Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation commends new Portrait of Historic Athens

At their annual meeting last week, the Athens-Clarke County Heritage Foundation awarded the new edition of PORTRAIT OF HISTORIC ATHENS AND CLARKE COUNTY their 2009 Outstanding Publications and Programs award, which honors publications in the field of preservation that possess a high degree of graphic design integrity and/or wide use or impact.

A reception and book signing featuring the author, Frances Taliaferro Thomas, will launch the book on Tuesday, June 30, at the Taylor-Grady House (634 Prince Avenue in Athens). The reception begins at 5:30; presentation and signing will follow at 6:15. The event is free and open to the public, but please RSVP to 706-353-1801 by Wednesday, June 24 if you plan to attend as space is limited.

In PORTRAIT, originally published in 1992, Thomas brings her deep interest, commitment and experience writing about historic preservation to a study of her own town: Athens, Georgia. A founding member of the Athens Historic Preservation Commission, Thomas has created a guide to historic Athens that takes into account people, environment and economics as a framework for understanding the richness and significance of Athens’s built environment. Now in paper, the new edition features color photographs and a new chapter exploring developments in Athens in the last two decades.

Tune in to WUGA (91.7/97.9 FM or online) for news director Mary Kay Mitchell’s interview with Thomas, which will air Monday, June 29 at 4:06 pm.

Coleman Barks Featured on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer recently aired a feature about how the work of the mystic poet Rumi serves as an all-too-rare cultural bridge between people in the United States and Afghanistan. Coleman Barks, a bestselling translator of numerous books of Rumi's poetry, is interviewed and prominently featured in the segment. Barks is also a poet and author of the recently published WINTER SKY: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS 1968-2008.

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Craig Claiborne celebration in NYC

The Southern Foodways Alliance, the state of Mississippi and the New School will celebrate the life and work of Craig Claiborne with two events this week in New York City.

A sold-out discussion and champagne toast on Friday evening (6/12) will include David Kamp of Vanity Fair and food celebrity Jacques Pepin commenting on Claiborne's quarter-century career at the New York Times and his role in America's changing approach to food. Lauded Mississippi chefs will serve "Tastes of Claiborne's Mississippi."

There may still be time to squeeze in to a Thursday evening (6/11) panel on "Craig Claiborne and the Invention of Food Journalism" sponsored by the Food Studies Program at The News School. The panel will feature, among others, food writers Betty Fussell and Molly O'Neill; call 212-229-5488 or e-mail boxoffice@newschool.edu for tickets.

The University of Georgia Press brought the celebrated CRAIG CLAIBORNE'S SOUTHERN COOKING back into print in 2007.

Short Takes

The Los Angeles Times reviews Anna Journey’s IF BIRDS GATHER YOUR HAIR FOR NESTING.

The Jewish Daily Forward covers the premier of Ben Loeterman’s new PBS documentary on the Leo Frank case. Matthew H. Bernstein’s SCREENING A LYNCHING is prominently mentioned.

An interview with Mary Odem on LATINO IMMIGRANTS AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE U.S. SOUTH aired May 17 on Georgia Public Broadcasting’s Georgia Weekly television show; video is available.

Wisconsin Public Radio's University of the Air aired an hour-long interview with James Lorence (THE UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT) aired May 17: “Few of us would single out Georgia as a hotbed of labor unrest, but during the Depression it was.”

Listen to a podcast featuring Macalester professor of anthropology Dianna Shandy on the forthcoming title GLASS CEILINGS AND 100-HOUR COUPLES.

Andrew Porter’s THE THEORY OF LIGHT AND MATTER was named ForeWord’s Book of the Year for 2008 in the category of Short Fiction. The book was also shortlisted for the Paterson Prize for a first book and longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.

Victoria Chang’s SALVINIA MOLESTA is a finalist for the California Book Award in poetry, with the winner to be announced tonight; an interview with Chang appeared recently in New Letters and is reprinted on Poetry Daily.

At the Virginia Historical Society’s recent annual meeting, James R. Sweeney received the Richard Slatten Award for Excellence in Virginia Biography in 2008 for RACE, REASON AND MASSIVE RESISTANCE.

The Southwest Journal of Cultures reviews HERE, GEORGE WASHINGTON WAS BORN: “Bruggeman’s account of Washington’s birthplace provides an engaging tour through our longstanding, perhaps innate, fixation on relics and pilgrimage sites as well as the complicated process of remembering the past.”

NOVEL IDEAS is featured in the inaugural issue of Gotham Writers Workshop’s new e-newsletter “The Writer’s Bookshelf."

Southern Quarterly reviews GROUNDED GLOBALISM, noting that “What is most compelling about Peacock’s thesis is that his new paradigm depicts an altered sense of self for the southerner” and praising his “varied approach” and “the balance he achieves among different perspectives.” In the same issue, DIXIE EMPORIUM is praised as an “excellent collection,” with particular attention to contributions from Huber, Ketchell, Giggie and Eskew.