M.O. Walsh, director of the Creative Writing Workshop at LSU New Orleans, is preparing to release his newest novel, L3K, a story inspired by the beauty, challenges and resilience of his home state of Louisiana.
PEOPLE exclusively revealed the cover of L3K this week, offering readers a first look at the forthcoming novel, which will be published by Little, Brown and Company on Feb. 2, 2027.
Set in a near-future Louisiana, L3K centers on a chain of abandoned offshore oil rigs that have been transformed into a habitat for endangered animals and marine life. When a government official is sent to shut down the facility, she finds herself at odds with the biologists determined to protect it. The novel explores environmental change, community and what it means to preserve a place and culture threatened by a changing landscape.
Walsh told PEOPLE that the idea for the novel has been with him for more than 25 years, predating both Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. A Louisiana native, he described L3K as an adventure story shaped by the contrasts he sees in his home state, including celebration and hardship, promise and loss.
Walsh is a professor of fiction and director of LSU New Orleans’ Creative Writing Workshop MFA program. He is also the author of My Sunshine Away, a New York Times bestseller, and The Big Door Prize, which was adapted into an Apple TV series.
L3K will be released Feb. 2 and is currently available for preorder.
