Senior writer, July 2001 to December 2003
Assistant editor, June 2000 to July 2001

LouisianaRadio.com (Lafayette, Louisiana)
Co-founder, June 1998 to January 2002

K&W, Inc., (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
Scanner operator, August 1995 to May 1998

Millsaps College, (Jackson, Mississippi)
Writing center tutor, September 1992 to June 1995

Books

Angola to Zydeco: Louisiana Lives
(October 2011)

Nonfiction

“Providing the Mortar” published
in Creative Nonfiction
(Winter 2014)

“The Record Man” published
in Louisiana Cultural Vistas
(Summer 2012)

“Same Storm, Another Dome” published in New Times San Luis Obispo
(September 2005)

“King for a Day” published in Gambit Weekly
(January 25, 2005)

“Perique: the Native Crop” published in Louisiana Life
(Spring 2003)

“Pecking Order” published in Louisiana Life
(Winter 2002/2003)

“Zydeco Markdown” published in Gambit Weekly
(October 29, 2002)

“A Louisiana Life: Elemore Morgan Jr.” published in Louisiana Life
(Autumn 2002)

“Signs & Wonders” published in Lagniappe Magazine
(September 19, 2002)

“A Fighting Chance” published in Gambit Weekly
(April 2, 2002)

Fiction

“Reckoning” published in Bread Loaf Journal
(Summer 2015)

Endeavors

Eucharistic minister and lay reader at Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church (Lafayette, Louisiana; 2000 – present)

Episcopal School of Acadiana Diversity Committee member (2022- present)

Member of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church’s Racial Healing & Reconciliation Committee (2019 – 2022)

Episcopal School of Acadiana Writing Studio founder (2015)

Member of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church’s Racial Healing & Reconciliation Committee (2019 – 2022)

Director of Episcopal School of Acadiana’s Coastal Roots program (2009-2021)

Gumbo Radio, Louisiana’s music and then some (2008-2016)

Guest speaker at the the 2016 conference of the South Central Writing Center Association. “We’re All in This Together: Secondary School Writing Center Research and Collaborations.” (March 11, 2016)

Episcopal School of Acadiana Summer Writing Program (summer 2014-2018)

Ken Macrorie Writing Center Tutor at the Bread Loaf School of English  (summer 2013)

International Writing Centers Association’s Summer Institute (2012)

Episcopal School of Acadiana Summer Enrichment Program (summer 2012)

Co-Instructor of McComb High School’s Summer Institute; McComb, Mississippi (summer 2012)

Acadiana Writing Project, National Writing Project teacher-consultant (summer 2011)

Studied advanced creative writing under Ernest J. Gaines, writer-in-residence emeritus at the University of Louisiana Lafayette (fall semester 2002)

Studied creative writing under novelist Ellen Douglas, a Eudora Welty Professor of Southern Studies at Millsaps College (fall semester 1993)

Gumbo Radio, Louisiana’s music and then some

Campaign committee member for the Dr. Tommy Comeaux Memorial Endowed Fund for Traditional Music at the University Of Louisiana Lafayette

Co-produced The Red Stick Ramblers’ debut compact disc with Tony Daigle. (released January 22, 2002)

Contributed to “Criminal Justice in Louisiana,” a college textbook in its fourth edition. Edited by Burk Foster, Paula Broussard and Christopher De Lay. (November 2001)

Guest speaker at the the annual conference of the Louisiana Private Investigators Association. “The Case of Wilbert Rideau: Star Wars and The Legal System.” (October 27, 2001)

Member of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church (2000 – present)

Member of Alpha Iota chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha

Honors

Recipient of the King Abdulaziz University IWCA’s Summer Institute Scholarship (2012)

First Place in the 2008 Louisiana Press Association’s Best Feature Story category for “The Rockin’ Chair”

Second place in the 2007 Louisiana Press Association’s Individual Feature Writing category

Honorable Mention in the 2007 Louisiana Press Association’s Best Feature Story category

Second Place in the 2006 Louisiana Press Association’s Best Continuing Coverage of a Single News Event category

Honorable Mention in the 2006 National Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper Contest for Best Feature Story or Series for “A Sense of Place.”

First Place in the 2005 Louisiana Press Association‘s Best Continuing Coverage of a Single News Event category for “Vanishing Coast” and “Coastal Restoration”

Honorable Mention in the 2005 Louisiana Press Association’s Best Investigative Reporting category for “Museum Meltdown”

First Place in the 2004 Louisiana Press Association’s Best News Story category for “Unsportsmanlike Conduct”

Third Place in the 2004 Louisiana Press Association’s Best News Story category for “Open for Interpretation”

First Place in the 2002 Louisiana Press Association’s Individual Feature writing category for “Inside Santy’s Studio”

First Place in the 2002 Louisiana Press Association’s Lifestyle category for “Young Blood”

Second Place in the 2002 Louisiana Press Association’s Best Feature Story category for “Signs & Wonders”

Third Place in the 2002 Louisiana Press Association’s Best News Coverage category for “On A Mission From God”

Second Place in the 2001 Louisiana Press Association’s Lifestyle category for “Beer and Loafing in Acadiana”

Third Place in the 2001 Louisiana Press Association’s Best Investigative Reporting category for “Rideau Revisited”

Honorable Mention in the 2001 Louisiana Press Association’s Best Feature Story category for “Buckwheat Down Home”

The Red Stick Ramblers’ debut CD was selected by Offbeat as one of the Best Louisiana CDs of 2002. The Ramblers were nominated for Offbeat’s 2002 Best of the Beat Awards in the categories of Best Emerging Cajun Band, Best Cajun Album by a Louisiana Artist and Best Album Artwork, and won the honor in the Best Emerging Cajun Band category.

Member of Phi Alpha Theta, Historic Honor Society