Thursday, August 30, 2007

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival Returns

The AJC-DBF is back this weekend, after its smashingly successful debut last year. Stop by Booth 502 and visit us.

Here's the who, when, and where for the participating authors who have published with the UGA Press. For the full story, visit the AJC-DBF web site.

Monday, August 27, 2007

No Sophomore Slump for These Two Poets

The National Poetry Series recently announced the winners of its 2007 competition. Two of the five winning poets published their first books with UGA Press: Oni Buchanan (WHAT ANIMAL) and Donna Stonecipher (THE RESERVOIR). Both books were published in the recently retired Contemporary Poetry Series.

Buchanan's National Poetry Series book,
Spring, was chosen by Mark Doty and will be published by the University of Illinois Press. The Cosmopolitan, Stonecipher's National Poetry Series book, was chosen by John Yau and will be published by Coffee House Press.

Bin Ramke served as series editor of the Contemporary Poetry Series for twenty-two years, helping to establish the careers of an influential group of poets including Albert Goldbarth, Timothy Liu, Andrew Zawacki, and Mark McMorris. When Ramke retired as editor the Press also retired the series in tribute to its editor and guiding spirit.

Now, the Press's commitment to poetry has taken it in a new direction. We are excited to announce a new series partnership with the Virginia Quarterly Review. Ted Genoways will be series editor for the new VQR Poetry Series. Launching in spring 2008, the series will debut with four books: FIELD FOLLY SNOW by Cecily Parks, THE HISTORY OF ANONYMITY by Jennifer Chang, HARDSCRABBLE by Kevin McFadden, and BOY by Patrick Phillips. See this Publishers Weekly story for more details.

UGA Press also publishes every third winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, as part of a rotating system with Graywolf Press and the University of Pittsburgh Press. We now have three Cave Canem books on our list: Major Jackson's LEAVING SATURN, Kyle Dargan's THE LISTENING, and Dawn Lundy Martin's A GATHERING OF MATTER / A MATTER OF GATHERING. Our relationship with Cave Canem has also resulted in the anthology THE RINGING EAR: BLACK POETS LEAN SOUTH, edited by Nikky Finney.

Spring 2008 will also see the publication of two poetry volumes that fall outside of any UGA Press series. The poems in BLOOD TIES & BROWN LIQUOR by Sean Hill create a call and response across six generations of the fictional family of Silas Wright, a black man born in 1907 in smalltown Georgia. Ed Pavlic's WINNERS HAVE YET TO BE ANNOUNCED conveys the voices, surroundings, and clashing dimensions of the life of '70s soul singer Donny Hathaway. Some early readers have likened it to
Coming Through Slaughter, Michael Ondaatje’s reimagining of the tumultuous life of jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden.

Images:
Left: Oni Buchanan, photo by Ryan Spoering
Right: Donna Stonecipher, photo by Laura Payton

Technorati Tags: national poetry series virginia quarterly review cave canem poetry prize donny hathaway

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Short Takes

Don't miss it:
Join us at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia on Sunday, July 22, for "Celebrating Our Native Flora and Fauna." There will be presentations and book signings by Giff Beaton (DRAGONFLIES AND DAMSELFLIES OF GEORGIA AND THE SOUTHEAST), Hugh and Carol Nourse (FAVORITE WILDFLOWER WALKS IN GEORGIA), and Linda Chafin (FIELD GUIDE TO THE RARE PLANTS OF GEORGIA). The event is free and open to all, but reservations are encouraged (706-542-1244 or garden@uga.edu).


In the news:
Frank X Walker, a contributor to THE RINGING EAR has started Pluck! a new journal of Affrilachian arts and culture.

Blanche Marie Brawly Vandiver, whose work appears in GEORGIA QUILTS, is featured in a nice hometown story about mountain quilters.

Our modest contribution to Potter Mania: In "Waiting for Harry," a Barnes and Noble online book club devoted to you-know-who, the group moderator begins a discussion about the importance of snake folklore to the series by recommending our book, THE SERPENT’S TALE.


Recent awards:
Further to our 6/12/2007 posting about DEVOTION, Julia Oliver's novel based on the life of Winnie Davis, Daughter of the Confederacy: The Military Order of the Stars and Bars has now posted full details about the John Esten Cook Fiction Award, which DEVOTION has won.


Recent reviews:
"EVERYBODY WAS BLACK DOWN THERE" on H-Net.

NEW CULTURAL STUDIES on PopMatters and Feminist Review.

DEMOCRACY RESTORED in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.


We get blogged:
Read the poem "Zimmer Admiring Elephants," from CROSSING TO SUNLIGHT REVISITED, on the litblog Beatrice.com

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Short Takes

Recent awards:
SHORT STORIES OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT won first place in the anthologies category of
ForeWord magazine's 2006 Book of the Year awards.

REAL PUNKS DON'T WEAR BLACK won second place in the music category of ForeWord magazine's 2006 Book of the Year awards.

Perry Dilbeck has been named Georgia Author of the Year in the category of Creative Non-Fiction, Specialty Book, for THE LAST HARVEST.

DEVOTION is the winner of the 2007 John Esten Cooke Award for Southern Fiction, which is presented annually by the Military Order of the Stars and Bars to the author of the best historical novel dealing with the South.

SPIT BATHS was named a finalist for the 2007 Paterson Fiction Prize, sponsored by the Poetry Center at Passiac County Community College.

Judith Ortiz Cofer, author of A LOVE STORY BEGINNING IN SPANISH and other books published by UGA Press, has been awarded an honorary doctorate by Lehman College in New York in recognition of her “distinguished record of personal and professional accomplishments and service to society.”

Recent reviews:
THE HANGING OF ANGELIQUE was included in a group review of slavery titles for the "New in Paperback" section of the
Washington Post Book World. It's in great company; the other books (by Adam Rothman, James T. Campbell, and Erskine Clarke, published by Yale, Penguin, and Harvard respectively) are among the most prestigious recent books on the topic.

NEW CULTURAL STUDIES in the Feminist Review.

ULTRA-TALK in Verse.

We get blogged:
TEACHING THE TREES in NatLands, the blog of the Delaware Valley's Natural Lands Trust.

THE SPIRIT OF ISLAMIC LAW in Islam and Christianity.