See you in 2014!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

We're giving away advance reader copies of BREAKING GROUND! To enter, click on the "Enter to win" button below or look under the giveaways section on Goodreads. Winners will be selected at the end of January. Good luck!

The compelling life's story of a towering champion of higher education, medicine, and accessible health care for all.

"I don't think I really appreciated the man Louis Sullivan is until I read BREAKING GROUND. He is a true American hero, and Barbara and I are proud we have played a small part in his life's journey."--President George H.W. Bush

BREAKING GROUND is not just an autobiography of Dr. Louis W. Sullivan. It is also a history of how the south has changed, as well as an inspirational story for future generations of all backgrounds. Sullivan began his path to becoming the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary as a young boy growing up in Jim Crow south Georgia. He was HHS secretary during the George H. W. Bush administration, and, during that time, he made efforts to push through comprehensive health care reform decades before the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Sullivan’s life—from Morehouse to the White House and his ongoing work with medical students in South Africa—is the embodiment of the hopes and progress that the civil rights movement fought to achieve.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Breaking Ground

by Louis W. Sullivan

Giveaway ends January 31, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Spring 2014 titles announced

The spring 2014 seasonal catalog is now available on our website. It features titles that will be published from February 2014 through August 2014. We have an exciting range of new books in the categories of history, African American studies, international relations, literary & cultural studies, environmental studies, women's studies, art & architecture, food studies, and creative writing.


Highlights include:

• For nearly ten years, John Griswold has been publishing his essays in Inside Higher Ed, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Brevity, Ninth Letter, and Adjunct Advocate, many under the pen name Oronte Churm. His new book, PIRATES YOU DON’T KNOW AND OTHER ADVENTURES IN THE EXAMINED LIFE is a funny, poignant, bittersweet, and sometimes snarky account of everything ranging from creative writing to babies, and from race issues in a university town to crocodiles.


•  Leslie M. Harris and Daina Ramey Berry’s SLAVERY AND FREEDOM IN SAVANNAH is a richly illustrated, accessibly written book modeled on the very successful SLAVERY IN NEW YORK, a volume Harris coedited with Ira Berlin.


• BREAKING GROUND by Dr. Louis W. Sullivan with David Chanoff and featuring a foreword by Ambassador Andrew Young is the compelling life’s story of a towering champion of higher education, medicine, and accessible health care for all. Sullivan was Health and Human Services secretary during the George H. W. Bush administration, and, during that time, he made efforts to push through comprehensive health care reform decades before the Affordable Care Act (ACA).


• Kate Sweeney’s AMERICAN AFTERLIFE is not a grief handbook, comprehensive history, or survey of all death practices in America today. Instead, AMERICAN AFTERLIFE relates the odd, tragic, poignant, and at times even humorous stories of how we “do” death today, in a time and place when there is no one right way to do it. 


• Perhaps the most famous nineteenth-century American that almost no one has heard of, Civil War corporal James Tanner fought at the Second Battle at Manassas, was injured, and lost both of his legs above the knees. He later served as stenographer at Abraham Lincoln's deathbed. AMERICA'S CORPORAL by James Marten is both a biography of James Tanner, as well as a historiography of the Civil War.


• The first in the new The South on Screen series, Tison Pugh’s TRUMAN CAPOTE reveals Capote’s literary works to be not merely coincident to film but integral to their mutual creation, paying keen attention to the ways in which Capote’s identity as a gay southerner influenced his and others’ perceptions of his literature and its adaptations.

Short Takes

Congratulations, E.J. Levy! Her book, LOVE, IN THEORY, is one of the Best Indie Books of 2013 according to Kirkus Reviews.

The Georgia Writers Hall of Fame has announced the 2014 inductees! UGA Press author Mary Hood is one of the three new members. The Press published her short story collection, HOW FAR SHE WENT, in the second year of the Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award in 1984, followed by AND VENUS IS BLUE in 2001.

The New York Times Disunion blog recently featured a post on author Ambrose Bierce. Apparently, "Bierce was the only major author to have actually been a front-line soldier in the Civil War." Bierce is the author of THE UNABRIDGED DEVIL'S DICTIONARY, which is available from UGA Press.

Although he had managed to survive the war, Bierce knew, as did most of his comrades, that his experience of “seeing the elephant” had permanently damaged him. As he wrote years later, “When I ask myself what has become of Ambrose Bierce the youth, who fought at Chickamauga, I am bound to answer that he is dead.”
Bierce did, however, use his experiences to write some of the finest short fiction of the later 19th century. Usually autobiographical, these narratives of warfare are typically told from a cynical, world-weary point of view that makes clear its author’s skepticism that anything good resides in the human heart. Because of these stories, as well as his acerbic satire “The Devil’s Dictionary,” he became known as “Bitter Bierce.”

Did you miss the Donald L. Hollowell: Foot Soldier for Equal Justice documentary that aired on WUGA-TV this past Sunday? Or, did you see it and want to watch it again? Be sure to mark your calendar and catch one (or more) of these other showings:
December 21 at 4:00pm
December 23 at 5:00pm
December 24 at 8:00pm
December 27 at 10:00am
December 29 at 2:00pm
December 30 at 4:00pm
January 1 at 12:00pm
While you are at it, be sure to pick up a copy of Maurice C. Daniels' new book, SAVING THE SOUL OF GEORGIA: DONALD L. HOLLOWELL AND THE STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS.

Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, author of the forthcoming BREAKING GROUND: MY LIFE IN MEDICINE, argues that the U.S. should continue efforts to strengthen health care in developing countries in a recent op-ed on Nelson Mandela for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Upcoming events
Friday, January 10

THE VIEWING ROOM by Jacquelin Gorman
Location: Johann Fust Community Library, Boca Grande, FL
Description: Talk and signing

Wednesday, January 22

THE CLOUD THAT CONTAINED THE LIGHTNING by Cynthia Lowen
Location: Greenlight Books, Brooklyn, NY
Description: Talk and signing 

Spring 2014 Sneak Peak 5

University of Georgia Press is pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of Leslie M. Harris and Daina Ramey Berry’s new book, SLAVERY AND FREEDOM IN SAVANNAH. The book is scheduled for publication on February 15, 2014, and will be out just in time to celebrate Black History Month 2014. The theme for 2014 focuses on civil rights in America and the great strides that have been made by individuals and groups throughout history. To learn more about Black History Month click here.

SLAVERY AND FREEDOM IN SAVANNAH is a richly illustrated, accessibly written book modeled on the very successful Slavery in New York, a volume Leslie Harris coedited with Ira Berlin. Here Harris and Daina Ramey Berry have collected a variety of perspectives on slavery, emancipation, and black life in Savannah from the city’s founding to the early twentieth century. Written by leading historians of Savannah, Georgia and the South, the volume includes a mix of longer thematic essays and shorter sidebars focusing on individual people, events, and places.

Tourists from all over the world come to visit Savannah, the state’s oldest city, which has been hailed as a model for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century city planning. In fact, during 2011 approximately 12 million people visited the city. Yet, cities such as Savannah hold in their physical structures clues to their early history that have sometimes been overlooked. Bringing together the latest scholarship on one of the most important port cities of the South, this book positions slavery, emancipation, and their aftermath as a central set of events that left no one in Savannah untouched. African Americans in Savannah were central to the creation of the city, and to its political, cultural and economic life. The stories of enslaved workers, slave rebels, religious leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, politicians, and many more, reveal the incredible diversity of experiences among African American Savannahians.

The story of slavery in Savannah may seem to be an outlier, given how strongly most people associate slavery with rural plantations. But as Harris, Berry, and the other contributors point out, urban slavery was instrumental to the slave-based economy of North America. Ports like Savannah served as both an entry point for slaves and as a point of departure for goods produced by slave labor in the hinterlands. Moreover, Savannah’s connection to slavery was not simply abstract. The system of slavery as experienced by African Americans and enforced by whites influenced the very shape of the city, from the building of its infrastructure; the legal system created to support it; and the economic life of the city and its rural surroundings. SLAVERY AND FREEDOM IN SAVANNAH restores the urban African American population and the urban context of slavery, Civil War, and emancipation to its rightful place, and it deepens our understanding of the economic, social and political fabric of the U.S. South.

SLAVERY AND FREEDOM IN SAVANNAH is published in cooperation with the Owens-Thomas House, an historic site that is part of Telfair Museums. Telfair Museums, as one of the leading cultural institutions in Savannah, has committed to reinterpreting the social history of all who lived at the Owens-Thomas, free and enslaved, and to fostering knowledge about the city of Savannah, to understand the history of all of the city’s residents. The history of the Owens-Thomas House reveals the multifaceted interracial relationships that were part of life in Savannah.

The authors have released a few other publications and spend most of their time teaching at their respective institutions. Leslie M. Harris is associate professor of history at Emory University in Atlanta. She is the author of In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863 and coeditor of Slavery in New York. Daina Ramey Berry is associate professor of history and African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She is coeditor of Enslaved Women in America: An Encyclopedia.

Keep an eye out for the latest updates for the book from the UGA Press website and put it on your calendar the release date is February 15, 2014.

Short Takes

NPR Books rounds up a list of the 200 titles that stood out in 2013 for its "Guide to 2013's Great Reads." Book critic and author Jane Ciabattari selects Tom Kealey's THIEVES I'VE KNOWN, saying that "Kealey honors these marginal and troubled young Americans with fierce honesty."

WUGA-TV will air the documentary Donald L. Hollowell: Foot Soldier for Equal Justice on December 15, 2013 at 7:00pm. This broadcast coincides with the release of Maurice C. Daniels' new book, SAVING THE SOUL OF GEORGIA: DONALD L. HOLLOWELL AND THE STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS.

Atlanta Magazine picks two UGA Press books for its "Top Ten Books of the Year" list. EAT DRINK DELTA is "immensely satisfying" and "unforgettable ramble through the soul of the Mississippi Delta." ISLAND TIME "tells the spellbinding history of Saint Simons Island."

Northeast Georgia Living also has a review of ISLAND TIME in its latest issue:

Jingle Davis has given us a thorough and engaging history of this much-loved Georgia island, and photographer Benjamin Galland brings this unique place to life with his exquisite photographs. . . . The care and depth of knowledge of both Davis and Galland is much in evidence and their insights intuitive. . . . You might think this sounds like another coffee table book to gift to a relative to enjoy for an hour or so and then be laid to rest to collect dust. It is not. . . . It will be hard for a visitor to drive across that causeway ever again and not see the island with a more respectful understanding of its story, and, now vulnerability.

Kate Sweeney has shared on her blog the launch event information for her forthcoming book, AMERICAN AFTERLIFE:

Mark your calendar for Friday, March 14th at 7:30 pm, and come on down to Manual’s Tavern in Atlanta for live music, raconteurs from Carapace, Atlanta’s amazing storytelling outfit; and more. A Capella Books will be selling brand-spankin’ new copies of AMERICAN AFTERLIFE.

Make sure to attend!

Spring 2014 Sneak Peak 4

We were all saddened to hear of Nelson Mandela's passing last week. At the age of 95, Mandela lived a long life that impacted many, both in South Africa and the rest of the world. In a televised address Thursday night, President Jacob Zuma said, "Our nation has lost its greatest son." The video of the address is available here from the New York Times. On the Nelson Mandela Foundation website, Mandela's biography is summed up like this: "Nelson Mandela never wavered in his devotion to democracy, equality and learning. Despite terrible provocation, he never answered racism with racism. His life has been an inspiration to all who are oppressed and deprived, to all who are opposed to oppression and deprivation."

In her forthcoming book, RETHINKING THE SOUTH AFRICAN CRISIS: NATIONALISM, POPULISM, HEGEMONY, Gillian Hart's insightful study of the ongoing social, political, and economic struggles in post-apartheid South Africa gives much attention to Mandela and his efforts.

Since the end of apartheid, South Africa has become an extreme yet unexceptional embodiment of forces at play in many other regions of the world: intensifying inequality alongside "wageless life," proliferating forms of protest and populist politics that move in different directions, and official efforts at containment ranging from liberal interventions targeting specific populations to increasingly common police brutality.

RETHINKING THE SOUTH AFRICAN CRISIS revisits long-standing debates to shed new light on the transition from apartheid. Drawing on nearly twenty years of ethnographic research, Hart argues that local government has become the key site of contradictions. Local practices, conflicts, and struggles in the arenas of everyday life feed into and are shaped by simultaneous processes of de-nationalization and re-nationalization. Together they are key to understanding the erosion of African National Congress hegemony and the proliferation of populist politics.

The problem, however, with the question of ‘how to move beyond Mandela without becoming [Robert] Mugabe’ is who is to decide where ‘politics proper’ begins, and what form will it take. Clearly, there has been considerable movement beyond Mandela’s brand of liberalism, but it has gone in different directions. A key implication of taking passive revolution seriously is that any political strategy to confront the brutalities of the present and construct a different future has to begin with actually existing practices and meanings in the arenas of everyday life, while also stretching out to forge relations and connections with forces at play elsewhere.
(excerpt from RETHINKING THE SOUTH AFRICAN CRISIS)

This book provides an innovative analysis of the ongoing, unstable, and unresolved crisis in South Africa today. It also suggests how Antonio Gramsci's concept of passive revolution, adapted and translated for present circumstances with the help of Martinique-born French psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon, can do useful analytical and political work in South Africa and beyond. 

Short Takes

The Slate Book Review names Frank X Walker's TURN ME LOOSE as one of the ten Best Books Poetry Books of 2013. "Walker’s ability to create a human voice of inhumanity—and to place it alongside other voices that struggle to remain human in the face of such devastation—revitalizes our history at a time when too many want us to live as though it were merely a thing of the past."

The Day has an article about Jacquelin Gorman and her new short story collection, THE VIEWING ROOM. In the article, Wally Lamb praises Gorman and THE VIEWING ROOM, saying:

I loved working with Jacquelin Gorman in the Praiano writers' group and was blown away when I read her unforgettable story collection, THE VIEWING ROOM. How did she do it? How did Jackie craft fiction about death and dying that is triumphantly life-affirming? I marvel at her achievement and hope that THE VIEWING ROOM finds the wide audience it deserves.

Publishers Weekly describes the poems in THE CLOUD THAT CONTAINED THE LIGHTNING as being "expertly crafted and chiseled to a brittle, often stinging essence. . . . Reading this book against the contemporary backdrop of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster and worries about mass destruction falling into the wrong hands gives the poems a deep resonance."

THE SMALL HEART OF THINGS is "remarkable," according to ForeWord. THE SMALL HEART OF THINGS is number four in ForeWord's list of top ten university press picks. Hoffman is "an intensely focused, curious, tireless, supremely gifted writer."

The Rumpus also praises THE SMALL HEART OF THINGS:

The book’s gift is its ability to capture a moment, to let the particulars contain the whole. If being present is the ultimate end, then it’s appropriate to stay lost in the forest. The focus of each essay is on the observed, not the observer. This isn’t a re-telling but a telling. And that’s Hoffman’s knack. He’s able to create a moment that feels like one. . . . THE SMALL HEART OF THINGS is a celebration of spaces and the hidden, miraculous lives within them, but it’s a quiet celebration, the pause after you open a gift, truly surprised, and inhabit a speechless moment.

"PROPERTIES OF VIOLENCE is an excellent example of good scholarship. . . . Overall, Correia did an excellent job. Geographers, historians, and land use scholars with a focus on New Mexico and/or the American Southwest will find much to get excited about in this book. Perhaps the few ethical land and water attorneys, as well as the numerous unethical ones, will also find the book helpful in their practices."—Journal of Historical Geography

Terrain.org describes the strengths of THE INVISIBLES author Hugh Sheehy as "a combination of plotting and prose styling. . . . It’s a complicated, character-based tale, much more than a simple whodunit. What underlies the plotting is a well-crafted prose, a styling that feels, for the most part, crafted with the care a carpenter’s chisel: a word here, a word there, shaving by shaving until we’re just plumb."

The ideas of W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, and Booker T. Washington may have differed, but each made key contributions to the pan-Africanist project. In a recent interview on KPFA's "Against the Grain," IN SEARCH OF BRIGHTEST AFRICA author Jeannette Eileen Jones describes how these thinkers and others viewed Africa, and what role they saw blacks in the West playing in Africa's liberation and advancement. Also, Davarian Baldwin discusses the volume in which Jones's essay appears. Listen to the interview here.  

Congratulations, Marc Sommers! His book, STUCK, received an Honorable Mention award for the Bethwell A. Ogot Book Prize from the African Studies Association, which ended its assessment of the book in the annual meeting program as follows: "This is an incisive, eloquent and pioneering work on Rwanda's youth that shows them as a demographic majority, but unvalued and marginalized."

In this excerpt of his speech "U.S. Diplomacy in the Age of Obama," Ronald Angelo Johnson uses research findings from his forthcoming book DIPLOMACY IN BLACK AND WHITE to discuss exceptional early American diplomacy.

Toasting to the 80th Anniversary of Prohibition’s Repeal

Taking effect on January 17, 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment, or National Prohibition Act, banned the sale of alcohol in the United States for well over a decade. Additionally, it introduced penalties for the production and distribution of the alcoholic substances. Contrary to its intention, the act led to much criminal activity with the illegal production of alcoholic beverages, numerous speakeasies, as well as much gangland violence. Prohibition came to an end with the ratification of the 21st Amendment on December 5, 1933. With that, we celebrate the 80th year anniversary of the prohibition repeal today. Check out more details and pictures of the American prohibition at the LIFE website.

Dating back to as early as 1821, University of Georgia Press author Lee L Willis documents the prohibition experience for those in the south in his book SOUTHERN PROHIBITION. The book examines political culture and reform through the evolving temperance and prohibition movements in Middle Florida. Scholars have long held that liquor reform was largely a northern and mid-Atlantic phe-nomenon before the Civil War. Willis takes a close look at the Florida plantation belt to reveal that the campaign against alcohol had a dramatic impact on public life in this portion of the South as early as the 1840s.

To celebrate national Repeal Day, check out the following drink recipes from University of Georgia Press author and veteran food journalist Susan Puckett. In EAT DRINK DELTA, Puckett (with photographs by Delta resident Langdon Clay) reveals a region shaped by slavery, civil rights, amazing wealth, abject deprivation, the Civil War, a flood of biblical proportions, and—above all—an overarching urge to get down and party with a full table and an open bar. Throughout the pages, she shares a myriad of delicious mixed drinks from across the southern United States.

Compliments of the Peabody Memphis Grand Lobby Bar in Memphis, Tenn., the drinks dubbed Peabody Hotel Blue Suede Shoes Martini and The Presbyterian are certainly worth writing home about.

Recipes from Eat Drink Delta

The Germantown Commissary also serves a sweet mixed drink known as the Pink Panty Pull-Downs.

Recipe from Eat Drink Delta

Earlier this morning, TIME posted an article entitled 80 Reasons Why Drinking Alcohol is Great. Some of our favorites include having a celebration, beneficial health reasons, and social bonding. For whatever reason you may chose, remember to be safe and responsible. Lastly, need inspiration on choosing a good drink? Be sure to check out more cookbooks from the University of Georgia Press on our website.

Need a new book bag? We "totes" have you covered!

Before the UGA Press Tote, you either carried your books in bulky boxes, flimsy plastic bags, or in large, loose stacks:

With the UGA Press Tote, you will look stylish, and your arms will thank you.

To order your very own UGA Press Tote, simply visit our website and add one (or more) to your shopping cart. You will be sure to reuse this bag over and over to carry books, groceries, homework, etc. Pick up one today for only $10!

 

• Made of heavy black cotton cloth
• Printed in white on one side
• Measures 18" x 14.5" x 3"
• 25" triple-stitched cotton carrying straps

Short Takes

Library Journal reviews three of our books in the November 15 issue. MY DEAR BOY  "is essential for scholars who are interested in [Langston] Hughes's work and the Harlem Renaissance," while Glenn Eskew's JOHNNY MERCER "brings to life the vibrant music scene around the musician from the 1930s to the 1960s and uncovers the collaborations, friendships, and struggles that made Mercer a success." Andrea Feeser's RED, WHITE, AND BLACK MAKE BLUE is also praised as "compelling" and "[r]ecommended for readers interested in South Carolina history and for specialists in material culture."

Choice gives high recommendations to both THE EMBATTLED WILDERNESS and EMPOWERING WORDS. THE EMBATTLED WILDERNESS is "[a] valuable work on the importance of resource conservation, while EMPOWERING WORDS is a "fascinating book [that] introduces a largely neglected area of scholarship and is an indispensable resource."

Julian Hoffman's THE SMALL HEART OF THINGS receives a positive review from the Iowa Review: "What makes Hoffman's plea for a deeper engagement with the natural world so arresting is that this engagement doesn't come at the expense of a relationship with the often-messy political and social environments of a place, but rather strengthens it."

Avid Bookshop owner Janet Geddis recommends THROUGH THE ARCH as one of her top picks for the holiday season in the most recent Athens Magazine. She says it "will be the perfect gift for any UGA student past or present."

Campus Circle wants you to "[m]ake it through Thanksgiving Break with a little light reading!. . . With bands such as Mumford & Sons making old-timey music cool again, discover the roots of American music with FOLK VISIONS & VOICES. Art Rosenbaum’s awesome collection of songs from North Georgia features lyrics and music from such titles as 'I Used to Do Some Frolickin’' and 'He Could Fiddle His Way Out of Jail.'"

The Kenyon Review interviews Jacquelin Gorman, author of THE VIEWING ROOM.

Which non-writing-related aspect of your life most influences your writing?
I am intrigued by this question—by the term “non-writing-related” aspect of life, which for me does not exist. Every aspect of my life feeds into my writing. I don’t know how to turn off the writing part of my brain, which essentially observes and takes notes on everything I feel and see and do, and then uses the notes the next time I happen to be near a keyboard.

PlainViews, the online professional journal for healthcare chaplains, says THE VIEWING ROOM might be "a short quick read, but it will linger in mind for a very long time." THE VIEWING ROOM also got a mention on WNPR's Faith Middleton earlier this week. During his interview, author Wally Lamb mentioned THE VIEWING ROOM as well as an upcoming joint reading he and Jacquelin Gorman are gving at RJ Julia's bookstore in Madison.

The Davis Enterprise reviews Clarence Major's DOWN AND UP, referring to its "distinctive language and rich imagery." Major will be reading from DOWN AND UP at The Avid Reader tomorrow (Nov. 23) at 7:30pm.

Kate Sweeney, author of the forthcoming AMERICAN AFTERLIFE, will be hosting a series of "Dismal Trade" conversations on her blog. In the first one, she interviews the filmmakers of "A Will for the Woods." Listen to the interview here.

Spring 2014 Sneak Peak 3

With all the changes in healthcare with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), much news and debate has flooded media outlets across the country. Just this week, CBS News released an article entitled “Is the Affordable Care Act in serious jeopardy?” According to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the plan is still going strong as she responded to reporters:

“I don't think it's in trouble. I think we just have to remain calm, get through the website getting fixed, and clarify some misrepresentations about it. It's the law of the land. It's an important economic and health stability issue, a security issue, for the American people, and I believe that in a matter of months many more people will see that." To read the full story or see the video, click here.

One of the UGA Press authors, Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, is also a vocal supporter of Obamacare and has expressed his professional opinion saying, “overall I believe the Affordable Care Act is a good start, one that can be tweaked and amended over time to address deficiencies and the unintended consequences that health care laws are prone to. I am especially pleased that the act allocates more resources to prevention and health promotion than before. The numbers are still woefully insufficient—only $4 billion—but it is a start in area that I believe is perhaps most important of all in making the country healthier and lowering our health care costs.”

Dr. Sullivan was HHS secretary from 1989 to 1993 during the George H. W. Bush administration, and, during that time, he made efforts to push through comprehensive health care reform decades before the Affordable Care Act. Currently, Dr. Sullivan is president emeritus of the Morehouse School of Medicine. He is chair of the board of the National Health Museum in Atlanta and the Washington, D.C.-based Sullivan Alliance to Transform America’s Health Professionals.

In February 2014, UGA Press will release Dr. Sullivan’s autobiography entitled BREAKING GROUND: MY LIFE IN MEDICINE. Written with David Chanoff and featuring a foreword by Ambassador Andrew Young, it is the compelling life’s story of a towering champion of higher education, medicine, and accessible health care for all.

More than just an autobiography of Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, BREAKING GROUND is also a history of how the south has changed, as well as an inspirational story for future generations of all backgrounds. Sullivan began his path to becoming the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary as a young boy growing up in Jim Crow south Georgia. From the age of five, he knew he wanted to be a doctor, and, after attending Morehouse College in the early 1950s, Sullivan went on to medical school at Boston University, where he was the sole African American student in his class. He would go on to become the founding dean and first president of the Morehouse School of Medicine. Founded in 1975, Morehouse School of Medicine is one of four predominately African American medical schools in the country.

For more news and events for Dr. Sullivan, check out his website.
Read more about Dr. Sullivan's life and career at the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

Upcoming Events

As we near the end of November and head into December, take some time to attend these author events:

Friday, November 23

DOWN AND UP by Clarence Major
Location: The Avid Reader, Davis, CA
Description: Talk and signing

Tuesday, December 3

EAT DRINK DELTA by Susan Puckett
Location: Millsaps College, Jackson, MS
Description: Talk at the Arts and Lecture Program

Monday, December 9

JOHNNY MERCER by Glenn T. Eskew
Location: Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur, GA
Description: Talk and signing

Thursday, December 12

EAT DRINK DELTA by Susan Puckett
Location: The Booksellers at Laurelwood, Memphis, TN
Description: talking and Signing

RED, WHITE, AND BLACK MAKE BLUE:
INDIGO IN THE FABRIC OF COLONIAL SOUTH CARLINA LIFE by Andrea Feeser
Location: Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur, GA
Description: Talk and signing

University Press Week: Day 5 of Blog Tour

The University Press Week blog tour ends today!

Columbia University Press features a post on the global impact of university presses.
We hope you have enjoyed learning about the roles university presses play when it comes to publishing.

Today the theme is "The Global Reach of University Presses." The tour stops at the following presses:

Georgetown University Press explains how Georgetown University Press gives its readers the tools they need to have a global reach themselves through their foreign language learning materials, international career guides, and international affairs titles.

Indiana University Press discusses their Mellon-funded Framing the Global project. This project supports scholarly research and publication that will develop and disseminate new knowledge, approaches, and methods in the field of global research.

Johns Hopkins University Press continually strays outside the borders of the United States. Their post explores the global reach of their book translations, international marketing, and Project MUSE.

New York University Press features a post by Chip Rossetti, managing editor of the Library of Arabic Literature (LAL). He discusses the new LAL series, an ambitious international project which comes out of a partnership between NYU Press and NYU Abu Dhabi.

Princeton University Press director, Peter Dougherty, writes about the importance of foreign language translations to the future of university press economic health and fulfillment of our missions.

University of Wisconsin Press director, Sheila Leary, profiles the publishing career of Jan Vansina, one of the founders of the field of African history (rather than colonial history). His innovative seven books with the University of Wisconsin Press from the 1960s to the present have continually broken new ground, influencing the historiography of Africa and several related disciplines.

Yale University Press online marketing manager Ivan Lett writes on recent transatlantic collaboration of US-UK marketing initiatives for Yale University Press globally published titles, series, and digital products.

Look for some more great content during University Press Week! Follow the tour with this schedule or the hashtag #UPWeek on Twitter and Facebook.

Short Takes

Library Journal gives a starred review to Luc Herman and Steven Weisenburger's GRAVITY'S RAINBOW, DOMINATION, AND FREEDOM, calling it "essential for Pynchon enthusiasts as well as for readers interested in niche history of the 1960s without the baggage of clichés tied to popular thinking about unsettled questions of freedom and politics in American history."

Giving it 4 stars, the South China Morning Post describes THE CLOUD THAT CONTAINED THE LIGHTNING as a "captivating, almost haunting, collection."

Mark Sommers, author of STUCK, discusses Rwanda in an interview on "From Washington Al Mundo." Listen to the interview here.

The WICN 90.5 FM show, Inquiry, interviewed Andrea Feeser last week about her new book, RED, WHITE, AND BLACK MAKE BLUE. Listen to the interview here and "learn about the political and material cultural history of indigo, a color that touched the lives of the rich and wealthy in America and Europe as well as slaves and Native Americans."

The Colorado Review gives a shout-out to Julian Hoffman (THE SMALL HEART OF THINGS) and Barbara Hurd (STIRRING THE MUD) for their UGA Press books in their round-up of environmental non-fiction titles.

In "Architects Are the New Comedians," Slate writer Simon Doonan mentions the architecture of John Portman:

People claim that extreme architecture does not age well. I disagree. Whenever I am in San Francisco I usually swing by the brutalist Hyatt Regency, which dates from the ’70s. John Portman’s pod elevators and interior were immortalized and lampooned in Towering Inferno and High Anxiety. This jaw-dropping architectural freakfest is more impressively hilarious than ever.

For more on Portman, check out JOHN PORTMAN, which we distribute for the High Museum of Art.

Anna Mae Duane, author of SUFFERING CHILDHOOD IN EARLY AMERICA and editor of THE CHILDREN'S TABLE, talks about The Walking Dead in "“The Walking Dead’s” scary, necessary lesson about American childhood."

Congratulations to Joshua D. Rothman! His book, FLUSH TIMES AND FEVER DREAMS, won both the Gulf South Historical Association's Michael V.R. Thomason Book Award for best book of the year, as well as the Frank L. and Harriet Owsley Award at the Southern Historical Association annual meeting last week.

The Athens Banner-Herald recommended two of our events for their top picks for the UGA Spotlight on the Arts festival. The festival runs through tomorrow (Nov. 15).

University Press Week: Day 4 of Blog Tour

The University Press Week blog tour continues! We are more than halfway through the tour, and today is the longest leg of the tour, with posts from 9 of our fellow university presses.

Today the theme is "The Importance of Regional Publishing." The tour stops at the following presses:

Fordham University Press director, Fredric Nachbaur, writes about establishing the Empire State Editions imprint to better brand an market the regional books, reflect the mission of the university, and co-publish books with local institutions.

Louisiana State University Press discusses the challenge of capturing an authentic representation of Louisiana's culture, especially when it is an outsider looking in, as many authors (scholar or not) are. The post will also discuss how it takes more than just a well-written, thoroughly researched book to suceed in depicting the nuances of Louisiana's food, music, and art. It also requires a relationship of respect and acceptance between subject and author.

Oregon State University Press gives a brief introduction about regional publishing, followed by specifics about the OSU Press list.

Syracuse University Press has a post from regional author, Chuck D'Imperio. He discusses the roots of regional writing in many of the "classics." From oral testimonies to local guidebooks, these stories contribute to the culture and history of the region.

University of Alabama Press tackles the importance of regional publishing.

University of Nebraska Press editor-in-chief, Derek Krissoff, defines the meaning of place in university press publishing.

University of North Carolina Press editorial director, Mark Simpson-Vos, highlights the special value of regional university press publishing at a time when the scale for so much of what we do emphasizes the global.

University Press of Kentucky regional editor, Ashley Runyon, writes on her unique editorial perspective as a born-and-bred Kentuckian as well as preserving Kentucky's cultural heritage. The post will also feature some highlights about what makes Kentucky (and Kentucky books) unique.

University Press of Mississippi marketing manager and author, Steve Yates, describes how regional publishing changed his writing and his life.

Look for some more great content during University Press Week! Follow the tour with this schedule or the hashtag #UPWeek on Twitter and Facebook.

Film Festival Teasers

With the 2013 Spotlight on the Arts festival in full swing at the University of Georgia, we are super excited about all the activities going on, especially the First Annual Film Festival sponsored by the University of Georgia Press and Specials Collections Library. Before heading to the showings today through Friday, check out the following reviews and trailers for the films to be shown.

I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang! (1932) will be shown at 7:00 p.m. tonight in the UGA Special Collections Library Auditorium. The review on TVGuide.com said, it is “[o]ne of the toughest movies ever made, an uncompromising and frightening film that lays bare the inhuman conditions of the penal system in post-WWI Georgia.” Check out the full review here.

Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002) will be shown at 7:00 p.m.on Thursday, November 14 in the UGA Special Collections Library Auditorium. “’The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys’ digs into the flaming recesses of the adolescent mind with such acuity, compassion and good humor that it will plummet you back to that painfully awkward age when hoarded tidbits of bogus sexual lore had the weight of magic passwords to the kingdom of heaven,” said The New York Times reporter Stephen Holden in his review of the film. Check out the full review here.

Glory (1989) will be shown at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, November 15 in the UGA Special Collections Library Auditorium. James Berardinelli with Reelviews reviewed the film saying, “Glory is, without question, one of the best movies ever made about the American Civil War...The reason isn't just the way in which Kevin Jarre's script illuminates a frequent oversight of history books, nor is it the fine acting or epic feel that director Edward Zwick achieves on a modest budget - although those elements are part of Glory's effectiveness. Rather, it is the way in which the filmmakers weave an impressively large historical tapestry without ever losing sight of the characters that make up the individual threads. Glory has important things to say, yet it does so without becoming pedantic.” Check out the full review here.

Aren’t you more excited about going to see these films now? We look forward to seeing you there! Also, check out more events for UGA's 2013 Spotlights on the Arts festival here.

University Press Week: Guest Blogger Nik Heynen

As part of the blog tour celebrating University Press Week, today's post highlights a subject area for which our press is known. Due to the Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation series collaboration, UGA Press continues to excel in the field of geography. Books such as Julian Brash's BLOOMBERG'S NEW YORK and Andy Merrifield's THE POLITICS OF THE ENCOUNTER have become popular books for both scholarly and trade audiences.

Today's post is by guest blogger Nik Heynen. Heynen is professor of geography at the University of Georgia and series co-editor for the Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation series.. He has coedited three books: NEOLIBERAL ENVIRONMENTS: FALSE PROMISES AND UNNATURAL CONSEQUENCES; GLOBALIZATION’S CONTRADICTIONS: GEOGRAPHIES OF DISCIPLINE, DESTRUCTION & TRANSFORMATION; and IN THE NATURE OF CITIES: URBAN POLITICAL ECOLOGY AND THE POLITICS OF URBAN METABOLISM. Heynen's current book project is a study of the politicization of anti-hunger programs, with a particular focus on the Black Panthers.

In 2007 Neil Smith, Derek Krissoff and Nik Heynen sat down at the San Francisco AAG to discuss the idea of essentially re-creating a book series at the University of Georgia Press that Neil had initially created at Temple University Press (with Peter Wissoker). For a host of reasons, Neil's Place, Culture, and Politics series only produced two (very good) books including George Henderson's California and the Fictions of Capital and Katharyne Mitchell's Crossing the Neoliberal Line Pacific Rim Migration and the Metropolis before it prematurely shut down. 

Melissa Wright (a Professor in Penn State’s Department of Geography), Andy Herod and Nik Heynen (both Professors in Geography at the University of Georgia), with Derek Krissoff, got the Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation series off the ground at UGA Press later that year. In 2011, Deb Cowen (Professor at the University of Geography at the University of Toronto) replaced Andy as one of the series co-editors. More recently, Derek went off to be the Editor-in-Chief of the University of Nebraska Press, and the GOJST series has been lucky to start working with the UGA Press' new Editor in Chief, Mick Gusinde-Duffy. 

Based on the goals of the Neil Smith Temple series, with a few tweaks, the Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation series is devoted to books that engage the importance of space for questions of social and political change. This focus necessarily covers a broad range of subject matter, including international political economy, urban studies, gender, race, sexuality, and poverty and inequality. While the series is interdisciplinary, its primary emphasis is on critical human geography. 

We have worked hard to publish in the series that are designed to inform both intellectuals of broad stripes and as well as those engaged in political processes of different kinds, from policy makers to grassroots activists. As series editors, we are interested in producing books that live on in academic offices and classrooms around the world, but also take on life in political chambers, organizing halls, and the streets where both space and politics are produced. 

Nineteen books later, with a large number more either under contract or at various stages of review or publication, many people tell us they think the series is doing very well. We agree. 

While ultimately it is the quality of the books that make a book series, much of the early success of the series has resulted from the commitment and support of our inaugural editorial advisory board. The members of that board include: Sharad Chari (University of Witwatersand); Bradon Ellem (University of Sydney), Gillian Hart (University of California, Berkeley), Andy Herod (University of Georgia), Jennifer Hyndman (York University), Larry Knopp (University of Washington, Tacoma), Heidi Nast (Depaul University), Jamie Peck (University of British Columbia), Frances Fox Piven (City University of New York), Laura Pulido (University of Southern California), Paul Routledge (Leeds University), Bobby Wilson (University of Alabama). 

We are very grateful for all of their guidance and the solidarity they brought to this endeavor. As they say, "we couldn't have done this without you". As these things go however, we recently decided it is was time to refresh the board as we move into the next phase of the series, so we were recently very pleased to announce the second generation of the GOJST board, which includes: Mathew Coleman (Ohio State University), Sapana Doshi (University of Arizona), Zeynep Gambetti (Boğaziçi University), Geoff Mann (Simon Fraser University), James McCarthy (Clark University), Beverly Mullings (Queen's University), Harvey Neo (National University of Singapore), Geraldine Pratt (University of British Columbia), Ananya Roy (University of California, Berkeley), Michael Watts, (University of California, Berkeley), Ruth Wilson Gilmore (CUNY Graduate Center), Jamie Winders (Syracuse University), Brenda S.A. Yeoh (National University of Singapore). 

One of the members of the initial editorial board who we did not yet thank is Neil Smith, who served until he passed away on September 29th, 2012. As we recognized the first anniversary of Neil's passing, we at the series started working to launch a Neil Smith Book Prize in recognition of his inspiration, and the other many forms of help he offered getting the series up and going. We hope the Neil Smith Book Prize will not only honor Neil, but also serve to keep the series growing with the highest caliber scholarship possible. Stay tuned to learn more about efforts to help us establish the book prize in Neil's name when we launch our fund raising drive in the coming months.

Next stop on the blog tour: the University of Pennsylvania Press, where Penn Press acquisitions editors discuss the foundations and future of some of the press's key subject areas. A complete blog tour schedule is available here.

University Press Week: Day 2 of Blog Tour

The University Press Week blog tour continues! All week long, 37 different university press blogs will feature posts about the importance of university presses.

Today the theme is the "Future of Scholarly Communication." The tour stops at the following presses:

Duke University Press shares a post by Priscilla Wald, professor of English and Women's Studies at Duke University. She comments on the slow future of scholarly communication.

Harvard University Press has a guest post from Jeffrey Schnapp, faculty director metaLAB (at) Harvard and editor of the new metaLABprojects book series. He discusses the emerging currents of experimental scholarship for which the series provides a platform.

Stanford University Press director Alan Harvey discusses the challenges presented by new technologies in publishing, and how the industry model is adapting to new reading-consumption habits.

Temple University Press explores the partnerships university presses and libraries can forge as the means of communicating scholarship evolves.

University of Minnesota Press editor, Dani Kasprzak, discusses a new UMP initiative.

University of Texas Press assistant editor-in-chief, Robert Devens, addresses the future of scholarly communication.

University of Virginia Press features a post by historian Holly Shulman, editor of The Dolley Madison Digital Edition and the forthcoming People of the Founding Era. She looks at the need for university presses to adapt to new technologies, while acknowledging the difficulties of doing so.

Look for some more great content during University Press Week! Follow the tour with this schedule or the hashtag #UPWeek on Twitter and Facebook.

University Press Week: Day 1 of Blog Tour

The University Press Week blog tour begins today! All this week, bloggers at 37 different presses will highlight the value of university presses and the contributions they make to scholarship and our society. Individual presses will blog on a different theme each day, including profiles of university press staff members, the future of scholarly communication, subject area spotlights, the importance of regional publishing, and the global reach of university presses.

Today the theme is "Meet the Press." The tour stops at the following presses:

McGill-Queen’s University Press highlights Jonathan Crago and Kyla Madden, key members of the editorial department. They discuss their experiences in scholarly publishing and their vision for MQUP.

Penn State Press introduces one of its staff members.

University of Illinois Press profiles UIPress editor-in-chief Laurie Matheson, who discusses her journey through the field and the changes that she has seen during her career including shifts in the library market.

University of Hawai‘i Press features the peripatetic academic publishing career of UHP's soon-to-retire journals manager.

University of Missouri Press profiles new press director, David Rosenbaum, who started his new role on Nov. 1. He covers topics such as his plans for the UM Press's future and his transition back to a university press.

University Press of Colorado features managing editor Laura Furney, who has been at the press for 20 years, and is playing an integral role in two recent developments at UPC.

University Press of Florida spotlights an acquisitions editor who is working to develop and grow innovative new subject areas.

Look for some more great content during University Press Week! Follow the tour with this schedule or the hashtag #UPWeek on Twitter and Facebook.

37 presses kick off University Press Week with a blog tour

Next week, the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) will celebrate University Press Week November 10-16. This week started back in the summer of 1978 when President Jimmy Carter proclaimed a University Press Week “in recognition of the impact, both here and abroad, of American university presses on culture and scholarship.”

In the spirit of partnership that pervades the university press community, the University of Georgia Press and 36 other presses will unite for the AAUP’s second annual blog tour during University Press Week. This tour will highlight the value of university presses and the contributions they make to scholarship and our society. Individual presses will blog on a different theme each day, including profiles of university press staff members, the future of scholarly communication, subject area spotlights, the importance of regional publishing, and the global reach of university presses.

The tour will run November 11-15, and comes to the UGA Press blog on Wednesday, November 13, with a post by Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation series co-editor, Nik Heynen. He will discuss the relationship the series has with UGA Press. See a complete University Press Week blog tour schedule at: http://bit.ly/HjQX7n.

In addition to the blog tour, the AAUP and other member presses are planning several features and events for University Press Week. For more information, visit universitypressweek.org.

Don't forget: the 2013 Dirty Book Sale starts tomorrow!

Make plans to shop our Dirty Book Sale, happening Thursday, November 7 and Friday, November 8 at the University of Georgia Tate Student Center Plaza. Fractured books will be available for a fraction of the price. There will be hundreds of slightly shelf worn, nearly new books in literary studies, history, biography, Civil War, cookery and more, as well as fiction and poetry.

The sale hours are:
Thursday 9:00am-4:30pm
Friday 9:00am-3:00pm

The sale is intended for individual customers only. No dealers, no exceptions. Hoarding, bulk purchases, excessive barcode scanning that blocks tables, and other similar behaviors are not permitted. There will be no tax-exempt sales.

The book sale is part of the UGA Spotlight on the Arts festival and the UGA Press 75th anniversary.

Spotlight on the Arts
The Spotlight on the Arts festival is presented by the UGA Arts Council, of which the University of Georgia Press and Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries are participating units. More than 60 events are scheduled during the nine-day festival in November. For more information, see http://arts.uga.edu/.

Short Takes

What does Julian Hoffman's THE SMALL HEART OF THINGS have in common with a (not-so-common) grilled cheese sandwich? According to Ploughshares, THE SMALL HEART OF THINGS, combined with another AWP Award winner, form the right blend of warm and bittersweet. For more on that comparison, as well as a playlist, check out this post on Ploughshares.

The Rumpus praises Tom Kealey for his new book, THEIVES I'VE KNOWN. "Tom Kealey's debut introduces us to a world, and a fictional voice, which points us toward our better selves, without evading our dark side. We are lucky to have him, and to have the opportunity to hear more stories from him in the future."—The Rumpus

Susan Youngblood Ashmore, author of CARRY IT ON, and Annelise Orleck, co-editor of THE WAR ON POVERTY, will be discussing the War on Poverty and struggle for welfare rights at the Schomburg Center in New York on Nov. 7 at 6:00pm. More details about the event can be found here.

For Halloween, we were inspired by Larry B. Dendy's new book, THROUGH THE ARCH, to recreate UGA's famous landmark, The Arch. We did a scarily good job, right?

Speaking of THROUGH THE ARCH, Dendy will be discussing his book next Friday (Nov. 8). Held in Lecture Hall 125 in the Jackson Street Building on the UGA campus, the talk will begin at 4:00pm and be followed by a signing. Sponsored by the College of Environment and Design, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, and UGA Press, this event is part of the 2013 Spotlight on the Arts festival. The festival is presented by the UGA Arts Council, of which UGA Press is a participating unit. More than 60 events are scheduled during the nine-day festival in November.

Remembering UGA Press author and friend Thomas Dyer

The Press was saddened to hear of the passing of Thomas Dyer this past Monday. In addition to being a University of Georgia professor and administrator, Dyer was a UGA Press author and editorial board member. The author of numerous books, Dyer is best known at the Press for his definitive history of the University of Georgia in THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA: A BICENTENNIAL HISTORY, 1785-1985. More information about Dyer can be found in the official obituary published on the Athens Banner-Herald website, which is available here.

Former UGA Press executive editor, Nancy Grayson, remembers Dyer and shares some of her favorite memories of him:

Tom Dyer, who wrote a fine bicentennial history of the University of Georgia, was enormously influential in shaping its more recent history. His legacy is indelible and wide-ranging, a reflection of his interest in higher education at all levels. Tom's initiatives transformed the undergraduate learning environment at UGA, doubled the recruitment of African American faculty, and also helped foster the development of our top-rated Institute of Higher Education. He's the only person, in my memory, who was both vice-president for instruction/academic affairs and also vice-president for services. 

Tom was a loyal supporter of the UGA Press. He served on its faculty editorial board for a number of years, including three times as chairman. In addition to publishing two of his own books with the Press, he chaired the editorial board of the New Georgia Guide (published by UGAP)--a mammoth project that benefited from Tom's breadth of vision and scholarly integrity. 

Some of my warmest memories of Tom are of casual conversations on North Campus when he'd stop to talk about whatever was on his mind. Once it was to express his distress over the closings, or threatened closings, of several university presses; he was a passionate advocate of our sector of publishing. Most often it was to update me, with a twinkle of mischief in his eyes, on the six-volume autobiography he was writing. He assured me that he was making good progress (he was already on volume 4) and would soon be delivering the entire manuscript to the Press. His sense of humor was legendary. 

Like most of his friends and colleagues, I have the sad feeling that we will never see his like again.

Nancy Grayson retired from UGA Press last September. She spent 26 years in university press publishing, 20 of which were at UGA Press. Her roles at the Press included manuscript editor, acquisitions editor, editor-in-chief, and executive editor.