Below is a guest blog from Katya Cengel, author of Bluegrass Baseball. She writes about one of her "many" hometowns and what it did for its little league team that made it to the World Series.

One of the good
things about having moved around a lot in my formative years is that I can
claim many places as my “hometown”. 
Petaluma, California is one of them. My first newspaper internship was
in Petaluma and this summer around the same time my first book was released the
city sent their first little league team to the World Series.

The timing
couldn’t have been better.

Continue reading “Hometown: Petaluma, CA”

Kayta Cengel is the author of Bluegrass
Baseball, which describes a year in the life
of four minor league baseball teams in Kentucky that tell a larger story about
the culture atmosphere of today's minor leagues. Below
she describes meeting her youngest fan.

Although Bluegrass Baseball is an
adult book, it is about baseball, so I figured I would have some young baseball
playing fans. But I wasn’t quite prepared for the ones I came across while on
tour in Kentucky. Most of them were middle school age boys who hoped one day to
be playing in the minor leagues, like the subjects of Bluegrass Baseball. In
Louisville a ten-year-old with a shy smile thanked me personally for signing
the book his father had bought him. Then he bashfully asked if he could take a
picture with me. A few minutes later he returned with a baseball he wanted me
to sign. Watching him inspect his ball as he walked away is a memory I will not
soon forget. But it was another young Kentucky fan that stole my heart.

Continue reading “From the desk of Katya Cengel”

Below is a guest blog from Nancy Plain. Her new book, Light on the Prairie, is the biography and photographic works of Solomon D. Butcher. Here, we get an inside peek as to why she chose Solomon as her newest book subject.  

I can’t remember when I first saw a photograph by Solomon Butcher.  But around the time I was searching for a new book project, I found myself scrolling through his remarkable photos on the “Prairie Settlement” website of the Library of Congress.  I was hooked.  They look straight at the camera, Solomon’s pioneers, and they stand up straight amidst their families and possessions, against a background of infinite prairie.  If you peer really closely, you can find little secrets in the pictures—a shy child peeking out from a window, a dog half hidden in a shadowed doorway.  During the course of my research, I learned about individual sodbusters.  One of my favorite photographs is that of the four beautiful Chrisman sisters, known by their nicknames—Hattie, Lizzie, Lutie, and Babe.  Babe didn’t like how she looked in the photo, though.  She thought it made her look like a “horse thief!”

Continue reading “From the desk of Nancy Plain”

Kate Buford is the author of Native American Son. In light of the Olympics beginning tomorrow, she writes of an Olympic past legend, Jim Thorpe, and today's Olympic excitement.

As the world gears up for Opening Day of the XXX Olympiad, media outlets are pumping out new alarming stories of security snafus in London along with the usual poignant tales of athletes’ life obstacles overcome.

The hype and frenzy are taken for granted now, but when did they begin? When did the world first realize the potential thrill the Games dangle in front of us every four years? That an athlete will come out of nowhere and astonish us with feats of bodily skill we have never seen before.

Though the first Games of the modern Olympic movement were held in 1896 in Athens, it wasn’t until the Fifth Olympiad in Stockholm in 1912 that one athlete – Jim Thorpe – created the model of the Olympic super-star. First he won the classic five-event track and field pentathlon by a huge margin – and then he did the same thing in the new ten-event decathlon.

Continue reading “From the desk of Kate Buford”

The 2012 All-Star Game is tonight, the best players are chosen to battle for league domination. But with every name on the back of a jersey comes a different story. Below is a guest blog from Katya Cengel. Her new book Bluegrass Baseball describes a year in the life of four minor league baseball teams in Kentucky that tell a larger story about the culture atmosphere of today's minor leagues. Two years ago I was interviewing Jose Altuve in a crowded apartment in Lexington, Kentucky. Altuve had recently made the South Atlantic League All Star roster. But he wasn’t pleased with his performance. He was … Continue reading From the desk of Katya Cengel

Below is a guest blog post from Mark Liebenow, author of Mountains of Light. In his new book, Liebenow takes us deep into the heart of Yosemite National Park, introducing us to its grand and subtle marvels—and to the observations, reflections, and insights its scenery evokes. Here, he discusses how he comes to his findings in nature. When I go into nature, whether it’s for a day or a week, I carry a pocket notebook and record my thoughts and observations.  At the evening campfire I transfer them to a larger journal, adding in the details before I forget them … Continue reading Hiking into the Yosemite wilderness

Rachel Toor, author of Personal Record: A Love Affair with Running (2008), didn’t start out as a runner. In fact, she considered herself a bookish egghead who ran only to catch a bus. But since she ran her first race more than 20 years ago, she's finished dozens of marathons, qualified numerous times for Boston, and run many ultra-marathons and other endurance races, too. Toor is now sponsored by Athleta. For the next year, she'll blog for the clothing company about running, 2012 resolutions and above all, enjoying the ups and downs of life. Read her first blog post here … Continue reading Runner, writer, reader

Educated Tastes is a collection of new essays, edited by Jeremy Strong, that examine how taste is learned, developed, and represented. From the highs (and lows) of connoisseurship to the frustrations and rewards of a mother encouraging her child to eat, the essays in this volume explore the complex and infinitely varied ways in which food matters to all of us. Strong has given UNP an insight as to how this book began and where the idea came from. Below is an explanation from the author himself: The background to Educated Tastes starts with an article I published in Gastronomica … Continue reading Guest blog: Jeremy Strong