Thanks to all who donated to the Friends of UNP on Give to Lincoln Day!
Last week we received $1,935 in gifts, which will be matched proportionally by the Lincoln Community Foundation. We are so grateful to all of you who support the books we publish.
We couldn’t do it without you.
Tonight at 7 p.m. in the UNL bookstore you can meet Jeff Kurrus, author of the new children's book Have You Seen Mary? and editor of NEBRASKAland Magazine!
Kurrus will read from and sign copies of Have Your Seen Mary? in the University Bookstore, in the lower level of the Nebraska Union at 14 and R streets in Lincoln.
Have You Seen Mary? is a fictional account of one sandhill crane’s faithful search during spring migration for his lost mate. The book includes photographs by Nebraska wildlife photographer Michael Forsberg.
So come out to the book store to meet a local author!
Local author Bill Kloefkorn will be on The Joy Factor radio show on KZUM tomorrow, Wednesday, Jan. 19 at 6 p.m. to discuss his new poetry collection, Swallowing the Soap, published in October by the University of Nebraska Press. If you are in the Lincoln area, tune to 89.3 FM. The host of the show is Sheila Stratton. For more information visit The Joy Factor’s Facebook page.
William Kloefkorn is Nebraska’s state poet and emeritus professor of English at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln. He has published many books with the University of Nebraska Press, including a four-part memoir comprised of the following volumes: Breathing in the Fullness of Time, This Death by Drowning, Restoring the Burnt Child: A Primer, and At Home on this Moveable Earth.
For three days and nights reading, writing and books were celebrated in Missoula at the Montana Festival of the Book. The festival featured writers from across the region in a variety of readings, panels, exhibits and signings.
One of the panels had five history writers, including UNP author Sue Resnick, who dived into a plethora of Western topics including Irish in the American West to the Smith Mine disaster, which was the topic of Resnick’s book, Goodbye Wifes and Daughters. To read more about the panel discussion click here.
For those readers who are in Nebraska, UNP author Michael Forsberg is having an open house and book signing this evening from 6-9 p.m. at 100 N. 8th St. in Lincoln. Forsberg’s book, On Ancient Wings, features Sandhill cranes from across North America with 153 stunning color photographs. So come to his open house tomorrow to support a great local author!
Recently Rhonda Garelick, one of the authors of Fabulous Harlequin: ORLAN and the Patchwork Self published in October, was featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s arts blog. Garelick came to Nebraska in 2008 and started the Interdisciplinary Arts Symposium which is a series of programs and lectures on the theme “Race, American History, and Performance.” This year she has raised over $130,000 for events.
On November 2, the French performance and visual artist Orlan discussed her exhibit at the university’s Sheldon Museum of Art, where Garelick’s husband and co-author of Fabulous Harlequin, J. Daniel Veneciano, is director. To read more about Garelick’s history and plans for the future click here.
In University of Nebraska Press Sales news, there are two book sales through November. Save 25 percent on a selection of World War I and Mexican History books including No Man’s Land: 1918, The Last Year of the Great War by John Tolandt. Toland tells the story of the final year of the war with participants on both sides, from enlisted men to generals and prime ministers to monarchs; vividly recount the battles, sensational events, and behind-the-scenes strategies that shaped the climactic, terrifying year. There are also 99 pictures and 10 maps included.
Also on sale is Mexico, la patria by Monica A. Rankin, which discusses propaganda and production during World War II. Rankin examines the pervasive domestic and foreign propaganda strategies in Mexico and their impact on Mexican culture, charting the evolution of these campaigns through popular culture, advertisements, art, and government publications throughout the war and beyond.
You can find these books and more on sale on UNP’s web site. Don’t forget the discount codes when you make your purchases. The codes are listed on the web page.
As we head into the weekend (Go Big Red!), here's a roundup of UNP news:
For those of you who are in the Lincoln area, Steve Edwards, author of Breaking into the Back Country will be at NeBoo(formerly known as the Nebraska Bookstore) today at 6 p.m. for a signing. Breaking into the Backcountry is the story of how Edwards left his job as an English professor and headed into the Klamath Mountains where he discovered: that alone, in a wild place, each day is a challenge and a gift. There, he served as a caretaker for a homestead along a scenic river -- a "vacation" he received as a result of winning a writing contest. Edwards lives in Lincoln now, so come out and get to know this local author.
On Wednesday, Oct. 13, We Will Dance Our Truth by David Delgado Shorter won the Chicago Folklore Prize, which is awarded to the author of the best book-length work of folklore scholarship for the year. It is the oldest international award recognizing excellence in folklore scholarship. The prize is offered jointly by the American Folklore Society and the University of Chicago. We Will Dance Our Truth is Shorter’s performative approach to the expressive culture of the Yaqui (Yoeme) peoples of the Sonora and Arizona borderlands.
For some other good news, The John Lardner Reader – a collection of Lardner’s sportswriting -- was reviewed by Alex Belth with SportsIllistrated.com and received glowing reviews. Betlth said, “It's a blessing that the University of Nebraska Press still cares enough to give us a collection like this.” Click here for the article.
Today in Lincoln the weather seems to be less than dreary with high chances of rain soaking your morning newspaper. (Not that it happened to me or anything…) But it’s nothing that a good collection of poetry can’t fix. Swallowing the Soap is the newest collection by Nebraska’s poet, William Kloefkorn. It contains new and selected poems that span his forty-year career. The poems inside include limited editions and hard-to-find books along with some of his most popular poems. It is filled with the panoramic landscapes of Kansas and Nebraska, the stories of the rough and tender people who live there, and the moments of heartache, brutality, loss, and redeeming joy that shape their lives.
Tomorrow, Sept. 24, Kloefkorn will be on Friday Live, which is NET Radio’s Friday arts program, during the second half of the show. Tune in at about 9:30 a.m. At 7 p.m. he will be at Nebraska Bookstore for an appearance and signing. It doesn’t stop there though! If you can’t see him then, he will be at the University Bookstore on Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. for a reading and signing.
New from the University of Nebraska Press: Yellowstone Autumn: A Season of Discovery in a Wondrous Land by W.D. Wetherell.
Wetherell describes Yellowstone as “America’s least-known best-known place.” The author, arriving at the park on the eve of his fifty-fifth birthday, feels the need to examine where life’s mileage has brought him. In the encounter that follows, a writer entering late middle age confronts not only a magnificent corner of the vast American landscape but also the American experience itself.
Detailed in the wise, humorous, and lyrical language that has long distinguished W. D. Wetherell’s award-winning fiction, this introspective journey merges the fascinating story of Yellowstone’s history and geography with the author’s own story—of marriage and aging, of fatherhood, and of the solace to be found in the beauty of the natural world. Most of all it’s a loving tribute to Yellowstone in autumn, the season when the park and its glories are absolutely at their peak.
This edition of Linking in Lincoln is devoted to – what else – Yellowstone. Here we go.
1. Yellowstone park was named after the river bearing the same name, which is named after the French translation of the Minnetaree tribe’s word for the river: Rock Yellow River. Rock Yellow, Yellow Stone, Yellowstone….it’s all the same thing, right? Read a brief history of how the park came to be (and more details about where it got its name) on this page on the National Park Service web site.
2. Yellowstone is home of the largest volcanic caldera in the United States, Mexico and Canada. Violent volcanic eruptions occurred thousands of years ago; could they happen again? The U.S. Geological Survey has dedicated this page to answering all of your questions about the possibility of future volcanic activity at Yellowstone.
3. Yellowstone is a geographically volatile place. In addition to volcanoes, it’s also a hotbed for earthquakes, with thousands of small quakes occurring each year. In 1959, an earthquake clocking in at 7.3 on the Richter Scale rocked the park, killed 28 people, and has since gone down in history as the largest earthquake in Montana history. The USGS has information on that, too.
4. Enough about natural disasters. Yellowstone is well-known for its fly fishing – that’s part of what drew W.D. Wetherell there in the first place. As a result, there are entire web sites devoted to fly fishing at Yellowstone, like this one.
5. Of course, Yellowstone might be best known for its most famous geyser, Old Faithful, which, if you like, you can watch live via this webcam.
Curious about Yellowstone? Be sure to read Yellowstone Autumn by W.D. Wetherell. And see you back on the UNP blog tomorrow!
