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Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve at the Great Plains Art Museum

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University of Nebraska Press author Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve will read from some of her many books at the Great Plains Art Museum (1155 Q Street, Hewit Place, Lincoln) from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 27. Sneve is a well-known Lakota writer and a recipient of the 2000 National Humanities Medal. She is the author of Lana’s Lakota Moons, Grandpa Was a Cowboy and an Indian and Other Stories, Chichi Hoohoo Bogeyman and many other children’s books. Her memoir, Completing the Circle, won the North American Indian Prose Award. The event is free and open to the public. Continue reading Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve at the Great Plains Art Museum

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Extra-credit reading list

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– Fans of Pamela Carter Joern (author of University of Nebraska Press titles The Floor of the Sky and The Plain Sense of Things) will want to check out this post on the Minnesota Women’s Press web site. Joern discusses her rural Nebraska childhood, the themes that inspire her fiction, and why she believes it’s important to write fiction in the first place, among other things. – If the Minnesota Women’s Press post intrigues you, you can read more on Joern’s thoughts on writing here. – And on a completely unrelated note, the New York Times has published the text … Continue reading Extra-credit reading list

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Linking in Lincoln: January 22, 2009

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New this month from the University of Nebraska Press: The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1872-1876. Henry James was a prolific letter writer, and the University of Nebraska press is publishing the thousands and thousands of letters he wrote in an ongoing series. Volume No. 3 is a collection of letters written between 1872 and 1876, and the letters from those years fill more than 500 pages. Imagine if Henry James had had access to text messaging! Today’s linking in Lincoln is all about a cousin of the letter, the diary, and diary’s kid sister, blog. Ready? 1. In 1660, a … Continue reading Linking in Lincoln: January 22, 2009

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José Torres, 1936-2009

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José Torres, a boxer who won a silver medal in the 1956 Olympics, and the author of Sting Like a Bee: The Muhammad Ali Story, has died. He was 72 years old.  According to his New York Times obituary, Torres achieved a record of 41-3-1 in his 11 years of professional fighting. Later, he served as the chairman of the New York state Athletic Commission, and was also the biographer of Mike Tyson. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997. You can read his full obituary here. Continue reading José Torres, 1936-2009

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Community organizers in the White House and in Lincoln, too

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All eyes are on Barack Obama today (or at least on HBO) as the nation’s most famous community organizer prepares to take office. In keeping with his community organizer roots, Obama declared yesterday – Martin Luther King Jr. Day — a day of service. Listening to the news last night, I found the interviews with people who spent the holiday cleaning up parks, volunteering at shelters and even giving haircuts to those in need pretty inspiring. No doubt former Lincoln Mayor Helen Boosalis would find such service inspiring, too. Before she was mayor, Boosalis was a volunteer and community organizer herself. … Continue reading Community organizers in the White House and in Lincoln, too

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Tuesday Trivia: January 20, 2009

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Southerutewomen New this month from the University of Nebraska Press: Southern Ute Women: Autonomy and Assimilation on the Reservation, 1887-1934, by Katherine M. B. Osburn.

After the passage of the Dawes Severalty Act in 1887, the Southern Ute Agency was the scene of an intense federal effort to assimilate the Ute Indians. The Southern Utes were to break up their common land holdings and transform themselves into middle-class patriarchal farm and pastoral families. In this assimilationist scheme, women were to surrender the considerable autonomy they enjoyed in traditional Ute society and become housebound homemakers, the “civilizers” of their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons. Southern Ute Women shows that these women accommodated Anglo ways that benefited them but refused to give up indigenous culture and ways that gave their lives meaning and bolstered personal autonomy.

This week’s Tuesday Trivia will test your knowledge of Ute history and culture. Ready?

1. Which state derived its name from the word “Ute”?

2. Most Utes today live in two states. Which ones?

Continue reading “Tuesday Trivia: January 20, 2009”

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Off the Shelf: If You Don’t Go, Don’t Hinder Me by Bernice Johnson Reagon

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Reagon Read from the opening essay, "Twentieth-Century Gospel: As the People Moved They Sang a New Song" in If You Don't Go, Don't Hinder Me: The African American Sacred SongTradition by Bernice Johnson Reagon:

"I joined my first and only gospel choir when I joined the church at eleven years of age. It was the first gospel choir at Mt. Early Baptist, a small rural church in Dougherty County pastored by my father, Rev. Jessie Johnson. My sister Fannie, who played the piano, organized the choir. It was 1954—gospelwas everywhere. Most of the Baptist and Pentecostal churches inside the city of Albany, the county seat of Dougherty, already had gospel choirs. However, the country churches were sometimes a decade behind the city churches."

Continue reading “Off the Shelf: If You Don’t Go, Don’t Hinder Me by Bernice Johnson Reagon”

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The University of Nebraska Press has a new director

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Exciting news for us. Following is the official statement about our new leader:

LINCOLN, Neb. — Donna A. Shear has been named director of the University of Nebraska Press effective March 1.

Shear has been involved with scholarly publishing for many years. She comes to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from the Northwestern University Press in Evanston, Ill., where she has been director since 2003. She became interim director in 2002 after joining Northwestern's Press in 2000 as associate director and chief financial officer.

During her tenure at Northwestern, the Press forged alliances with other divisions of the university. Collaborations with the Block Museum, Medill School of Journalism, Kellogg School of Management and the library led to joint publishing ventures. She also led successful fundraising efforts and worked with the library to develop a scholarly communications digital repository policy.

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Happy (early) birthday, Abraham Lincoln!

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Abraham Lincoln’s birthday is still more than a month away, but we’re already celebrating. Why? Well, for a couple of reasons. Honest Abe turns 200 this February 12, which is certainly a milestone worth celebrating. In addition, Lincoln, Nebraska, is the home of the University of Nebraska Press, and we thought it would be nice to honor our community's namesake. Today through February 28, all Abraham Lincoln titles are on 25 percent off – including The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln: Six Months at the White House. Author F. B. Carpenter was a painter who struck up a friendship with … Continue reading Happy (early) birthday, Abraham Lincoln!