In 2009, the University of Nebraska Press published Hurricane Katrina: America’s Unnatural Disaster,  which questions the efficacy of the national and global responses to Katrina’s central victims, African Americans. This collection of essays explores the extent to which African Americans and others were — and are — disproportionately affected by the natural and manmade forces that caused Hurricane Katrina.  One of the book's editors, Dr. Matthew Whittaker (also a historian at Arizona State University) spoke at A Conversation with Cornel West – How We Got Here on Oct. 2. He spoke about the Arizona immigration law and the history of … Continue reading UNP editor talks about immigration

As I am writing the Chilean miners who have been trapped underground for 69 days are being rescued. At the time of this posting, there has been 20 out of the 33 miners rescued. Definite progress and hope for their families. See more news and a count down of those being rescued at CNN.com. One of UNP’s authors, Susan Kushner Resnick, brings a light to problems that miners have had way before the Chilean miners were trapped. In her book, Goodbye Wifes and Daughters, she explores a WWII -era mine explosion in Montana that killed 75 men. Sue discusses the disregard for safety back … Continue reading UNP author ahead of current news

Ana Maria Shua's Death as a Side Effect, which will be published this fall by the University of Nebraska Press, transports readers to a dystopia future Argentina where gangs and professional thieves roam the streets, the wealthy purchase security behind fortified concrete walls and travel is unsafe all over the country. Protagonist Ernesto seeks his vanished lover through the closed districts and ubiquitous sercurity cameras. Ana María Shua’s brilliantly dark satire has been regarded as one of the one hundred best Latin American novels published in the last twenty-five years.   Shua is also the author of Microfictions (Nebraska 2009), … Continue reading UNP author’s work at Frankfort book fair

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 … Continue reading UNP author on the radio and in stores

Nebraska is known for corn, the Cornhuskers and of course, farming. With the decline of family farms and rural communities and the rise of corporate farming and the resulting environmental degradation, American agriculture is in crisis. But this crisis offers the opportunity to rethink agriculture in sustainable terms. John E. Ikerd’s Crisis and Opportunity describes what sustainable agriculture is, why it began and how it can succeed. He talks about the consequences of agriculture industrialization and offers methods that can restore social responsibility to our agriculture system. Ikerd will be at the Annual North American Aronia Berry Festival in Missouri … Continue reading Author John E. Ikerd is a featured speaker at the Aronia Festival

It’s a rainy day here in Lincoln, but an excellent day to curl up on the couch with a good read. Between Panic and Desire by Dinty Moore is an unconventional memoir of one man and his culture.  Blending narrative and quizzes, memory and numerology, and imagined interviews and conversations with dead presidents on TV, the book dizzily documents the disorienting experience of growing up in a postmodern world. “Insouciant” and “irreverent” are the sort of words that come up in reviews of Dinty W. Moore’s books—and, invariably, “hilarious.”  Since we enjoy Moore’s books (and we hope you do, too) … Continue reading UNP author visits UNL on Monday

The Univeristy of Nebraska Press is proud to share that one of its authors, Robert Camuto, is kicking off his national book tour tomorrow for Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey. The book is about his journey through the Etna region of Sicilily where he discovers more than just great wine. He also meets the winemakers of Italy’s largest and oldest wine region.  During his visits, he gets to know winemakers whose families have been in the business for generations; ex-pats drawn to Sicily by its remoteness, beauty and heritage of great wines; young Sicilians blending new technology and ancient production … Continue reading Robert Camuto kicks off Palmento book tour tomorrow

UNP staff returned to the office this week with photos from last week's BookExpo America. Check out our facebook page for even more photos. Attendees head into the BookExpo Exhibit Hall at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City.  Sue Resnick signs copies of her new book, Goodbye Wifes and Daughters, the story of the 1943 mining disaster in Bearcreek, Montana. Steve Steinberg, co-author of 1921: The Yankees, the Giants, and the Battle for Baseball Supremacy in New York, signs his new book during an autographing session. A view of the UNP booth. BookExpo America is a great place for … Continue reading BookExpo America Photos

Last fall, I took a trip to Brownville, Neb., and spent hours in the village’s many used bookstores. Brownville has just a few hundred residents, but it has four used bookstores, and I’d venture that it might have the highest used bookstore-square-footage-per-resident ratio of anywhere (certainly of anyplace I’ve visted). The village, situated on the Missouri River, is also home to quaint limestone buildings (and a few stately old mansions), museums, a floating hotel, a scenic bike trail, and a a winery (among other things). It's awesome.   Next weekend, (April 23-25) there will be even more books than usual in … Continue reading Great community, great books, and great event coming up next weekend