Short Takes

NPR's Morning Edition on Monday, 4/19, will include an interview with Camille Dungy about BLACK NATURE, part of a series by Renee Montagne for National Poetry Month. Catch the interview on air at 6:50 or 8:50 am (Eastern). The segment will be available at npr.org after it airs.

Dyana Furmansky's biography ROSALIE EDGE, HAWK OF MERCY is a finalist for the Colorado Book Awards. Winners will be announced at the Aspen Literary Festival in late June.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution profiles John Burrison and his new book FROM MUD TO JUG. Burrison will be at the Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia this weekend and at the Macon Arts Fired Works Expo next weekend.

The San Francisco Chronicle reviews Robin Ekiss's poetry collection THE MANSION OF HAPPINESS: "...unlike so many other poets of her generation who earnestly aim for poetic emphasis through poetic shock, Ekiss knows how to play." Her book is a finalist for both the Northern California Book Awards and the California Book Awards, which will be announced Sunday and Monday, respectively.

The April issue of the journal The Americas calls LATINO IMMIGRANTS AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE U.S. SOUTH "an excellent and timely overview of the U.S. south's most recent demographic transformation," praising the book's geographic range, topical focus, temporal contextualization, and muted optimism for a more practical and humane response to immigration in the region.

The Miami New Times announced the launch for MARION MANLEY: MIAMI'S FIRST WOMAN ARCHITECT; the book was also featured in the University of Miami alumni magazine and the spring issue of the Ringling Quarterly.

Now available:
RABBLE ROUSERS
Clive Webb

Webb examines the beliefs and actions of white extremists in the civil rights era who sought to prevent social change, using terrorism if necessary. His study, which focuses on five far-right activists who led their communities in militant opposition to racial reform, provides a fuller picture of the real challenges faced by the movement. As reviewer Michael Honey notes, "Be prepared to be greatly disturbed by this chronicle of a continuing problem in American history."

THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF PHILIP QUAQUE, THE FIRST ANGLICAN MISSIONARY
Edited by Vincent Carretta and Ty M. Reese

This first edition of the correspondence of Philip Quaque (born ca. 1740) illuminates his remarkable position within the transatlantic slave trade and the development of a movement for abolition. Born in Ghana, Quaque was ordained in England and then served many years as missionary and chaplain at Cape Coast Castle, a significant (and now notorious) slave trading site. His letters reveal his evolving opposition to the slave trade.