There’s lots going on in the world of the University of Nebraska Press today. Let’s get right down to it. First, what are you doing at 12:42 p.m. today? If you’re going to be at your computer, you can stream an interview with Pamela Carter Joern, author of The Floor of the Sky and The Plain Sense of Things.  Joern will be on Des Moines community radio station 99.1, visiting with John Busbee, host of The Culture Buzz. Second, today is the 100th anniversary of Wallace Stegner’s birth. Stegner, whose novel Angle of Repose won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction … Continue reading Joern on Des Moines community radio, happy birthday to Wallace Stegner, and goodbye to Silas the cat

University of Nebraska Press fans in Seattle, San Francisco and New York will have a chance to meet a UNP author frequently mentioned on this blog (and in many wine columns) this week. Robert Camuto, author of Corkscrewed: Adventures in the New French Wine Country, will be in Seattle tomorrow (Feb. 17), in San Francisco Feb. 18 and 19, and in New York Feb. 21 through 25. For information on where you can see him (and taste some of the wines he describes in his book), visit his web site. You can read reviews of Corkscrewed in the Seattle Weekly … Continue reading Camuto on tour, Toor at AWP and one last look at Valentines

University of Nebraska Press author Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve will read from some of her many books at the Great Plains Art Museum (1155 Q Street, Hewit Place, Lincoln) from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 27. Sneve is a well-known Lakota writer and a recipient of the 2000 National Humanities Medal. She is the author of Lana’s Lakota Moons, Grandpa Was a Cowboy and an Indian and Other Stories, Chichi Hoohoo Bogeyman and many other children’s books. Her memoir, Completing the Circle, won the North American Indian Prose Award. The event is free and open to the public. Continue reading Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve at the Great Plains Art Museum

Well readers it’s been a good week. We are now just two weeks away from Christmas, and of course the holiday season is overwhelming! Everywhere you look there are sales going on, and ideas for practical, homemade gifts. I have to tell you it seems that one of the few good things to come out of this recession will be creativity! Who knows maybe this economy will help us all find our own inner Martha Stewart. I’m sorry to say there are no tips for xmas gifts in this edition of This Week in History but we do have John … Continue reading This Week in History: December 8-12, 2008

University of Nebraska Press author Mimi Schwartz will be appearing in Lincoln, Nebraska on Tuesday, November 18 for a book signing, reading, and discussion of her recent memoir Good Neighbors, Bad Times: Echoes of My Father’s German Village. The event will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Dudley Bailey Library, 228 Andrews Hall, on the University of Nebraska−Lincoln campus. Mimi Schwartz recovers the history of a German Village and the journey into her family's past in her latest memoir, Good Neighbors, Bad Times. Schwartz grew up on her father's boyhood stories and rarely took them seriously. What was a modern American … Continue reading Author Mimi Schwartz to read and discuss Good Neighbors, Bad Times

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 … Continue reading Tuesday Trivia: October 13, 2008

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

We 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 … Continue reading This Week in History: October 6-10, 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 … Continue reading This Week in History: September 8-12, 2008