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Like to read? Want to win a free book?

Tell us all about your reading and book-buying preferences in our new survey and you could win one of our new Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction books before it hits shelves next month.

After you complete the survey, email us your response to question #10. You'll then be entered into a drawing to win an advance reader's copy of the forthcoming Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction winner, THE VIEWING ROOM, by Jacquelin Gorman.

Based on author Jacquelin Gorman's personal experience as a hospital chaplain and pastoral counselor, the stories in THE VIEWING ROOM share a unique view of people who are misunderstood and unseen. The book lays bare nine parallel worlds of suffering in stories of unflinching detail that follow two hospital chaplains who work to console survivors of patients in a large urban hospital in Los Angeles.

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Spring 2014 Sneak Peek

As we mark the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War, scholars continue to shed new light on the Civil War and its effects. The New York Times Disunion blog, for example, regularly hosts posts that include first-person accounts of the war. In a recent post for the blog, Megan Kate Nelson, author of RUIN NATION, shares the plight of Napoleon Perkins, a young Union soldier, who, like tens of thousands of other soldiers, lost a leg as a direct result of the war. During the nineteenth-century, men lost more than a limb when faced with amputation.

[M]any Union and Confederate soldiers recoiled at the thought of amputation. Mid-19th-century gender conventions invested a great deal of meaning in the whole white male body; the loss of an arm or leg, they well knew, would result in the loss of masculinity, and of status and power. . . . As Perkins and other veteran amputees recovered from their surgeries, they had to renegotiate their place in society. Could a veteran amputee woo women, marry, procreate and work to support his family? During a time in which citizenship was seen as 'embodied' in adult white males, could an amputee be considered a full citizen?

Joining Perkins in this new life was Union Army corporal, James R. Tanner. Tanner is the subject of a book coming out next spring: AMERICA'S CORPORAL: JAMES TANNER IN WAR AND PEACE by James Marten. 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 is both a biography of James Tanner, as well as a historiography of the Civil War. The book looks at the life of Corporal Tanner, his humble beginnings, unfortunate tragedy, impressive fortitude, and the controversy and accomplishment of his long-lived career.

This injured Civil War vet became an early advocat and public speaker for veterans' rights. AMERICA'S CORPORAL is crucial as an examination of the dynamics of disability, the reinvention of Tanner and the crafting of a cultural image, his work for veterans’ causes, the culture and politics of the Gilded Age, and a look at the aftereffects of the Civil War, including the philosophical and psychological changes that it prompted. Tanner is a prominent and influential, but often overlooked, figure.

AMERICA'S CORPORAL will be joining Nelson's RUIN NATION and Stephen Berry's WEIRDING THE WAR in the UnCivil Wars series. UnCivil Wars is a series dedicated to new ways of seeing and telling the American Civil War.

Big Game Fishing This Week

Did you hear about the 920-pound, 9-foot long tuna recently caught in a Massachusetts harbor, as reported by CBS News?



Or, did you miss out in participating in this year's Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament? In its 54th year, the tournament is held off the Kona coast and ends today. (A video from Sunday's opening ceremonies is below.)

Do these stories inspire you to grab a reel, sail into the open waters, and fish? If so, you need to read the soon to-be-released THE BILLFISH STORY.

Unlike other books on specific members of the billfish family, THE BILLFISH STORY is a passionate, readable, informative account of all billfish—sailfish, marlin, spearfish, and swordfish—and the bonds formed with this unique group of fish by anglers, biologists, charter-boat captains, and conservationists through their pursuit, study, and protection of these species.

This accessible book is for those readers who want to take the next step in understanding billfish. Anglers and armchair adventurers alike will read of the continued fascination of catching a trophy billfish within the modern-day angling community, as well as the angling adventures of noted luminaries such as Zane Grey and Ernest Hemingway.

THE BILLFISH STORY is not only intended as a tale of the most important billfish discoveries, but as a means of demonstrating that billfish occupy a position of unique importance in our culture and society. Select chapters focus on sustainable fishing practices with regard to ocean resources, as well as the influence of climate change on marine ecosystems. Billfish are more than discreet objects to be probed and measured, caught and discarded, but rather they are at the center of a story that links natural history, angling adventure, and human history.  This multi-faceted approach will allow readers to achieve a higher level of appreciation of billfish, which will only enhance their journey into the natural world.

Short Takes

The Summer 2013 issue of Emory Magazine features an article on ATLANTA'S OAKLAND CEMETERY, highlighting the recent awards it has received.

Are you a resident of St. Simons, GA? A frequent visitor? Or, have you never been but would like to visit? Then ISLAND TIME is the book for you! Flagpole Magazine backs up that claim in a recent review of the book: 

If you don’t know St. Simons, this book is like a visit needing no sunscreen or mosquito repellant. Every period in the island’s history is fascinating, all the way up to modern times, and Ben Galland’s camera catches it all: the ruins, the marshes, the beach and, yes, the sunsets, which we have all tried to photograph.

If you do know St. Simons, you know how, when you are there, you feel surrounded by history, and it makes you want to know more about this beautiful and mysterious place of moss and marshes and scattered, nameless ruins.

Upcoming events:

August 14, time tba
Fountainhead Bookstore
Hendersonville, NC
A MESS OF GREENS by Elizabeth Engelhardt
Talk and signing

August 20, 10:30am

St. Simons Literary Guild
St. Simons, GA
ISLAND TIME by Jingle Davis, photographs by Benjamin Galland
Talk and signing with both Jingle Davis and Benjamin Galland at the casino

August 24, 6:30-7:30pm
Avid Bookshop
Athens, GA
ISLAND TIME by Jingle Davis, photographs by Benjamin Galland
Talk and signing with Jingle Davis

August 31, 3:00-3:45pm
Decatur Book Festival
Decatur, GA
REMEMBERING MEDGAR EVERS by Minrose Gwin
Presentation and signing in the Marriott Conference Center Ballroom B

September 1, 12:00-12:45pm
Decatur Book Festival
Decatur, GA
EAT DRINK DELTA by Susan Puckett
"Have Food, Will Travel" panel with Christopher Bakken, author of HONEY, OLIVES, OCTOPUS; followed by book signing

September 3, 7:00pm
The Ivy Bookshop
Baltimore, MD
THE QUARRY by Harvey Grossinger, BLACK ELVIS by Geoffrey Becker, and LOVE, IN THEORY by E. J. Levy
Flannery O'Connor Award 30th anniversary event

Congratulations to our business manager, Phyllis Wells, for winning the "Other Duties, As Assigned" award on July 24 at the 2013 Asset Awards! Phyllis was nominated primarily because of her leadership as Interim Director of the Press from December 2011 to June 2012.

The Asset Awards Program (Acknowledging Staff Skills, Effort and Time) began in 1992 to provide UGA Libraries with a way to formally recognize staff and faculty for contributions that have kept both the core functions and the innovative endeavors of the University Libraries on target over the past year. UGA Press is part of the University Libraries.

Elizabeth Engelhardt, author of A MESS OF GREENS, has a series of video interviews related to food studies. Check out the ones below for a taste of what her forthcoming book, THE LARDER, will feature. THE LARDER is edited by John T. Edge, Elizabeth Engelhardt, and Ted Ownby.