University of Nebraska Press

Discover great new writers

2012-01-27T12:37:08-06:00

Each year, the Discover Great New Writers Program from Barnes and Noble has introduced readers to up-and-coming new authors, many of whom have been from UNP.

Past UNP winners include Ted Kooser (Local Wonders), Brandon Schrand (The Enders Hotel), Daryl Farmer (Bicycling Beyond the Divide) and most recently, Jon Pineda (Sleep in Me).

Do you know an author (UNP or otherwise!) who you think should be considered for this honor? If so, enter their works in the Facebook Sweepstakes here. You’ll be automatically in the drawing for a new NOOK Tablet.

Check out Barnes and Noble’s website or stop by a store to see the display of new writers that is updated monthly.

Contest ends Feb. 5.

A new year's resolution of reading

2012-01-23T13:32:25-06:00

Inside In the United States of Africa (2009), French-speaking African writer Abdourahman A. Waberi turns the fortunes of the world upside down. On this reimagined globe a stream of sorry humanity flows from the West, from the slums of America and the squalor of Europe, to escape poverty and desperation in the prosperous United States of Africa. It is in this world that an African doctor on a humanitarian mission to France adopts a child. And this story is as deadly serious as it is wickedly satiric.

Thanks to the translators, David and Nicole Ball, this tale was made available in an English translation, which is exactly what Ann Morgan was looking for.

Morgan, a news editor and feature writer for the Guardian, has pledged this year to read a book from every country. Her choice from Djibouti was In the United States of Africa.

On her blog she wrote, “The humour is of course only the outriding breeze of a gale of indignation and righteous anger about the skewed perspective that the ‘developed’ world has on its neighbours.”

An adventurer's delight

2012-01-20T13:42:19-06:00

In a remote kingdom hidden in the Himalayas, there is a trail said to be the toughest trek in the world—24 days, 216 miles, 11 mountain passes, and enough ghost stories to scare an exorcist.

Beneth Blossom Rain: Discovering Bhutan on the Toughest Trek in the World is Kevin Grange’s account of his journey across the country of Bhutan by taking on this infamous trail, the Snowman Trek.

Seattle University Magazine’s Maura Beth Pagano called it “a treat for any adventurer.” She also said that “not only does the author let readers catch a glimpse into his time on the toughest trek in the world, he inspires them to set out on their own fearless explorations.”

Grange recently created a soundtrack for his memoir on the blog, Largehearted Boy. The blog’s Book Notes series lets authors create a playlist for their book and explain why each song contributes to their story. Grange said, “To write without music is the literary equivalent of trying to paddle a boat onshore.”

Click here to read his playlist.

Be sure to also look out for an audiobook coming out later this month from Audiobook.com.

Win food from Negev Nectars

2012-01-20T13:27:45-06:00

Get hungry because Zester Daily is having a “Nosh like a Pro” contest!

Enter to win a box of Israeli foods from the company Negev Nectars. Five readers will also be picked to receive a copy of Jewish American Food Culture.

Click here to enter now.

Zester Daily is an award-winning online publication produced by an international collection of experienced journalists, food writers and wine experts who want to engage food and drink enthusiasts.

Pipeline denied through Nebraska Sandhills

2012-01-18T16:16:12-06:00

Today, President Obama denies the Transcanada pipeline permit through Nebraska Sandhills protecting Nebraska’s watershed. Read the full story.

UNP has two forthcoming titles you will want to check out, one that focuses on the Sandhills and one that is an exploration of America’s energy infrastructure. In David Owen’s book, Like No Other Place he focuses on the Nebraska Sandhills and the essence of its uniqueness and its people.

Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism by Ozzie Zehner provides insight on why we should change our energy consumption habits and why alternative energy isn't the answer to our growing energy crisis and provides solutions for the future.

Ruth wins National Jewish Book Award

2012-01-18T10:06:01-06:00

Last week, Dr. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and the late Tivka Frymer-Kensky were awarded the National Jewish Book Award in Women’s Studies for The JPS Bible Commentary: Ruth, published by The Jewish Publication Society. The award will be presented during a ceremony in New York this coming March.

The National Jewuish Book Award is the longest-running North American awards program of its kind in the field of Jewish literature.

Ruth is the latest in the JPS Bible Commentary series. The authors provide a critical, line-by-line commentary of the biblical text, presented in its original Hebrew, complete with vocalization and cantillation marks, as well as the 1985 JPS English translation. The extensive introduction places the book within its historical, literary, and critical context, discusses contemporary interpretations of the story of Ruth, and examines its major motifs and themes.

Grace Abbott remembered

2012-01-17T14:43:34-06:00

Grace Abbott (1878–1939), was a tireless and brilliant social reformer in the early twentieth century who contributed to the development of social programs that safeguarded mothers and children, protected immigrants from abuse, and rescued child laborers from the appalling conditions of the time.

Recently in the Lincoln alternative paper, Prairie Fire, Jane Renner Hood wrote a two-part series on Grace Abbott and her workings in the United States. The first article gives a brief bio of Abbott and describes her work with the Immigrants Protective League, and the second article considers her work as “…the nation’s foremost voice for children during the Progressive Era up through the early years of the New Deal with her work in the U.S. Children’s Bureau.”

If you would like to discover Abbott’s insightful words first hand, the University of Nebraska Press published The Grace Abbott Reader (2008), which is a collection of her most influential writings. It is the first collection of Abbott’s stirring words, showing that the causes she pursued with fiery conscience and fierce determination are as relevant in our day as they were in hers.

What They Saved named first winner of new prize

2012-01-13T15:22:06-06:00

What They Saved: Pieces of a Jewish Past by Nancy K. Miller, has won the very first Jewish Journal Book Prize.

The prize is given in recognition of a book of exceptional interest, achievement and significance and is selected by The Jewish Journal’s book editor and its editor-in-chief.

What They Saved was chosen because “…Miller’s account of her own experience is exceptional in the grace of her prose, the depth of her insight and the power of her gifts as a storyteller,” according to an article on the Jewish Journal's website.

Miller’s book was originally reviewed in The Jewish Journal on Oct. 4, 2011 by Jonathan Kirsch.

Kirsch first said, “What They Saved can be approached as an illuminating and instructive example of how to conduct a genealogical investigation. But it is also a rich and accomplished family chronicle, full of fascinating incidents and turbulent emotions. Above all, it is a searing work of self-exploration, artful and eloquent in the telling but heartbreaking in its candor.”

In What They Saved, Miller discovers a minuscule family archive: a handful of photographs, an unexplained land deed, a postcard from Argentina, unidentified locks of hair after her father’s death. These items had been passed down again and again, but what did they mean? Miller follows their traces from one distant relative to another, across the country, and across an ocean. Her story, unlike the many family memoirs focused on the Holocaust, takes us back earlier in history to the world of pogroms and mass emigrations at the turn of the twentieth century.

What They Saved has also been praised by Kirkus Reviews calling it “an unusual, intellectual perspective on an often-told story."

The best of 2011

2012-01-11T09:49:58-06:00

As 2011 came to an end, many UNP books were made best-of lists for the year. Among them:

D.G. Myers from Jewish Ideas Daily listed What They Saved: Pieces of a Jewish Past by Nancy K. Miller in a list of his top 38 Jewish books.

Golf Digest endorsed Brassies, Mashies and Bootleg Scotch: Growing Up on America’s First Heroic Golf Course by Bill Kilpatrick Jr. as a great holiday book to “stay in touch with the game.”

The Dream of a Broken Field by Diane Glancy was named a 2011 favorite by John Wilson from Books and Culture: A Christian Review.

A Double Life by Lisa Catherine Harper was listed as the a National Book Critics Circle notable book of the year from an independent press. Additionally, Harper’s guest blog post on the Poetry Foundation site, titled “Poems from My Ex,” was the fifth most read article of the year.

And Anthony Doerr from The Boston Globe listed John James Audubon’s Journal of 1826: The Voyage to the Birds of America as one of the “best science-y” titles of 2011, calling it a “compelling reminder that the stories about how scientific or artistic achievements come to light are usually as interesting as the achievements themselves.”

We hope that 2012 will bring even more great titles to book lovers of all kinds!

New Mexico book sale

2012-01-10T16:06:10-06:00

Last Friday, the state of New Mexico celebrated its 100th birthday! To continue the celebration, UNP is offering books about New Mexico at discounted prices! Save 25 percent on titles, including the following:

Nobody's Horses: The Dramatic Rescue of the Wild Herd of White Sands by Don Höglund tells the dramatic story of wild horses struggling to live on the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. A large-animal veterinarian, Höglund was called in to organize and lead a team of dedicated cowboys, soldiers, and other professionals in removing the surviving horses and their offspring to safety after years of suffering through periodic droughts, food shortages, and all the dangers accompanying life on a military weapons–testing site.

In Tales from the Journey of the Dead: Ten Thousand Years on an American Desert, Alan Boye describes traveling to two parallel chains of mountains, one hundred miles south of Albuquerque, by foot. Boye visits battle sites from the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, the lonely canyon where the Apaches fought to keep their homeland, and the isolated site of the world’s first atomic explosion.

To get the promotion code and other sale selections, click here.

Offer ends Jan. 31, 2012.