A call for studying the recent past

Reporting from the annual meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA), Inside Higher Ed notes that esteemed historian and blogger Juan Cole called upon the profession to make its work relevant by writing about the recent past.

"Historians have an important role to play in adding depth and sophistication to our understanding of events when they do their work, yet many are reluctant to examine recent events, Cole said. Some historians are not comfortable dealing with the recent past and think that some topics are either too hot to touch or difficult to examine more than superficially because they were recent."

The University of Georgia Press has taken a leading role in promoting exactly this sort of work through its new series SINCE 1970: HISTORIES OF CONTEMPORARY AMERICA, and especially through the forthcoming volume DOING RECENT HISTORY, edited by Claire Potter and Renee Romano.  Alice Echols says that “Potter and Romano demonstrate that tackling recent history poses unique challenges, and they offer absolutely indispensable guidance in meeting them." 

The newest book in the series is RUMOR, REPRESSION, AND RACIAL POLITICS, by George Derek Musgrove. In the spirit of Cole’s message to the AHA, it provides historical context for current events – specifically the accusation of ethics violations leveled against prominent black elected officials like Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters.

THE RIOTS wins prestigious first-book award

THE RIOTS has just won the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) New Writers Award for Creative Non-fiction. Now in its forth-third year, the GLCA New Writers Award recognizes newly published writers and introduce the best among them to students and faculty on GLCA campuses. Author Danielle Cadena Deulen will tour the GLCA's thirteen member colleges to read from her work and talk about writing. Here's what the GLCA judges have to say about THE RIOTS:

These (often very short) essays are highly compressed and highly realized, sharply drawn, intense in their urgently lyrical way, exquisitely written. Deulen's dialogues and descriptions, fractured and prismatic throughout, seem to burn rather than ease into memory, so charged is her language, and so deft her capacity for rendering stark, surreal scenes. This is a book written with a care for language—the imagery is often beautiful and surprising, the surprise like tiny explosions now and again within a sentence, a paragraph, on a page. The beauty not a pretty beauty, but sometimes ugly in a tough, edgy way. The organization of the book follows the associative logic of poetry—or of memory. The innovative, non-chronological sequence in which these pieces are placed creates a larger story that feels bigger than the sum of its parts and digs deep into the racial and gendered consciousness of the narrator and the times and places in which her story takes place.

The UGA Press has now won a GLCA New Writers Award in each of its three categories: creative non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. In addition to THE RIOTS, winning UGA Press books include HARDSCRABBLE by Kevin McFadden (poetry) and COMPRESSION SCARS by Kellie Wells (fiction).

THE RIOTS is also a winner of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction.

In the News: UGA Press Advisory Council Founder and Chairman

The January 2012 issue of Georgia Trend lists University of Georgia Press Advisory Council founder and chairman, Craig Barrow III, as one of the 100 Most Influential Georgians. According to the Georgia Trend website, the individuals are "selected for the power and influence they wield." Craig Barrow was chosen due to his support of UGA Press and our mission to publish outstanding works of scholarship and literature by scholars and writers throughout the world.

Short Takes

The Atlantic describes Anne Emanuel's ELBERT PARR TUTTLE as an "important new book" and compares Judge Tuttle's treatment to the assault on current federal judges. ELBERT PARR TUTTLE also made Andrew Cohen's books of the year round-up column.

Listen here for Edible Radio's interview with A MESS OF GREENS author Elizabeth Engelhardt.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's blog, "Junkyard Blawg with Bill King," recommended DAMN GOOD DOGS! for last-minute holiday shoppers.

Watch the video below to see Melinda Moustakis, author of BEAR DOWN, BEAR NORTH, give a reading and interview at the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 event.

PHILLIS WHEATLEY made the 2011 top ten non-fiction list on PhiloBiblos.

Vincent Carretta gave a talk at the Massachusetts Historical Society in November. Here he discusses his book, PHILLIS WHEATLEY.