News from the University of Georgia Press

Award News

noreply@blogger.com (ddesjard@ugapress.uga.edu) — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Congratulations to John C. Inscoe and his book, WRITING THE SOUTH THROUGH THE SELF, for winning the Georgia History Book of the Year from the Georgia Historical Society. The recipient of the 2012 Malcolm Bell Jr. and Muriel Barrow Bell Award, WRITING THE SOUTH THROUGH THE SELF was named as the best book on Georgia history published in the previous year. “The Awards Committee was impressed by how John Inscoe approached southern and Georgia history through autobiography and memoir to reveal fresh insights into the southern temperament,” said Dr. Paul Pressly, chairman of the committee.

Congratulations to Linda LeGarde Grover and Melinda Moustakis! Both of their books, THE DANCE BOOTS and BEAR DOWN, BEAR NORTH, have made the 2012 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing Shortlist. "The awards are intended to encourage new or emerging writers and honor the Saroyan literary legacy of originality, vitality and stylistic innovation. The Saroyan Prize recognizes newly published works of both fiction and non-fiction. A prize of $5,000 will be awarded in each category. Winners will be announced this summer."

Two of our books have tied for first place for the Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Award from the Florida Historical Society. SOUTHERN PROHIBITION by Lee L. Willis and SOUTHERN CIVIL RELIGIONS by Arthur Remillard have each earned this year's Moore Award. This award is for a book relating to Florida's ethnic groups or dealing with a significant social issue from an historical perspective. The award will be presented at the society's Annual Meeting & Symposium Awards Luncheon on May 24th. Good luck to both authors!

Congratulations to Joan Maloof! Her book, TEACHING THE TREES, won the Senior Prize for the Silent Spring Essay Contest. Co-sponsored by the British Council, the International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations, and the Consulate General of the United States, Munich, this contest was launched to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

UnCivil War Series Co-Editor Named Gregory Chair in the Civil War Era at UGA

noreply@blogger.com (ddesjard@ugapress.uga.edu) — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Congratulations to Stephen Berry, one of the editors for the UnCivil Wars series, for being named the inaugural holder of the Amanda and Greg Gregory Chair in the Civil War Era in the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences!

UnCivil Wars is a series dedicated to new ways of seeing and telling the American Civil War. Berry and series co-editor Amy Murrell Taylor work closely with authors to produce books that focus on unconventional social types and to think deeply about narrative strategy, telling their stories through memory, reverse chronology, snapshots and glimpses, multiple perspectives, or microhistory.

This new series currently has two books in it: Stephen Berry's WEIRDING THE WAR and the just-released RUIN NATION by Megan Kate Nelson. Writing for the News & Observer, John David Smith praises WEIRDING THE WAR "not because its characters exhibited oddities or peculiarities, but rather because of their intensely human, commonplace experiences, strengths and weaknesses. Their mundane stories remind us of the 'weirdness' of war generally and the connection between individuals in the past and ourselves."

UGA’s Stephen Berry named Gregory Chair in the Civil War Era

May 16, 2012

Writer:Sam Fahmy
Contact:Stephen Berry

Athens, Ga. – Noted historian Stephen Berry has been named the inaugural holder of the Amanda and Greg Gregory Chair in the Civil War Era in the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

Berry, the author of four books on the Civil War era, joined the university’s department of history in 2007 and was selected as the Gregory chair after a national search.

“I can think of no UGA scholar more worthy of this honor than Steve Berry,” said UGA President Michael F. Adams. “He is a historian of the first order, and his research and writing have helped not only thousands of students but also many people, like myself, who have an ongoing interest in the Civil War. I am deeply grateful to the Gregorys for their generosity to the university and support of this important position in the history department.”

Berry’s first book, All That Makes a Man: Love & Ambition in the Civil War South (Oxford University Press, 2003) was a finalist for the 2004 Peter Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship. Princes of Cotton: Four Diaries of Young Men in the South, 1848‐1860 (UGA Press and the Southern Texts Society, 2007) was described in one review as “an extraordinary contribution to Southern history.” House of Abraham: Lincoln & the Todds, A Family Divided By War (Houghton Mifflin, 2007) was a Book of the Month Club main selection and received a Publisher’s Weekly starred review. A reviewer of Berry’s most recent book, Weirding the War: Stories from the Civil War’s Ragged Edges (2011, UGA Press), wrote that “saying something truly new about the American Civil War seems impossible, but here is a book that offers an explosion of new perspectives and insights, often surprising and sometimes disturbing.”

In addition to authoring several articles in scholarly journals, Berry has written for magazines such as Civil War Monitor and North and South. He has given presentations at more than 20 conferences as well to historical associations, civic groups and primary and secondary school teachers.

“Steve Berry has developed in a short period of time a national reputation as a leading scholar of the Civil War era. His work brings a fresh perspective to one of the defining periods in our nation’s history,” said Hugh Ruppersburg, interim Franklin College dean. “The support of the Gregorys continues to elevate a department with established strengths in Southern history to the great benefit of our students and faculty.”

Berry has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. His honors include the Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer Award and the Parks-Heggoy Award for Excellence in Teaching Graduate Students, which is voted on by graduate students studying history at UGA.

In addition to their gift to establish the Gregory Chair in the Civil War Era, the Gregorys have supported research in Civil War era studies for graduate students and faculty members and funded an annual lecture series that brings prominent historians to UGA to conduct seminars with students and to deliver a public lecture.

The Gregorys have strong ties to UGA. Greg earned his bachelor’s degree from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, while Amanda received a bachelor’s degree from the College of Education. Greg has served as a member of the Terry College of Business board of advisers and delivered guest lectures to Terry students. He currently serves as a trustee to the UGA Foundation and is a member of the Franklin College Dean’s Council. In addition, he serves on the advisory board that oversees George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate, Museum and Gardens.

Greg retired as president and CEO of the commercial real estate firm Industrial Developments International in 2007, and Amanda taught in public and private elementary schools in Atlanta for more than a decade.

Before joining the faculty at UGA, Berry was an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned his undergraduate degree in history from Rollins College.

Short Takes

noreply@blogger.com (ddesjard@ugapress.uga.edu) — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:00:00 +0000

"Such scholars as Vincent Carretta, in PHILLIS WHEATLEY, find [Wheatley's] poetry more nuanced than her modern black critics have allowed. . . . Phillis Wheatley is a reminder that African-American literature began not as autobiography or protest but religious poetry, the literature of yearning. . . . We leave her, thirsting for the upper courts of the Lord."—Harper's Magazine

The Mobile Press-Register praises Harvey H. Jackson III's "robust and readable history" of the Redneck Riviera and proclaims that, "[i]f after finishing this beer-soaked and sand-whipped tour de force you don't find yourself heading to the beach, check your pulse."

Roy Hoffman, author of CHICKEN DREAMING CORN, has two pieces in the new issue of South Writ Large, UNC's global studies initiative in the Center for Southern Studies. The never-before-published essay, "The Unexpected South," follows an excerpt from CHICKEN DREAMING CORN.

In other news for Hoffman's CHICKEN DREAMING CORN, the novel is now available as an audiobook, in addition to the previously available e-book and paperback editions. The audiobook may be purchased on Amazon or the Audible website.

Don't miss the short interview on Points: The Blog of the Alcohol and Drugs History Society with Lee L. Willis about his book SOUTHERN PROHIBITION.

Science Magazine's Christopher Cokinos commends THE BIOREGIONAL IMAGINATION and its editors Tom Lynch, Cheryll Glotfelty, and Karla Armbruster for their "valuable contribution to the Venn diagram field of ecocriticism, where literature, science, and yes, activism can and should coexist."

Alan Duben hails Amy Mills for her book STREETS OF MEMORY in a recent South European Society and Politics: "It is striking that Mills, the foreign ethnographer, has managed to touch the soul of the city and the society at large, courageously confronting head on one of the most sensitive issues in Turkish society—the systematic bases of belonging and exclusion. . . .Mills's study will, I believe, be of poignant. . . interest to local readers with whom its themes will painfully reverberate as they now confront in other venues many of the very same issues she raises."

In the most recent issue of Environment and History, Michael Paolisso raves about Christine Keiner's work on THE OYSTER QUESTION: "THE OYSTER QUESTION is a must read for those of us who study the Chesapeake Bay and its oysters, for the watermen who will harvest oysters, and for watershed's citizens whose daily economic, political and cultural life choices affect the health of North American's largest estuary. . . . [O]ne of the best, recent books written on the Chesapeake Bay."

"Carefully researched and thoughtfully illustrated with 52 crisp black and white photos, THE WORLD OF THE SALT MARSH is a book for your keeper shelf."—Darien News