University of Nebraska Press

Linking in Lincoln: June, 11 2008

What’s that scratching under your bed…..it’s Linking in Lincoln!

New this month from the University of Nebraska Press, is The Chichi Hoohoo Bogeyman by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve. This children’s book takes us back to our own adolescence, when the dark was filled with all things terrifying. This new edition of the well received tale follows four little girls who encounter a strange man one day and name him the Chichi Hoohoo Bogeyman. Swearing themselves to secrecy, they become further unsettled when they return home and hear the adults talk of recent unexplained occurrences at home, perhaps driven by spirits. When one of the young girls goes missing, the secret of the Chichi Hoohoo Bogeyman must be uncovered.
This week, in the spirit of the paranormal, LIL is going to take a walk on the supernatural side. Care to join me?
What is the bogeyman? We may remember him well from terrified nights as six year olds, but the origins are actually quite distinctive. Find out more about them here.

Like scary movies? Check out this four minute film about the bogeyman on youtube.

“Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the lights?” Nothing beats a good urban legend. Read all about them here…but maybe make sure the lights are on?

John Bellairs wrote thrillers for children.  Stories filled to the brim with witches, mummies, haunted houses, and enchanted objects. Check out the New York Times for a closer look at this unique author.

It’s a well known belief that America is a melting pot. In addition to the numerous benefits this has had on our culture, folklore is just one. It might be one of the more interesting though, so check out this American Folklore website and see what the Native Americans, African Americans, and even the French-Canadian have to offer in terms of mythology. P.S.  You might want to take a look at the American Spooky Series as well.
Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve is the author of many children’s books. Find out more about this author, and her other works at the VG website.

Well bloggers, scared yet? If not, then you’re made of stronger stuff than me! Join us again Friday for another dose of TWIH.

A Word from Kate Flaherty on Prairie Schooner

On the Winter 2007 Issue...

So the cover of my Prairie Schooner, Winter '07 issue is already gone—I sliced it off with an X-acto knife so I could frame Chris Ware's fantastic image of Nebraska for my wall. Chicago may try to claim Ware and the dark, comic vision of his graphic novels for themselves, but his roots are undeniably Nebraskan, and this cover is destined to be a classic.

Of course the inside of the issue holds up as well. Highlights for me are:

Leslie Lawrence's stirring essay on the death of her partner of more than twenty years, "What Can You Do?" "'She died,' I'd say. The thud of those D's satisfied me in the way that the spineless 'passed away' did not."

A wonderful selection of poems by Constance Merritt—most meditations on love—some on the reward of finding mutual love, and others on the bittersweet taste of love denied. "Lonely in the House of Love" in particular was a stab in the heart:

Lonely in the House of Love,

who can measure the length of a day,
the weight of an hour,
the ounces of salt in a week's worth of tears—
every good gift withdrawn,
hope's long road narrowed to this
last night in a strange bed:
one of you clenched against the cold and sobbing,
the other steeling herself against compassion
or simply indifferent or sleeping;
both intent on morning, the mercy of departure?

After that, look for Jeff Worley to raise your spirits with "Not Knowing the Names," a delightful bit of nature writing by a poet who is completely unencumbered by the necessity of knowing names of whatever bird, bush or tree he stumbles upon in the wild. I always love Worley's light touch and sense of humor, and again he doesn't disappoint.

New discoveries for me in this issue were Nancy Zafris's absurdist story, "After Lunch," and some sharp and shocking poems by Beth Bachmann that took my breath away, especially "Last Call." I'd reprint it here, but why spoil the surprise? See for yourself—pick up the Winter '07 issue today, or start a subscription now and get a year's worth of wonderful poetry and prose.

Kate Flaherty, a fiction writer and essayist, is the former managing editor of Prairie Schooner.

Visit the University of Nebraska Press' Prairie Schooner Web site for more information.

Announcing Journal of Sports Media Blog

The Journal of Sports Media now has its own blog!  Brad Schultz, the editor of Journal of Sports Media, began the blog this month. 

 

What's in a name...

hat is a prairie schooner? 

A prairie schooner, in its first incarnation, was the covered wagon European settlers used to transport their families and belongings to the West. The wagons’ canvas coverings appeared as white sails in the sea of tall grass, hence, "schooner.”

A prairie schooner is a vehicle of colonization/ it is a vehicle for discovery of the unknown. It destroys/ it inspires.

Vehicle: a tool for carrying, as in a covered wagon. Vehicle: the set of words that carries the meaning of a metaphor. Metaphor: derived from the Greek word for transfer or transport.

Prairie schooner: a vehicle that transports us beyond the mapped, the experienced, the known—to a place where we challenge and re-make our own meaning.

Cobb Named New Editor of American Indian Quarterly

Amanda J. Cobb, Associate Professor of American Studies and director of the Institute for American Indian Research at the University of New Mexico, has been named the new editor of the American Indian Quarterly.

Cobb, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Oklahoma in 1997. Specializing in Native American Studies, Cobb is the author of Listening to Our Grandmothers’ Stories: The Bloomfield Academy for Chickasaw Females, 1852-1949 (University of Nebraska Press, 2000) which was selected as a winner of the 2001 American Book Award as well as the 1998 North American Indian Prose Award. She is a board member of Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO), a national non-profit advocacy organization for American Indians and has participated in AIO’s leadership initiative, the Ambassadors Program. Cobb’s teaching and research deal with Native American cultural production, representation, identity, policy, and sovereignty and self-determination.

American Indian Quarterly (AIQ) is an interdisciplinary journal of the anthropologies, histories, literatures, religions, and arts of Native North Americans. Published by the University of Nebraska Press, AIQ provides wide-ranging coverage of issues and topics through scholarly articles, commentaries, interviews, book reviews, and poetry.