Short Takes

The New Republic reviews STREETS OF MEMORY, an in-depth study of a once culturally diverse neighborhood in Istanbul: "an impressively vivid and coherent picture of the past and present of Kuzguncuk."

Charles Horner (RISING CHINA AND ITS POSTMODERN FATE) appears on Fox Business News in conjunction with economic talks kicking off in Beijing. The book is also reviewed in the inaugural issue of National Security Policy Proceedings; the latest issue of Asia Policy includes a strong review by noted China expert Jonathan Fenby.

Fred Sauceman is interviewed about CORNBREAD NATION 5 for the radio show Inside Appalachia.

At BookExpo this week, ForeWord Reviews announced their Book of the Year Awards: GHOSTBREAD is the Bronze winner in the category of Autobiography/Memoir, and Sue Silverman's FEARLESS CONFESSIONS was given honorable mention in the category of books on writing.

THE MANSION OF HAPPINESS by Robin Ekiss was named a finalist for the Balcones Poetry Prize.

Short Takes

The Chronicle of Higher Education reviews THE HORRIBLE GIFT OF FREEDOM: "In this highly original study, Wood offers no easy answers; his scrutiny of popular and artistic imagery shows us clearly how abolition, slavery, and collective memory collide. As long as we, former slave-trading cultures, celebrate abolition in order to forget slavery, the past will continue to haunt us."

Paste Magazine calls SERIOUSLY FUNNY a "literate, eccentric collection": "Hamby and Kirby, significant poets in their own right, have done important work here. They throw rescue lines to readers who jumped that very serious ship of verse, the HMS T.S. Eliot, way back when."

The most recent issue of the Alabama Review includes reviews of Andrew Warnes's SAVAGE BARBECUE ("an important contribution to the body of literature on food culture") and Scott Stephan's REDEEMING THE SOUTHERN FAMILY ("This thoroughly researched and well-written book provides insightful analysis of the role women played in the spread of evangelicalism throughout the south.")

The new Nineteenth Century French Studies reviews our recent paperback edition of Edward Kaplan's BAUDELAIRE'S PROSE POEMS: "If his book of critical essays on Baudelaire's prose poems deserves to be looked at with fresh eyes now, twenty years after its initial publication, it's partly because it stands the test of time. But it's also because, in my estimation, when first published, it was in some ways ahead of its times and can be even better appreciated today."

Upcoming events:
Saturday, June 5 -- Knoxville, TN
Fred Sauceman and CORNBREAD NATION 5 will be featured at the International Biscuit Festival in Knoxville, a celebration connected with the Market Square Farmer's Market. There will also be biscuit songs, biscuit art, and, of course, a biscuit bake-off.

Short Takes

WILLIAM BARTRAM, THE SEARCH FOR NATURE'S DESIGN launched this weekend at Bartram's Garden in Philadelphia; a column on the volume by garden writer Ginny Smith ran in the Philadelphia Inquirer and brief but amusing notice in the Philadelphia City Paper. Co-editor Thomas Hallock will speak on the book at the Coastal Georgia Historical Society on St. Simons on Thursday, May 27 at 4 pm.

The May issue of the Journal of Southern History includes a review of HERE, GEORGE WASHINGTON WAS BORN: "Seth C. Bruggeman makes superb use of a kaleidoscopic array of sources to narrate a story of entanglement and ambivalence at George Washington's birthplace....Scholars from many disciplines will glean much from this thought-provoking book."

In an audio interview for Latin American Book Review, Kate Swanson discusses the field work in Ecuador and how it evolved into her book BEGGING AS A PATH TO PROGRESS. For more news on our Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation series, check out the new series Facebook page.

LOUISIANA WOMEN unveiled (literally; libraries in the parish will take turns hosting this 6-foot model of the book)as the summer read for all of Ouachita Parish (where Monroe, LA is located). A column in the Desoto Times Tribune praises MISSISSIPPI WOMEN: "What makes this collection extraordinary is the depth of research by the editors to find such unusual women."

An exuberant piece in The Daily Yonder on CORNBREAD NATION 5.

Books Every Georgian Should Read

This past week, the Georgia Center for the Book announced their annual list, "25 Books All Georgians Should Read". To qualify for the list, which is intended to promote an appreciation for Georgia's literary traditions, the book must be set in Georgia or written by a resident of former resident of the state.

Four of the twenty-five books this year are available from the University of Georgia Press:

A CRY OF ANGELS
Jeff Fields
A novel the Washington Post called "thoroughly delightful and the best pure fun a novel has given me for some time," set in Quarrytown, a fictional stand-in for Elberton, where Fields attended high school.

HOW FAR SHE WENT
Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award
Mary Hood
Intriguing stories set in rural north Georgia, from a deft storyteller whose second collection, AND VENUS IS BLUE, won the Lillian Smith Award.

HEART OF A DISTANT FOREST
Philip Lee Williams
A novel about a man who returns to his home place in central Georgia in preparation for death, described by Booklist as "an elegantly moving portrait of life's dignity." Williams was recently inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.

WINTER SKY: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, 1968-2008
Coleman Barks
Poet Coleman Barks is internationally known for his translations of the mystic poet Rumi, but this collection showcases his talent as a poet in his own right, bringing his expansive sensibilities to an observation of Southern landscapes and life.

Short Takes

Film Quarterly on Matthew H. Bernstein's SCREENING A LYNCHING: "Breaks new ground not in its account of Leo Frank's lynching, a sensation that had been covered before, but in its sensitive, detailed accounts of the story's media history."

From the North Carolina Historical Review: "While LIBERALISM, BLACK POWER, AND THE MAKING OF AMERICAN POLITICS indeeds sheds light on both the conservative and liberal politics at play in the history of the Black Power movement, Fergus crafts a believable argument that is applicable in a variety of global contexts. Fergus's books is thus recommended not only to historians of twentieth-century America, but also to anyone interested in how fringe nationalist movements wield power within conventional political frameworks."

Reviews of CORNBREAD NATION 5 in PopMatters and Charleston Magazine.

The Jewish Daily Forward mentions our backlist title BROTHER JESUS: THE NAZARENE THROUGH JEWISH EYES.

Lori Ostlund's THE BIGNESS OF THE WORLD wins the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction from the Publishing Triangle, and is shortlisted for the 2010 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing (as is Andrew Porter's THE THEORY OF LIGHT AND MATTER.) In case you've lost track, Ostlund's book has also won the California Book Award for First Fiction, is a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award (announcing late May) and is on the longlist for the Frank O'Connor Short Story Award (shortlist announced in July).

Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award series editor Nancy Zafris is featured at next week's Ohio Festival of the Short Story.

Now available:

JOHN OLIVER KILLENS: A LIFE OF BLACK LITERARY ACTIVISM
by Keith Gilyard

Born in Macon in 1916, Killens became an influential writer and teacher who helped found the Harlem Writers Guild and is acknowledged as a spiritual father of the Black Arts Movement. In this first major biography of Killens, Gilyard shows his novels and other publications in the context of his politics and his times.

Keith Gilyard will be in Atlanta for two upcoming events, both free and open to the public:
Tuesday, May 18 @ 7:15 pm
Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur Public Library

Thursday, May 20 @ 7:00 pm
Auburn Avenue Research Library, Authors & Writers Lounge, 3rd Floor