Chad W. Post, translation guru and the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Open Letter Press at the University of Rochester, has written this editorial (which is circulating today on various publishing blogs) on the dwindling number of new works of translation published by both mainstream and independent publishing houses. Fans of University of Nebraska Press translation titles, don’t fear. We have two translation titles coming out this fall: My Men, a memoir by Algerian author Malika Mokeddem, and Dream of Reason, an epic, fantastical novel by famous Spanish author Rosa Chacel. And next year, we’ll publish another short story collection by … Continue reading Translations

Last week, I posted about some of our Fall/Winter titles. Today, I’m going to offer a preview of a few more.  In Rooms of Memory, by Hilary Masters: A collection of beautiful and carefully crafted essays by a man who has lived a very full life, connected to a lot of other very full lives. Masters is the son of the poet Edgar Lee Masters. He was close friends with writer and photographer (and Nebraska native) Wright Morris. In this collection, he steps back and forth through time – in one essay, he’s a college student and budding writer living … Continue reading Another fall sneak peek

Fall books are starting to arrive in the University of Nebraska Press offices, and, very soon, they will begin arriving in bookstores and in libraries, too. I have a big stack on my desk right now: pristine covers with beautiful, modern designs, smooth pages, straight spines. They smell new, too, like crisp, clean paper and a little bit of glue. I am admiring them as I write. And I figured that now, with these new books in plain sight, would be a good time for a preview of our small season. A small sampling of what’s to come this fall: … Continue reading Fall Preview

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11’s lunar landing. The University of Nebraska Press (as previously mentioned on this blog) is the publisher of the Outward Odyssey series, which chronicles the evolution of spaceflight. One of the books in this series, In the Shadow of the Moon, chronicles the early days of the space race with Russia through the July 20, 1969 moon landing. I love this book. It’s fast-paced and suspenseful and full of interviews with astronauts, their families, and others instrumental in reaching the moon. It’s also a wealth of moon-landing trivia including: – The average age … Continue reading That’s one small step for man…

The University of Nebraska Press title In the United States of Africa made a summer reading list put together by Public Radio International program The World. Here’s the description of In the United States of Africa that The World posted on its Web site: "In the United States of Africa by Abourahaman A. Waberi. Translated from the French by David and Nicole Ball. University of Nebraska Press. Waberi, a French-speaking African writer, makes expert use of an acidic satiric set-up worthy of Swift. History has reversed itself: millions flee the poverty of the United States and Europe for the prosperity … Continue reading Speaking of summer reading lists…

  Select University of Nebraska Press titles that lend themselves well to lazy afternoons of summer reading are on sale through August 15. Titles on sale include novels Jackalope Dreams, Because a Fire was in my Head and The Plain Sense of Things, as well as adventure and travel memoirs including Kayaking Alone, Bicycling Beyond the Divide and Searching for Tamsen Donner. Also on sale is How to Cook a Tapir, a book I’ve been meaning to blog about all summer. How to Cook a Tapir is the story of author Joan Fry’s year in Belize. Fry was a 20-year-old … Continue reading The UNP’s summer reading list, on sale