Paul VanDevelder was announced as a finalist for the Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction for his book Savages and Scoundrels. His UNP book, Coyote Warrior, was named an editor’s choice by Audubon saying “[VanDevelder] holds a mirror up to postcolonial America itself, showing how we are entwined and indebted to those who have lived here for thousands of years.” VanDevelder has been an investigative reporter, photojournalist, and documentary filmmaker for more than twenty years. His award-winning work has appeared in the New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, Audubon, Esquire, and the Seattle Times. Other finalists for the award … Continue reading Author finalist for Oregon award

Sonya Huber, author of Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir, was a guest writer on the blog Largerhearted Boy on Jan. 14. The blog is currently featuring a series called Book Notes, where authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates to their book. Cover Me is about Huber’s personal experiences navigating the nation’s health-care system and brings an awful and necessary dose of reality to the political debates and propaganda surrounding health-care reform. For Huber, her music selections hightlight each chapter in a different light. Everything from "Pink Houses" by John Mellencamp to “Sabotage” by The Beastsie Boys … Continue reading UNP author in two blogs and award finalist announced

Ana Maria Matute earned this year's Cervantes Prize, which is given annually to a Spanish or Latin American writer for lifetime achievement. Founded in 1976 by the Spanish Ministry of Culture, the Cervantes Prize is the highest award given for contributions to Spanish literature. Matute is the third woman to receive this prestigious honor.  In 1997, we published an English translation of her book, Celebration in the Northwest (Spanish title: Fiesta al Noroeste), as part of our European Women Writers series. Previous winners include the 2010 Nobel Prize Winner in Literature Mario Vargas Llosa, who was also a contributor to … Continue reading Cervantes Prize winner

UNP congratulates Margaret D. Jacobs again on winning the 2010 Athearn Western History Association Prize for her book White Mother to a Dark Race. We just received this photo from the annual awards banquet at the WHA Conference in Lake Tahoe on Friday, Oct. 15. Jacobs is a professor of history and the director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She has also won the 2010 Bancroft Prize and the Armitage-Jameson Prize sponsored by the Coalition for Western Women’s History.    Heather Lundine, UNP managing editor; Margaret D. Jacobs, author; John R. Wunder, President … Continue reading UNP author wins 2010 Athearn Prize

Jay Gallentine was presented with the AAS Emme Award Tuesday night! This annual award is sponsored by the American Astonautical Society and recognizes outstanding books which advance public understanding of astronautics through originality, scholarship and readability.   Ambassadors from Earth: Pioneering Explorations with Unmanned Spacecraft, tells the story behind the first unmanned space probes and planetary explorers. It includes everything from the Sputnik and Explorer satellites in the 1950s to the Voyager Missions of the 1970s. Gallentine uses original interviews with keyplayers, never-before-seen photos and journal excerpts to illustrate the lives and legacies of the Americans and Soviets who experienced … Continue reading UNP author presented with AAS Emme Award

The White House announced yesterday that President Obama will be giving Bill Russell, a former NBA star, the Medal of Freedom. This high civilian honor is presented to individuals who have made contributions to the security or the national interest of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors. Bill Russell is a former Boston Celtics Captain who led the team to eleven championships in thirteen years and was named NBA’s Most Valuable Player 5 times. He then went on to be the first African American to coach in the NBA. Russell is also an … Continue reading Bill Russell receives medal from President Obama

Some exciting news!  Author of Just Breathe Normally, Peggy Shumaker, was announced as the new Alaska State Writer Laureate 2010-2012 by The Alaska State Council on the Arts. As State Writer Laureate, Shumaker will represent the Council and the State of Alaska in communities, conducting workshops and readings as well as connecting Alaskan writers with each other and with the outside world. She succeeds former poet laureate Nancy Lord, who is the author of Rock, Water, Wild (University of Nebraska Press, 2009).  In Just Breathe Normally, a traumatic cycling accident causes Shumaker to search for meaning within extremity. The book … Continue reading UNP author announced as laureate

Last Friday, Oct.8, the Nebraska Book Awards were announced and UNP came away with two awards.   Bruce A. Glasrud and Charles A. Braithwaite’s  African Americans on the Great Plains: An Anthology won for the anthology category. This book, the first of its kind, supplies the critical missing chapter in American history of African Americans in the western frontier. There might have been a mention of Estevan, slavery, or the Dred Scott decision, but the rich and varied experience of African Americans on the Great Plains went largely unnoted until recently.    For the nonfiction honor, Robert Cochran’s Louise Pound:  … Continue reading Two more awards for UNP