On this day in history in 1862, Samuel Clemens began working as a reporter for a newspaper in Virginia City, Nevada. This is notable for two reasons: It allowed him to hone his writing skills, and it’s also where he began using his pen name, Mark Twain. The University of Nebraska Press is the publisher of two books by Mark Twain: How Nancy Jackson Married Kate Wilson and Other Tales of Rebellious Girls and Daring Young Women, and Tales of Wonder. Neither of these are exactly typical Twain books: How Nancy Jackson Married Kate Wilson and Other Tales of Rebellious Girls … Continue reading Mark Twain and the University of Nebraska Press

I learned via today’s PW Morning Report that Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown’s new mystery book will be promoted with a series of online puzzles. This Web site says the puzzles are “bound to intrigue us as much as any of his mystery novels.” We shall see. In University of Nebraska Press news, former Boston Celtics star and basketball legend Bill Russell was on the Daily Show the evening before last, promoting his new book. The UNP is not the publisher of Russell’s book, but it is the publisher of The Dandy Dons, which tells the story of Russell … Continue reading An online puzzle, subject of a UNP book on the Daily Show, and a facinating story about an astronaut-turned-painter

This story on PW Online, contains the quote “everyone pretty much agrees that publishing is broken but we keep doing the same things over and over." Among the possible fixes for the broken publishing industry, the article continues, is Twitter. Twitter, as everyone knows, is a quick way to get the word out about events, reviews, interviews and, of course, books themselves. But it’s also a way to, for instance, share a chapter of Ulysses with the masses, as a Boston Tech professor has done. We here at the University of Nebraska Press haven’t jumped on the Twitter bandwagon just … Continue reading Short stories on Twitter, short stories on recommended reading list

I spent much of last night reading My Men, by Malika Mokeddem, a book that the University of Nebraska Press will publish this fall. I only picked this book up because I thought I should do a better job of reading our translation titles – it’s not something I would have read if I didn’t work here. But very quickly, I was completely sucked in. Malika Mokeddem grew up in Algeria, a place where boys are so favored over girls that Mokeddem’s father referred to his sons as “my sons” and his daughters as belonging only to his wife. Mokeddem … Continue reading One to watch for: My Men by Malika Mokeddem

Yesterday was the official publication date of an interesting title for us: Jim Harrison: A Comprehensive Bibliography, 1964-2008. It’s rare that the University of Nebraska Press publishes a reference book, but this one is an exception. Jim Harrison is a prolific writer who has written thousands and thousands of pages of prose, poetry, essays, screenplays and more. Among his best-known works is Dalva, a novel set in Nebraska that tells the story of a mother searching for the child she put up for adoption years before. His stories are often set in rural America, and evoke a strong sense of … Continue reading Two new non-traditional reference books from the UNP

I was listening to NPR last night and heard a familiar name. Kurt Caswell’s essay collection, An Inside Passage, was reviewed on “All Things Considered.” Reviewer Alan Cheuse praised Caswell’s way of looking at – and writing about – nature, particularly nature observed while walking. The review is here. In other news, I read this weekend that Chastity Bono, daughter of singer Cher and the late Sonny Bono, is in the process of transitioning from a woman to a man. People Magazine reported that Cher has been very supportive throughout the process, which reminded me of our book What Becomes … Continue reading Passages and transitions