University of Nebraska Press

And here's what ForeWord Magazine had to say about us:

During an awards ceremony at BookExpo America today, ForeWord Magazine named the University of Nebraska Press its 2008 Independent Publisher of the Year.

In a year marked by layoffs across the publishing industry and the shuttering of many major publishing imprints, ForeWord's editorial staff cited Nebraska's outstanding works of translation, regional fiction, poetry, and memoir. The University Press also earned praise for publishing highly accomplished travel, sports, story, and scholarly books.

"At ForeWord, we are always excited to receive a new catalog from them because we've discovered over the years that if they've chosen to publish a book, then it is surely a contribution to the world library," ForeWord's publisher, Victoria Sutherland, said in a speech.

The University of Nebraska Press has published works by former Poet Laureate of the United States Ted Kooser, Pushcart Prize-nominated Zachary Michael Jack, and O. Henry Award-winner Terese Svoboda. The Press was also awarded two 2008 ForeWord Book of the Year Awards.

This is the second year ForeWord has presented this annual honor. The ForeWord Magazine Independent Publisher of the Year Award was created to recognize independent presses that produce innovative, relevant, and original books for today's readers.

Live from BookExpo America (and a chance to win a prize)

We have a mystery blogger writing live from BEA. Here is his (or her) first post:

"NEW YORK CITY -Operating under the thunderheads of bad pub – the New York Times and the AP practically sitting shiva for traditional publishing  in recent days – Book Expo America is still a stunning display of supply and demand for the written word.  

The Javits Center on the Hudson waterfront is overrun by publishers and writers and distributors of books in the industry’s biggest annual show.  So what if they’re selling a few digits fewer than they were a year ago. 

This acreage of books is a constant reminder that the marketplace of ideas is the biggest of them all.

For example, last night, Wednesday, was an opening presentation by Clarence “The Big Man” Clemons for his forthcoming book,  eponymously titled, of his  experiences with Springsteen and the E Street Band.   He played his solo from “Thunder Road” and wore gold nail polish and handed out an excerpt from the book that reveals the origin of the E Street name.   Sorry, but a good entertainer leaves his audience wanting more.  

Then this morning, I’m checking out the vast array of publishers, the United Arab Emirates to the University of Nebraska,  winner, by the way, of ForeWord magazine’s award for the Independent Publisher of the Year.   Reading  the new titles alone can satisfy a reader’s jones for a while.   The Devil in the Holy Water, or the Art of Slander in France from Louis XIV to Napoleon,  University of Pennsylvania Press.     Redneck Haiku (Double-Wide Edition) from Santa Monica Press gives you this example:

First spring barbecue

Clyde thaws last winter’s road kill

From Rosie’s deep-freeze.

Best freebie of the day:   The World That Made New Orleans, From Spanish Silver to Congo Square, autographed by Ned Sublette, who’s related to, but not descended from, the great 19th Century mountain man. 

Reminds me of a quote from Ringo in A Hard Day’s Night: Books are good"

Who is our mystery guest blogger? Submit your guess as a comment,  and the first correct submission will win a copy of Lights on a Ground of Darkness by Ted Kooser. Good luck!

Thanks to Firebrand and NetGalley for the internet connection!

Sports books (and others) on sale, plus an award and a review

Happy Mother’s Day, one day late. Our Mother’s Day sale is over, but if you missed out on that one, we’re in the midst of a new sale – one offering a variety of baseball, science fiction and Lewis and Clark titles at 75 percent off. The sale continues through June 12, so there’s still lots of time to take advantage of low prices on great University of Nebraska Press titles.

Speaking of baseball titles, Center Field Shot: A History of Baseball on Television, by James R. Walker and Robert V. Bellamy Jr., has won the Society of American Baseball Research–Sporting News Award. The award recognizes outstanding baseball research published in the previous calendar year in areas other than history and biography. Center Field Shot, as the title implies, traces the impact of television on America’s favorite pastime. Congratulations to the authors!

Another of our sports titles, The Dandy Dons: Bill Russell, K. C. Jones, Phil Woolpert, and One of College Basketball's Greatest and Most Innovative Teams, by James W. Johnson, received a great review on insidebayarea.com, the Web site of San Francisco newspapers including the San Mateo County Times and the Oakland Tribune.

And that’s it for this morning…

Pulitzers, UNP in Publishers Weekly, and three titles up for awards

The 2008 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced yesterday. You can view the full list of this year’s winners and finalists in poetry, literature, and various categories of news reporting here.

No University of Nebraska Press titles won Pulitzers this year, but today does bring news from our Nobel Prize-winning author, J. M. G. Le Clezio. The University of Nebraska Press has obtained rights to publish an English translation of Le Clezio’s short story collection Mondo and Other Stories. The collection is slated for publication in spring 2011. Even Publishers Weekly took notice.

In other award news, The Great Plains during World War II, by Douglas Hurt, has been named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2008, and Bicycling Beyond the Divide: Two Journeys into the West, by Daryl Farmer, and Pioneer Cemeteries: Sculpture Gardens of the Old West, by Annette Stotto, have been selected as a Finalist for the 2009 Colorado Book Award. Fantastic news for three fantastic books!

 

Review of Searching for Tamsen Donner, one award winner, and one nominee

The Buffalo News (in Buffalo NY) recently ran a fantastic review of Searching for Tamsen Donner, by Gabrielle Burton.

Here’s an excerpt of what writer R.D. Pohl has to say:

The portions of the book that recount the Burton family trek across the Rockies and High Sierras are written with a deft comic touch and the plucky, feminist bravado that made “Heartbreak Hotel” such a crossover hit. What may surprise readers is the author’s intuitive gifts as a researcher and narrative historian. She succeeds where other historians and biographers have failed in uncovering and publishing here all 17 of Donner’s known letters from the journey.

Burton’s name is a familiar one to at least some Buffalo residents; Burton lived there for many years. The city was also the setting of the movie/Burton family project, Manna from Heaven. Burton wrote the screenplay, and her daughters produced the film, which Pohl notes was well-received in Buffalo.

In other news good news, Chief Bender’s Burden: The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star by Tom Swift, has received this year’s Seymour Medal. The Seymour Medal, awarded by SABR, honors the best book of baseball history or biography published during the preceding calendar year. Those of you who carefully read this blog might remember that another University of Nebraska Press title, Ed Barrow: The Bulldog Who Built the Yankees' First Dynasty by Dan Levitt, was also among the three finalists for this year’s award.

And one more tidbit of award news: Robert Camuto’s Corkscrewed: Adventures in the New French Wine Country, is up for the Georges Duboeuf Wine Book of the Year Award.

That's it for today!

 

A Pushcart Prize and countdown to March Madness

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Alan Zaremba is en route to Las Vegas today, in preparation for March Madness. We here at the University of Nebraska Press are filling out our brackets. Also, be sure to check Alan’s blog (and ours) on Friday – the least productive work day of the year – for lots of March Madness coverage.

Moving on, one of our authors has won a Pushcart Prize. Mimi Schwartz won for her essay “Telling the Truth that Matters,” which was published in Arts & Letters in the fall of 2008. Congrats to Mimi, who has had a good week -- as regular blog readers might remember, her book Good Neighbors, Bad Times, which was published last year by the University of Nebraska Press, is up for a ForeWord Book Award in the autobiography/memoir category.

That’s it for this morning!

Awards, Awards, Awards!

Good news here at the University of Nebraska Press. In the past few days, we’ve learned that no less than SIX of our titles are up for various awards:

-- The Great Plains During World War II by R. Douglas Hurt, and Bright Epoch: Women and Coeducation in the American West, by Andrea G. Radke-Moss, have been both been selected as finalists for the Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize.

-- Ed Barrow: The Bulldog Who Built the Yankees' First Dynasty by Dan Levitt, Chief Bender's Burden: The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star by Tom Swift, are two of the three finalists for the Seymour Medal, which the Society for American Baseball Research awards to the best book of baseball history or biography published during the preceding calendar year.

-- The Wide Open by Annick Smith and Susan O'Connor is a finalist for Foreword’s Book of the Year award in the anthologies category.

-- And, finally, Good Neighbors, Bad Times by Mimi Schwartz is also a Foreword Book of the Year contender in the autobiography/memoir category.

We’ll know whether any of our titles actually nab the prizes later this spring, and you can bet there will be another blog post if they do. Congrats to all the finalists!

Another week, an award and a podcast

Welcome back to the work week. I hope you’re enjoying the warm (yet rainy weather), and perhaps have the good fortune of being able to spend the day curled up with a good book. If not, here’s a bit of reading to tide you over.

Remember how on Friday I mentioned that University of Nebraska Press author John Turnbull (The Global Game) would appear on NPR’s Only a Game? Well, he did, on Saturday, and you can listen to him and fellow editor Alon Raab discuss soccer with host Bill Littlefield here.

In other news, UNP author William L. Ramsey has received the 2008 George C. Rogers award for his book, The Yamasee War. The award is presented annually by the South Carolina Historical Society to the author of the best book of South Carolina history published during the preceding calendar year. Ramsey was honored on Saturday during the annual meeting of the South Carolina Historical Society in Charleston.

The Yamasee War, by the way, tells the story of the violent conflict between southeastern American Indian tribes and English colonists in South Carolina from 1715 to 1718. In the book, Ramsey argues the war was a pivotal event in the formation of the Old South.

February 6, 2009: Two radio shows and one award

University of Nebraska Press title In the Mind’s Eye by Elizabeth Dodd was featured on the NET Radio program “All About Books” yesterday.

To listen to Otis Young and Charles Stephen discuss Dodd’s critically acclaimed collection of nature essays, visit the NET Radio podcast page (then click on the Feb. 5 link under “All About Books”).

In other news, each year The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum (formerly the Cowboy Hall of Fame) selects an Outstanding Western Novel of the year. The 2008 winner is UNP title Jackalope Dreams, by Mary Clearman Blew.

Set in Montana, Jackalope Dreams is the coming-of-age story of a not-especially-young woman and aspiring artist named Corey.

As part of the award, Blew receives an invitation to a gala at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in April. She’ll also receive a bronze sculputer titled "Wrangler."

What are you doing tomorrow at 7 a.m.? If you’re in the mood for sports, soccer and book talk, tune into "Only a Game" on NET Radio (91.1 FM), where host (and UNP author) Bill Littlefield will interview John Turnbull, editor of the UNP title The Global Game, a collection of soccer writing.

Have a great weekend!

Today’s round of accolades

Shelf Awareness is reporting today that University of Nebraska Press author Dinty Moore has received the Grub Street National Prize for his memoir, Between Panic and Desire. Moore won in the non-fiction category, in which, interestingly enough, Terese Svoboda was a finalist for her title, Black Glasses Like Clark Kent: A GI's Secret from Postwar Japan. This fall, Bison books will reprint Svoboda’s short story collection, Trailer Girl and Other Stories. For the full Shelf Awareness mention, click here (and scroll down to the books and authors section).

Grub Street, by the way, is a non-profit creative writing center in Boston.