University of Nebraska Press

Tuesday Trivia: October 13, 2008

New this month from the University of Nebraska Press, is The Grace Abbot Reader edited by John Sorensen and Judith Sealander.  Grace Abbot (1878-1939) was a “tireless and brilliant social reformer” in the early parts of the twentieth century. She used her writing talent to help develop social programs devoted to mothers, children, immigrants, and child laborers.  U.S Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter said he didn’t think “the American experience would disclose a finer illustration of the rare art of public administration” than Abbott.
Taking a nod from Ms. Abbott, Tuesday Trivia is going to provide a few facts about the state of poverty around the world and encourage you to also celebrate on October  15th for the 2008 Blog Action Day, Poverty.  On this Wednesday, blogs all over the world will be devoting their efforts to educating on poverty. Please take a moment to check some of them out here.

1.    At least 80% of humanity lives on less than how much a day?
2.    True or False: According to UNICEF 26,5000-30,0000 children die each day due to  poverty
3.    Each year there are how many million cases of malaria, with how many fatalities?
4.    Africa represents  how many of these deaths?
5.    Access to piped water into the household averages about how much for the wealthiest 20% and how much for the poorest 20% of the population?
6.    In the U.S. the foreign born poor make up how much of all poor persons?
7.    True or False:  100 million school age children are not in school?
8.    What percent of children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted?
9.    In the U.S. in 2007 how many people were in poverty, up from 36.5 million in 2006?
10.   For the 1.9 billion children in the developing world?
How many go without adequate shelter?
How many go without access to safe water?
How many go without access to health services?

Ok readers, these are not just facts or statistics. This information is relaying the way a large portion of our world lives, and how they go without. I encourage each of you check out the 2008 Blog Action Day and see where your efforts could be best placed. If you’re looking for a bit more inspiration, then check out The Grace Abbott Reader by John Sorensen and Judith Sealander,  at the University of Nebraska Press website. Have a great day!

Congratulations to University of Nebraska Press author, 2008 Laureate Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio

The Swedish Academy announcement yesterday featured French author Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio as the 2008 Nobel Prize winner in Literature for a lifetime of successful works. Le Clézio is one of 105 persons since 1901 to have received this award. 

As one of France’s best-known contemporary writers, he has published nearly 30 novels, essays and short stories.  Le Clézio is the author of Onitsha (Nebraska, 1997) and The Round and Other Cold Hard Facts (Nebraska, 2003), published by University of Nebraska Press.

“Before there was multiculturalism, there was the work of Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio. Le Clézio spins words which span the entire globe…with the sweet melancholy and sensuality which have become his trademark.” –Washington Post Book World

Nice-born Le Clézio has won numerous prizes, including the Prix Renaudot for his first novel Le Proces-Verbal at the age of 23. Over the last three decades his works have been translated in many languages including Swedish, German, and English.

The University of Nebraska Press has a long standing dedication to making available the best literature from around the world. With nearly 200 translated titles currently in print from 5 different languages, UNP is one of the largest, most active American publishers of translated works.

The University of Nebraska Press will be exhibiting Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio’s titles at the upcoming Frankfurt Book Fair October 15-19, 2008 in Frankfurt, Germany, by Combined Academic Publishers, Ltd. Please visit booth 8.0 B935 to view 2008 Laureate Le Clézio’s titles.

This Week in History: October 6-10, 2008

Well readers, it’s been a pretty interesting few weeks. The bailout passed last Friday, and some of us are ecstatic, while others are terrified. We’ve got two of the three presidential debates out of the way, and I don’t know about you, but I think my candidate is doing quite well. I’ve even been sporting shirt plastered with his face, now that is true patriotism for ya! But if you’re not a fan of politics, then we still have a great week of facts for you. Everything from the 1919 World Series scandal to the Day of Six Billion, six billion people that is. Oh, and there are a few great books too…. Care to join me?

October 8, 2001: U.S. President George W. Bush announces the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security.

War has always led to a change in any society. For Americans after 9/11 and the start of the ‘war on terror’, this was Homeland Security. To see the how other societies may have been affected by non-peaceful times, check out World History of Warfare by Christon I. Archer, John R. Ferris, Holger H.  Herwig, and Timothy H.E. Travers.

October 9,1919:  Black Sox scandal where the Cincinnati Reds “win” the World Series.

    Eight baseball players were banished from baseball, despite being found innocent in court. Most famous among them was Joseph Jefferson Jackson or “Shoeless Joe”. For a closer look into his perspective, the innocence he proclaimed until his death, check out Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball, by Harvey Frommer.

October 10, 1967: The Outer Space treaty, signed by more than 60 countries, enters into force.

Now I’m not exactly sure what the outer space treaty is, but to me it sounds like it could have come straight out of the pages of Miles J. Breuer’s,  The Man with the Strange Head and Other Early Science Fiction Stories. 

October 11, 1906: San Francisco public school system clashes with Japan by ordering Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.

It is no secret that the U.S. has often made it hard for minorities to receive fair and equal treatment under the law. Racially segregated schools are no exception, and have often been one of the more pervasive tools. Yet athletics has often been the forerunner in pushing those boundaries. Wally Yonamine: The Man who Changed Japanese Baseball, by Robert K. Fitts, is one of these remarkable stories. To see how he helped alter the roles of Japanese in sports, check it out at UNP.

  October 12, 1999: The Day of 6 billion. The sixth billion human is born in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

Well 6 billion is a  lot of people! I think to fit all those people in one place, it would have to be a “wide open” place. Ok yeah, that’s my segue into The Wide Open: Prose, Poems,  and Photographs of the Prairie, by Annick Smith and Susan O’Connor. It probably wasn’t smooth, but the book is still good. Check it out!

Ok readers, you can find these books and more at the University of Nebraska Press website. Join us Tuesday for a little trivia. Have a great weekend guys!

This Week in History: September 8-12, 2008

It’s a new week, bloggers! I don’t know about you but I’ve been enjoying the new cooler weather (though not all the rain) and the series premieres of all my favorite shows! I’m not going to lie, Gossip Girl has become a guilty pleasure…..the couture is just so beautiful but lets face it, what high school kid dresses like that?  This week we’ve got a real variety for you guys! Starting with Star Trek and ending with a tribute to those lost in the September 11, 2001 attacks. Ready to start bloggers?

Sept 8, 1966: The first Star Trek premieres on NBC.
    Are you a science fiction lover? I’m a secret one…though not now, I suppose. If you are then may I present The Man with the Strange Head and Other Early Science Fiction Stories by classic Scifi author Miles J. Breuer.

Sept 9, 1543: A nine month old Mary Stuart is crowned “Queen of Scots”.
    Powerful women in the government- it’s one of the great gifts the generations before us paved the way for. For a more local legend, please check out Mayor Helen Boosalis by Beth Davis Boosalis about the first female mayor or Lincoln, NE.

Sept 10, 1945: Mike the headless chicken is decapitated, but will survive for another 18 months before choking to death.
    Now I have no book to connect this to. I can only appeal to your general sense of wonderment and hope you recognize the sheer greatness of this little story. Here is a link to miketheheadlesschicken.org for more info.

Sept 11, 2001: I can assume this date needs no introductions. Rather than focusing on the horror of this event, may I suggest following this link to the memorial and putting our efforts towards remembering those who lost their lives.

Sept 12, 2005: Hong Kong Disneyland opens in Penny’s Bay Lantau Island, Hong Kong.

I LOVE Disney movies! Beauty and the Beast was the first movie I saw in theatres, and the whole experience has always stayed with me. Now this new book from UNP, Cinderella Ball: A Look Inside Small College Basketball in West Virginia by Bob Kuska, is not the same kind of fairy tale, but I can assure you that you will walk away with the same inspiration.

Ok bloggers another week down! Be sure to take a look at the University of Nebraska Press website for these books and more. Please join us next Tuesday for a little trivia!!

Tuesday Trivia: September 3, 2008

On the trail of Tuesday Trivia….
New this month from the University of Nebraska Press, is Why Sacagawea Deserves the Day off and Other Lessons from the Lewis and Clark Trail, by Stephanie Ambrose Tubbs.  By foot, by Volkswagen bus, and by canoe is how this adventurous woman renewed and relived each step the two explorers and their famous (though relatively unknown) guide took more than two hundred years ago.  This week Tuesday Trivia will try to shed some light onto this mystery woman-with all the information the world wide web has to offer.
Put your thinking caps on bloggers….this trivia train is ready to take off!

1.)    True or False: There are two lakes, one river and 4 mountain peaks named after Sacagawea?
2.)    In what year was Sacagawea born?
3.)    Sacagawea actually means what, and should be spelled how?
4.)    What tribe is she originally from?
5.)    True or False: Sacagawea was originally captured in the fall of 1800 near what is now known as Peoria, IL?
6.)    She was traded to a French Canadian trader by the name of what?
7.)    Who was President the year Sacagawea was born?
8.)    In what years did she travel with Lewis & Clark?
9.)    What year was Sacagawea reunited with her people?
10.)    She died in what year?

Ok, bloggers how’d you do? Check back tomorrow for your answers!

Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs Discusses Her New Lewis and Clark Book

Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs, author of Why Sacagawea Deserves the Day Off and Other Lessons Learned from the Lewis and Clark Trail, spoke to a crowd of 50 Lewis and Clark enthusiasts at the Great Plains Art Museum last week. Tubbs discussed the extraordinary symbolism that has been attached to Sacagawea's legacy as well as the importance of the Lewis and Clark expedition to capturing and developing the lifelong environmental interest of young readers, answered questions from the audience, and read from the title chapter of Why Sacagawea Deserves the Day Off:

"Again I ask that we reconsider the historical Sacagawea and give her credit for who she was. For example, although in popular culture she is celebrated as a guide, we do not celebrate her greater genius, which would seem to be her memory for landscapes, her ability to translate between highly different languages and worldviews, and her understanding of harvesting foods and moccasin reading. In modern times she might have been an engineer or a crime scene investigator or a foreign correspondent with those skills. In her world landmarks told stories and because of that they stayed fixed in her mind. Think of Beaverhead Rock. She remembered those places because as a young child she would travel there with her people looking for bison and roots. These travels were based on the seasons and the stories associated with the places they went. The landmarks told stories, and Sacagawea must have been a very good listener."

Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs Appearance offers sneak peek at Lewis and Clark book

Next week, Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs, daughter of late historian and bestselling author Stephen Ambrose, will give a sneak preview talk about her upcoming book, Why Sacagawea Deserves the Day Off and Other Lessons from the Lewis and Clark Trail.  Tubbs will discuss her experiences and observations on the Lewis and Clark Trail, which she first followed in 1976 with her father. The talk and reception begins at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, July 15 at the Great Plains Art Museum, 1155 Q St., Lincoln.

In the book, Tubbs revisits the Lewis and Clark Trail and its famous people, landmarks, and events, exploring questions the expedition continues to raise, such as, What really motivated Thomas Jefferson to send out his agents of discovery? What “mutinous expressions” were uttered? What happened to the dog? Why did Meriwether Lewis end his own life? In the resulting trip through history, Tubbs recounts her travels along the trail by foot, Volkswagen bus, and canoe—at every turn renewing the American experience inscribed by Lewis and Clark.

Tubbs is also co-author of The Lewis and Clark Companion: An Encyclopedic Guide to the Voyage of Discovery and holds two degrees in history from the University of Montana. She currently writes local history and serves on the boards of the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center Foundation, the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Friends of Montana PBS and the American Prairie Foundation. She works with conservation and citizens groups to preserve and protect the trail and adjoining wilderness areas.

For more event information visit http://www.unl.edu/plains/index.shtml or contact Gary Moulton or Linda Ratcliffe at the Center for Great Plains Studies, (402) 472-3082.

Take Me Out to the...Book Signing?

What happens when one brave university press author sets up a book signing event at the Metrodome during a Minnesota Twins game? Find out by linking over to Tom Swift's blog at http://tom-swift.com/weblog/post/161/.

Swift is the author of Chief Bender's Burden: The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star.

Author Event Snapshot

A.J.B. Johnston, author of Endgame 1758: The Promise, the Glory, and the Despair of Louisbourg's Last Decade, presenting at the Ohio Country Conference sponsored by Bushy Run Battlefield in Western Pennsylvania.

Local Event Alert!

Nebraska residents will want to mark their calendars for an appearance, reading, and signing by celebrated local author William Kloefkorn at the O Street Barnes & Noble in Lincoln on Saturday, April 26th. He will read from Restoring the Burnt Child, the second volume in the author's four-part memoir, which will cover the four elements: water, fire, earth, and air. Negotiating the no man’s land between ages nine and thirteen, this memoir of a small-town boy’s life in 1940s Kansas continues the story Kloefkorn began in his much-loved volume This Death by Drowning. The event is part of National Poetry Month and a celebration of Restoring the Burnt Child as a 2008 One Book, One Nebraska selection.

April 26, 2008
2:00-3:00PM
Barnes & Noble
5150 O Street
Lincoln, NE 68510

We hope you can join us for this exciting event!