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Off the Shelf: Breathing in the Fullness of Time by William Kloefkorn

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Breathing in the Fullness of Time cover image Read from Chapter 1 of Breathing in the Fullness of Time by William Kloefkorn:

"Desire. Without it, you might as well pack up and go home. Fran Welch, Coach Welch, had said this when the season began, then repeated it at frequent but irregular intervals as the season moved along. By now, I had decided I no longer wanted to play college football. So I turned in my gear and went home, but not before Coach Welch gave me an asschewing I'll not live long enough to forget. Before the chewing began, though, he wanted to know why in the name of Christ I was quitting.

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National Poetry Month, and Mayor Helen Boosalis in the Lincoln Journal Star

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I’m a few days late getting to this, but April is National Poetry Month, and the Internet is celebrating. All sorts of publishers, newspapers and blogs are posting poems and videos of poetry readings online in observance of National Poetry Month. Poets.org, the Web site for the Academy of American Poets, however, is going all out. The Web site is sponsoring a Poem-in-Your-Pocket Day, a poetry caption contest and an email poem-of-the-day message each day of April. More info on these and other activities can be found here. Check back with the UNP blog throughout April for more poetry posts. … Continue reading National Poetry Month, and Mayor Helen Boosalis in the Lincoln Journal Star

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Art, books and queens, all in one place

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Good morning, blog readers. This coming Friday is the first Friday of April, which here in Lincoln means that it’s artwalk time. Lincoln’s many art galleries will be open late and will feature new art by local artists, food, drink and in at least one case … books. The Noyes Art Gallery, 119 S. 9th St., together with Indigo Bridge Books, 701 P St., are co-sponsoring the book launch of new University of Nebraska Press title, Queens and Power in Medieval and Early Modern England, edited by Carole Levin and Robert Bucholz. Levin, will read from the book and sign … Continue reading Art, books and queens, all in one place

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Review of Searching for Tamsen Donner, one award winner, and one nominee

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The Buffalo News (in Buffalo NY) recently ran a fantastic review of Searching for Tamsen Donner, by Gabrielle Burton. Here’s an excerpt of what writer R.D. Pohl has to say: The portions of the book that recount the Burton family trek across the Rockies and High Sierras are written with a deft comic touch and the plucky, feminist bravado that made “Heartbreak Hotel” such a crossover hit. What may surprise readers is the author’s intuitive gifts as a researcher and narrative historian. She succeeds where other historians and biographers have failed in uncovering and publishing here all 17 of Donner’s … Continue reading Review of Searching for Tamsen Donner, one award winner, and one nominee

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Christgau on Capitol Hill, and Kokomo Joe events

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Kokomo joe A little over a week ago, John Christgau (author of Tricksters in the Madhouse, The Gambler and the Bug Boy, the upcoming Kokomo Joe and others), testified before Congress, and we here at the University of Nebraska Press asked him to write a guest blog about his experience doing so. Here’s what he had to say:

The weekend before last, I testified with others at a hearing in DC before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration.  The issue was H.R. 1425, or the “Wartime Treatment Study Act,” a proposed and long-overdue bill that would establish two fact-finding commissions. The first would study the internments and restrictions imposed by the U.S. government on certain European Americans and European Latin Americans during World War II. The second would study government policies limiting the ability of Jewish refugees to come to the United States before and during the war.  I was asked to testify because my book ENEMIES (which will be republished by Bison Books this September) was the first book on the subject of so-called “enemy aliens” during World War II.  The hearing was a gratifying yet disturbing experience. 

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Off the Shelf: How to Cook a Tapir: A Memoir of Belize by Joan Fry

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How to Cook a Tapir Read from Chapter 1, "Hurricane" from How to Cook a Tapir: A Memoir of Belize by Joan Fry:

"When I had announced my wedding plans to my parents, they were appalled. They disapproved of Aaron's politics. They disapproved of the fact that he, an older man—he was a graduate student—was taking me, a sophomore at the University of Michigan, on a "working honeymoon" for a year in the jungle. Like most people, they had no idea where British Honduras was. Africa? An island off the coast of China? Only my German-born grandfather, who had run away to sea at fourteen, knew it was a tiny Central American country the size of Massachusetts, south of Mexico and east and north of Guatemala. Its entire eastern border faced the Caribbean as though the country were sprawled on its side, facing the azure half-moon of the earth's second-largest barrier reef. Along its spine grew some of Central America's most pristine rainforest. That's where Aaron and I were going—where the Maya lived.

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Flood Stage and Rising

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The perilously high Red River in Fargo is all over the news today. The National Guard is on the ground there, patrolling the 43-foot-high dike for leaks and breaches. Several neighborhoods have been evacuated, as have jails and hospitals. The river is expected to crest tomorrow. One of my coworkers said today that she can’t read or listen to anything about Fargo without thinking about Flood Stage and Rising, published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2005. The author, Jane Varley, lived in Grand Forks, North Dakota, which is also on the banks of the Red River. In 1997, … Continue reading Flood Stage and Rising

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Terese Svoboda in the New Yorker, Kiyosaki book free online, and oddest book title award

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I was flipping through the March 23 issue of the New Yorker last night and happened upon a poem by Terese Svoboda, titled Mom as Fly. For those of you unfamiliar with Svoboda, she is the author of Tin God, which was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2006. Her short story collection, Trailer Girl and Other Stories, will be released as a Bison paperback this fall. And her poem is on the New Yorker Web Site. In addition, I have two interesting bits of general publishing news for our readers this Friday: 1. Publishers Weekly Online had an … Continue reading Terese Svoboda in the New Yorker, Kiyosaki book free online, and oddest book title award

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One last March Madness excerpt

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But first, a note to regular visitors of this blog: You may notice a change to the blog banner today. That's because we have a new logo, which I think jazzes up our blog's home page a bit, don't you? Moving on, Alan Zaremba, author of The Madness of March: Bonding and Betting with the Boys in Las Vegas, returned from his annual trip to Las Vegas days ago, but he's still updating his blog often. Yesterday, he wrote this post, which is about basketball, betting AND a radio call-in show, all in one: One of the perks of writing … Continue reading One last March Madness excerpt

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The University of Nebraska Press and the Sandhill Cranes

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Like a lot of native Nebraskans, I remember a few spring mornings when my parents woke us kids in what felt like the middle of the night and loaded us into the family minivan so we could see the Sandhill Cranes. I remember watching the sunrise from the car, and I remember how quiet it was along I-80 until we reached the birds. I remember talking to my friends at school about their own family trips to see the cranes; to grow up in rural Nebraska was to make your own family migration – perhaps not every year, but at … Continue reading The University of Nebraska Press and the Sandhill Cranes