Thursday, April 02, 2009

Short Takes


Jack E. Davis launched AN EVERGLADES PROVIDENCE in Miami this week to a crowd of 77 at the Coral Gables Books & Books. Environmental reporter Curtis Morgan reviewed the book and profiled Douglas in the Miami Herald: “Mostly she led a life of the mind in Miami. She loved books, banter, sherry, scotch; disliked dolts, callow reporters, prevaricating politicians. She stubbornly clung to anachronistic practices, never learning to drive and writing longhand in the warming light of her backyard garden.” The Herald also ran a Q&A with Davis.

The Lakeland Ledger also ran an extensive review of the book: “In her 1947 best-seller The Everglades: River of Grass, Marjory Stoneman Douglas wrote there is no other Everglades in the world…After reading AN EVERGLADES PROVIDENCE by Jack E. Davis there is no doubt there was no one in the world like Douglas, either.” WGCU in Fort Myers ran an excerpt from the book in their magazine Expressions and will air an interview with Davis on Earth Day, April 22.

April is National Poetry Month – Anna Journey’s IF BIRDS GATHER YOUR HAIR FOR NESTING and Ed Pavlic’s WINNERS HAVE YET TO BE ANNOUNCED are both named as favorite books in this feature on the popular poetry blog by Ron Slate. Pavlic reads in Atlanta tomorrow as part of the Poetry@Tech series; Journey will read later this month in Houston and in Austin with Susan B.A. Somers-Willett (QUIVER). Kevin McFadden (HARDSCRABBLE) receives the George Garrett New Writing Award this week at the Conference on Southern Literature in Chattanooga; Victoria Chang (SALVINIA MOLESTA) takes part in this month’s LA Times Book Festival.

WHAT IS A CITY?: RETHINKING THE URBAN AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA inspires this column in the Hartford Courant.

HERE, GEORGE WASHINGTON WAS BORN receives a thoughtful review from a retired National Park Service historian at H-Net Reviews (H-FedHist): “Seth Bruggeman has provided an important and provocative case study of the construction of historical meaning at the birthplace of a figure who occupies first place in American history and mythology. He convincingly demonstrates that the Memorial House at Popes Creek is significant less for what it tells us about Washington the man than as a monument to his public memory.”