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FOR RELEASE: Tuesday, July 28, 2009
University of Arkansas Press Fall Catalog Offers Diverse Line-Up FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – From the diary of a young Union soldier from the Civil War to cutting-edge research in food safety, the University of Arkansas Press fall catalog offers plenty of variety to its readers. Army Life: From a Soldier’s Journal recounts the first-hand observations of Albert O. Marshall, a private in the Thirty-Third Illinois Regiment during the Civil War. Edited by Robert G. Schultz, and published in the press’ Civil War in the West series, the account tells of the battles Marshall fought, the games he played, of friends, fellow soldiers and officers. Enhanced with editing and annotations, the journal Marshall carried faithfully through all the regiment’s activities sketches out a personal view of the Civil War. Another book looks at the Civil War through a different medium: photography. Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Missouri in the Civil War, edited by William Garrett Piston and Thomas P. Sweeney, features hundreds of images, many never before published. The authors provide text and commentary to place this deeply divided border state within its place in the conflict. This book is the ninth in the press’ distinguished Portraits of Conflict series of photographic histories of the Civil War.
A little-known piece of Arkansas history comes to life in Thomas C. Kennedy’s A History of Southland College: The Society of Friends and Black Education in Arkansas. In 1864, Alida and Calvin Clark, two Quaker missionaries from Indiana, came to Helena, Ark., and started the school that become Southland College, the first institution of higher education for blacks west of the Mississippi. They also started the first predominantly black monthly meeting of the Religious Society of Friends in North America. Kennedy’s deeply researched book chronicles Southland’s survival for six decades and the struggles of black Arkansans who sought dignity and hope. The press helps celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), with a collection of essays, Long Is the Way and Hard: One Hundred Years of the NAACP. Edited by two British scholars, Kevern Verney and Lee Sartain, it features original scholarship from researchers in the United States and Europe. These essays examine detailed aspects of campaigns to change public opinion in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education; reappraisals of two of the NAACP’s best-known spokespersons, Walter White and Roy Wilkins; and accounts of the association’s complex relationship with Martin Luther King Jr. Part of the collection focuses on the work of the NAACP at the state and local levels, examining its grassroots organization in Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit in the North and Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas in the South. Political scientists focus on the South in A Paler Shade of Red: The 2008 Presidential Election in the South, edited by Branwell DuBose Kapeluck, Laurence W. Moreland and Robert P. Steed. Developed with support from the Blair Center for Southern Politics at the University of Arkansas, the book features detailed, state-by-state analyses of how the presidential election played out in the South, from the nomination struggle to the casting of votes in November. In addition to single state perspectives, the book includes essays that look at the region as a whole. It is the latest in a series of books on presidential elections that have been published since 1984 for which the press has now become the official publisher. From the South, the press travels to the Middle East with a second edition ofits best-sellingand award-winning Dinarzad’s Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Fiction, edited by Pauline Kaldas and Khaled Mattawa. The second edition has 30 stories, 16 of which are by a number of new voices not included in the first edition. The stories reveal the initial adjustments of immigrants, the challenges of forming relationships, the political nuances of being Arab American and the ongoing search for identity. Some of the contributors include D. H. Melhem, Diana Abu Jaber, and University of Arkansas professor Mohja Khaf. Stories of a different kind are told through the poems featured in the University of Arkansas Press Poetry Series. In Weapons Grade: Poems by Terese Svoboda, the range of emotion from whimsical to chillingly serious can be seen in poems that walk out to the edge of where language is made. In Start with the Trouble: Poems by Daniel Donaghy, the author showcases the streets of Philadelphia, examining the beauty rising from the darkness in the City of Hope. The last three books in the fall catalog showcase the diversity of topics covered by the press. In An Unforgiving Sport: An Inside Look at Another Year in Boxing, acclaimed journalist Thomas Hauser once again goes behind the scenes at boxing’s biggest fights and offers revealing portraits of today’s boxers as well as historical figures like John L. Sullivan. Leading the Way: Student Engagement and Nationally Competitive Awards, edited by Suzanne McCray, vice provost for enrollment management and dean of admissions at the University of Arkansas, contains 11 essays addressing various aspects of the application process for students vying for highly competitive awards. The third in a series of books edited by McCray for the National Association of Fellowships Advisors, it is a valuable resource for faculty and academic advisers who want to provide opportunities for student engagement. Perspectives on Food Safety Issues of Animal-Derived Foods, edited by University of Arkansas faculty members Steven C. Ricke and Frank T. Jones, features 24 essays from researchers in the Food Safety Consortium, an alliance of food safety scientists at the University of Arkansas, Iowa State University and Kansas State University. The essays focus on understanding and controlling pathogenic bacteria in poultry, beef and pork to enhance the protection of animal-derived foods from farm to fork. This book represents an effort on the part of the press to establish new relationships with other programs at the university. Other examples of press outreach included in the fall catalog are Silas Hunt: A Documentary, a DVD that is now distributed by the press for the University of Arkansas Media Services, as well as Collaborations: Two Decades of African-American Art — Hearne Fine Art, 1988-2008, which is being distributed for the well-known Little Rock art gallery. Finally, the press is once again distributing a number of new books from the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies — Terrence Roberts’ Lessons from Little Rock, Ray and Steve Hanley’s Main Street Arkansas: The Hearts of Arkansas Cities and Towns as Portrayed in Postcards and Photographs,and Velma B. Branscum Woody’s Homefront Arkansas: Arkansans Face Wartime Past and Present. It is also distributing books from Moon City Press — Some of the Words Are Theirs: A Memoir of an Alcoholic Family by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s George H. Jensen Jr., with a Foreword by William L. White and the inauguralissue of the Moon City Review 2009, which includes new work by authors Miller Williams, past U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser, John Dufresne and Kevin Brockmeier. ### Contact:Tom Lavoie, marketing director Melissa Lutz Blouin, director of science and research communications |
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