Friday, July 13, 2012

Short Takes

RUMOR, REPRESSION, AND RACIAL POLITICS author, George Derek Musgrove, was on NPR's "Tell Me More." Listen to the interview here.

According to the Times-Picayune, CORNBREAD NATION 6 is full of diverse pieces, while still staying true to the South. "Some of Anderson’s selections focus on the near-fetishistic passion for local food that’s currently trending in the new hipster South. Others are paeans to regional low-culture delicacies. Cheerwine, the Dr Pepperish Carolinian soda, appears as the subject of a poem and as a braise for short ribs. Processed cheese in Tex-Mex queso is referred to as 'mother’s milk' more than twice."

Mark Auslander, author of THE ACCIDENTAL SLAVEOWNER, will be speaking at the Cyclorama in Atlanta on July 22nd as part of the annual BATL event commemorating the Battle of Atlanta. More details about this program, the other author talks or the entire week of BATL programming are available here. The BATL author events are sponsored by the Georgia Humanities Council, The Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, The Dekalb History Center and The City of Atlanta with host partners Bound To Be Read Books and Friends of East Atlanta Library.

Weld for Birmingham features an interview with Harvey H. Jackson III about his book, THE RISE AND DECLINE OF THE REDNECK RIVIERA.
You obviously have a lot of love for this part of the world. What would be your blueprint for a perfect day on the Redneck Riviera?
Offhand, I can’t recall a bad one. Y’know, get up. Walk down on the beach, throw the tennis ball with my dog, watch Libby the Lab run free. Pick up after her, then come back up here, eat some breakfast. Go back down, sit around, read till it gets too hot. Come back up, eat some lunch, take a nap. Go up on the deck, have a gin and tonic, watch the sun set and, if they’re having a concert at Seaside, sit on my deck and listen to the music.
This is the funny thing about writing a book on this place. I’ve spent a lot of time down here in the last 25 years, working on articles and essays, and I write a column for The Anniston Star. A lot of it’s had to do with this. Here I was in the history department at Jacksonville State. I have a colleague who’s a French historian; he says, I’m going to France to do research this summer. Nobody blinks an eye. I have a colleague who’s a German historian. He says, I’m going to Berlin for the summer, and no one says a word. I say, “I’m going down to Panama City to do research,” and they say, “Yeah, right.”
Charles Seabrook explains the story behind THE WORLD OF THE SALT MARSH for a recent article in the Charleston City Paper. On writing an accessible book for a general audience: "'You try to keep it simple, but at the same time you're trying to give them a science lesson without them actually knowing they've had a science lesson,' he adds. 'You've got to make it entertaining, but you don't want to lose any of the accuracy or scientific importance of it.'"

Congratulations to Judson Mitcham, author of THE SWEET EVERLASTING, SABBATH CREEK, and A LITTLE SALVATION, for being named Georgia's new poet laureate! The Telegraph features an interview with the author about this honor.