The final photos from last week's AWP: Patrick Madden, author of Quotidiana, signs books at the University of Nebraska Press booth. Dinty W. Moore, New AWP president and author of Between Panic and Desire, and Terese Svoboda, author of Trailer Girl and Other Stories, take a moment for a photo opportunity. Continue reading AWP finale
Read from "Skiing Walhalla" in Where the Rain Children Sleep: A Sacred Geography of the Colorado Plateau by Michael Engelhard with new essays and a new preface by the author:
"I awaken to dishwater light and the SHUSHing of snow sliding down the tent fly. Poking my head through the entrance I find our campsite muffled by cloudbanks. Already, Kate hovers near the canyon rim, eager to capture the sweet light of morning with her camera. By the time I’ve wriggled into my ski pants—condensation showering me from the domed ceiling—and coffee is steaming on the stove, there is movement in the abyss. Wet shrouds drag across ponderosa-clad slopes. Where the fabric thins, the sun bleeds through in an amorphous smear. Elsewhere, gashes reveal Toroweap ridges and pinnacles perched atop raw-boned Coconino scarps. To the northeast, a thick broth spills across the Painted Desert, barely contained by the glowing rim of Vermilion and Echo cliffs.
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Several authors stopped by the University of Nebraska Press booth on Friday to visit with their fans and sign books during the 2010 AWP conference. Peggy Shumaker, author of Just Breathe Normally, and Dinty W. Moore, new AWP president and author of Between Panic and Desire, pose with each other's books. Sherrie Flick, author of Reconsidering Happiness: A Novel, signs books. Terese Svoboda, author of Trailer Girl and Other Stories, talks to a conference attendee during her book signing. Continue reading Friday photos from AWP
News of the mine explosion in Montcoal, West Virginia has dominated headlines all week. The explosion was on Monday. Four days later, several men trapped in the mine at the time of the explosion are still unaccounted for. UNP author Susan Resnick has been following the news of the disaster, rescue efforts, and stories of the victims and their families especially closely. Resnick is the author of Goodbye Wifes and Daughters, published in March, which tells the story of another mine disaster, in Bearcreek, Montana, in 1943. Seventy five miners died as a result of the explosion in Bearcreek’s Smith … Continue reading Two mine disasters, six decades apart
Live from the 2010 Association of Writers and Writings Programs (AWP) conference in Denver, Colorado, 2008 River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize Winner Kurt Caswell signs An Inside Passage for Ben Birkerts. Continue reading Live from the 2010 AWP Conference
Wilma Mankiller was known for her contributions as first female Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1985 to 1995. During her tenure she was able to triple Cherokee enrollment and build health care and educational resources for the tribe. From an interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, Gross said Mankiller's life "embodies many of the changes and continuing traditions of contemporary Native American culture…. Mankiller describes her job as 'part head of a small country, part CEO of a corporation, and part social worker.'" Mankiller is profiled in two University of Nebraska Press books, Red Power: The American Indians' Fight for Freedom, Second Edition … Continue reading Former Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller dies at 64
Read from "1993" in Things Seen by Annie Ernaux, translated by Jonathan Kaplansky, foreword by Brian Evenson:
"April 8
Condominium meeting. People talk about staircases, basements, etc. Every issue tackled becomes an opportunity for people to show their knowledge, “we need to install meters at such and such a place,” to tell an anecdote “in the building where I lived before,” a story “the other day, the tenant on the fifth floor.” Stories are a need to exist.
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The first topic of today’s news: those of you who subscribe to Wine Spectator (online content is available to subscribers only) should check out the story devoted to three new books about wine. Among these books – Barolo, by Matthew Gavin Frank, which will be published next month by the University of Nebraska Press. Barolo is the account of Frank’s time spent in Italy – picking grapes, eating wonderful food, drinking wonderful wine, and soaking up as much as he could on the process of wine making. Wine Spectator’s reviewer said that the three books “bring an alluring culture to … Continue reading Review roundup
Read the beginning of Chapter 2, "Captivity" from In the Neighborhood of Zero: A World War II Memoir by William V. Spanos:
"After a rough crossing of the English Channel, the 106th Division arrived at the battered seaport of Le Havre, a city that had been virtually leveled during the Normandy invasion, where a convoy of U.S. Army trucks, “The Red Ball Express,” was waiting to transport us to our destination. During the crossing our officers had informed us that we were being assigned to an area in the Ardennes Forest, specifically a mountain area called the Schnee Eiffel, west of the village of St. Vith in Belgium near the Luxembourg border. We were, they said, going to replace the 2nd (“American”) Division, a renowned unit, desperately in need of respite, having been in combat since the invasion of Italy in September 1943. Although the ground we were to take over from the 2nd was on the front lines separating the Allies from the German forces, it was, we were relieved to hear, an inactive zone, providing the perfect conditions for easing a raw and inexperienced division into combat action.
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Read from "Long Live the Red Terror!" by Fan Shen, from American Lives: A Reader edited by Alicia Christensen:
Continue reading “Off the Shelf: American Lives edited by Alicia Christensen”
