G. Mark LaFrancis has been a writer for more than thirty years, mostly in journalism. He has won many local, state and national writing awards as a reporter, editor and columnist. He is an Air Force Retiree, and earned two Air Force Commendation Medals. He is employed at the local community college where he manages public relations and marketing, teaches journalism and broadcasting, and advises the award-winning campus newspaper. He is the author of five novels for young readers, and has created a four-book series of poem-stories based on his interviews with soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan and their loved ones.

G. Mark LaFrancis 9 Janice Circle Natchez, MS 39120 601-442-0980 gmarklafrancis@hotmail.com Facebook: Galen Mark LaFrancis Facebook:


The collection is “In Their Boots: Poems Inspired by Soldiers and Their Loved Ones.” The first is Book One: Soldiers; the second is Book Two: Family. Two more books are planned for 2012. He has created a stunning, enlightening and powerful multi-media presentation based on the poem-stories. Recently, he received a Mississippi Humanities Council Award for the program, which has been presented to more than 3,000 individuals in several states.

LaFrancis has lectured widely about the need to support soldiers and their loved ones, and he is a long-time contributor to the non-profit Fisher House Foundation – www.fisherehouse.org He has been the cornerstone of veterans programs in his home community of Natchez, Mississippi, spearheading a drive to restore the damaged Veterans Memorial in downtown, coordinating the community’s Veterans Day Program, reinvigorating the community’s American Flag Retirement Ceremony, and coordinating his college’s Campaign for Soldiers and Veterans, collecting thousands of items for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and for hospitalized veterans. His efforts have earned him a Certificate of Achievement from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.