The SUNY Press Blog

Thanks for reading

2010-08-02T15:36:00.000-04:00

We want to thank you all for following this blog for the past few years. We're focusing our efforts on the SUNY Press Facebook page at this time, and for that and a number of other reasons, we're going to let the blog go to an archival status for now. Again, thanks go out to those who followed it reguarly and even those who only read a few posts in recent weeks. We've enjoyed writing for all of you on this blog and hope you'll continue to follow us for the same news and notes on our Facebook page. (And if you haven't signed up for Facebook yet, maybe this is a good enough reason to join!)

Truckin' with Sam Review

2010-07-20T10:07:00.000-04:00

Lee and Sam Gutkind's father and son memoir, Truckin' with Sam: A Father and Son, The Mick and The Dyl, Rockin' and Rollin', On the Road, was recently reviewed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Here's an excerpt of Peter Oresick's review:

Mr. Gutkind typically works like an anthropologist garnering material for his books. He spends years gaining entrance to and carefully observing a closed community -- organ transplantation, robotics engineers, baseball umpires -- then delivers an insightful, character-driven chronicle that unveils that subculture with dramatic flair and intensity.

In Truckin' With Sam, however, the closed-community motif is personal: His own father-son relationships.

In his 2003 memoir, Forever Fat, Mr. Gutkind first delved into his stormy relationship with his dad. This new book amplifies many of those 1950s traumas, but it aims to be a corrective by focusing on the new generation. Sam Gutkind's coming-of-age, under the tutelage of a literati father, will not resemble Mr. Gutkind's bar mitzvah experience.

Read the full review and learn more about the book here.

Now available: Teaching the Silk Road

2010-07-19T11:45:00.000-04:00

Teaching the Silk Road discusses why and how to teach about China’s Silk Road. Subtitled "A Guide for College Teachers", the book advocates for a global rather than Eurocentric perspective in the college classroom.

The romance of the Silk Road journey, with its exotic locales and luxury goods, still excites the popular imagination. But study of the trade routes between China and central Asia that flourished from about 200 BCE to the 1500s can also greatly enhance contemporary higher education curricula. With people, plants, animals, ideas, and beliefs traversing it, the Silk Road is both a metaphor of globalization and an early example of it.

Editors Jacqueline M. Moore and Rebecca Woodward Wendelken highlight the reasons to incorporate this material into a variety of courses and share resources to facilitate that process. The book is intended for those who are not Silk Road or Asian specialists but who wish to embrace a global history and civilizations perspective in teaching, as opposed to the more traditional approach that focuses on cultures in isolation.

Visit our website to view the book's table of contents to see how the essays explore both classroom and experiential learning in an intentionally interdisciplinary manner.

Now available: A Soaring Minaret

2010-07-15T11:37:00.000-04:00

Laury Silvers, Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Toronto, is the author of the newly released A Soaring Minaret: Abu Bakr al-Wasiti and the Rise of Baghdadi Sufism. The book traces the development of early Islamic mysticism and metaphysics through the life and work of theologian Abu Bakr al-Wasiti. Today we're offering you a teaser of the book, via Laury's introduction. Enjoy!

Abu Bakr Muhammad b. Musa al-Wasiti (d. ca. 320 AH/932 ce) was an unpopular shaykh. He had the knack of alienating almost anyone with his exquisitely honest observations on the divine-human relationship. When a man asked Wasiti if his good or bad deeds will matter on the Last Day, Wasiti bluntly informed the man that God creates one’s bad deeds and then punishes one for them. Despite being theologi- cally sound in its particulars, Wasiti’s explanations for positions such as this one do not make them any more comforting. It is not hard to imagine why he may have been driven out of nearly every town he visited and died with only one known devoted companion. But these same statements are also praised in the classical Sufi literature for their uncompromising eloquence and theological sophistication. Several biographers depicted his habit of calling people to account with his sublime if forceful expressions by naming him “a soaring minaret.”

Wasiti’s legacy is a number of firsts: He was one the first students of the great Baghdadi Sufis, Abu al-Qasim al-Junayd (d. 298/910) and Abu al-Husayn al-Nuri (d. 295/907–08). He may have been the first of them to migrate east and establish the Baghdadi Sufi tradition in Khurasan. He was among the first Sufis to articulate a complete metaphysics in keeping with developments in early Ahl a-Hadith theology. Wasiti’s thought anticipates important discussions in later Islamic metaphysics, demonstrating that questions concerning ontology and ethics were being explored with subtlety and rigor from the earliest period onward. Moreover, his sayings offer insight into the development of theological norms in the period just prior to the rise of Ash`arism. Finally, he was one of the first Sufis to compose a Qur'an commentary. Although the original text of his commentary is now lost, Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami (d. 412/1021) included Wasiti’s work in his compendium of Sufi glosses on the Qur'an, Haqa’iq al-tafsir and its appendix Ziyadat haqa’iq al-tafsir preserving his thought and establishing his influence for the later tradition.

Part One is Wasiti’s life told as a story about the development of Sufism in the formative period. The account of Abu Bakr al-Wasiti’s studies, travels, and teaching—especially the story of his Qur'an commentary and its transmission—takes us through the beginnings of Sufism in Baghdadi Ahl al-Hadith culture, the spread of Ahl al-Hadith culture and Baghdadi Sufism East to Khurasan, the consolidation of Baghdadi Sufism and the Khurasani interiorizing traditions by Sulami’s day in the fifth/eleventh century, and finally the contribution of Khurasani Sufism to the rise of the Sufi orders in the sixth/twelfth century....

Part Two turns to an analysis of Wasiti’s understanding the nature of the divine reality. As is typical of nearly all classical Islamic theology, no matter how intellectually detached or theoretical the language may sound, one primarily seeks to understand the divine reality for the sake of conforming one’s own nature to God and His will. In keeping with the theological trends of his day, Wasiti stresses God’s utter incomparability even as he affirms God’s self-manifestation through creation. Wasiti is at pains to preserve the proper boundaries of God’s incomparable Essence such that even as one recognizes God’s manifestation of His attributes through the creatures, one also affirms that the creatures possess nothing of those attributes. Wasiti’s position is seemingly at odds with the goal to conform one’s nature to divine reality. By denying human agency, he claims all human activities, even worship, are “indecent acts.” But in Wasiti’s way of looking at things, abandoning agency is nothing other than conforming to the divine nature and will.

Now available: Arsenic and Clam Chowder

2010-07-14T15:06:00.001-04:00

The latest from our Excelsior Editions imprint recounts the sensational story of the 1896 murder trial of Mary Alice Livingston, who was accused of murdering her mother with an arsenic-laced pail of clam chowder and faced the possibility of becoming the first woman to be executed in New York’s new-fangled electric chair. Arsenic and Clam Chowder, written by James D. Livingston, is set against the electric backdrop of Gilded Age Manhattan. The arrival of skyscrapers, automobiles, motion pictures, and other modern marvels in the 1890s was transforming urban life with breathtaking speed, just as the battles of reformers against vice, police corruption, and Tammany Hall were transforming the city’s political life. In addition to telling a ripping good story, the book addresses a number of social and legal issues, among them capital punishment, equal rights for women, societal sexual standards, inheritance laws in regard to murder, gender bias of juries, and the meaning of “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Tales of New York Government

2010-07-12T15:07:00.002-04:00

A couple of new Excelsior titles received a good deal of attention in recent days. The New York Times featured both books—Tales from the Sausage Factory and The Man Who Saved New York—in Sunday's edition. The Albany Times Union ran an extensive interview with the authors of The Man Who Saved New York, Seymour Lachman and Robert Polner, and the Staten Island Advance also featured an article on the book and interview with Seymour Lachman.

At a time when New York State's government seems more dysfuntional than ever, these books provide prime examples of how governments—local, state, and federal—can work to avoid the renewed threat of bankruptcy that now confronts not only New York, but most states.

Hugh Carey and the Great Fiscal Crisis

2010-07-02T13:17:00.000-04:00

NY1 Online's "Inside City Hall" recently featured a lively panel discussion between Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch and authors Seymour Lachman and Robert Polner to discuss former New York Governor Hugh Carey. Lachman and Polner's new book on Carey, The Man Who Saved New York—a portrait of one of New York’s most remarkable governors, with emphasis on his leadership during the fiscal crisis of 1975—will be available next week. You can preorder a copy here or at any other online retailer. Look for it in stores soon as well. It's certainly relevant reading for these times, as New York and most states in the nation once again find themselves in major financial distress.

Watch the panel discussion over at NY1 Online.

Women and American Theater

2010-06-28T09:47:00.005-04:00

The University at Albany's website has a wonderful article up about the recent book Women Writers of the Provincetown Players. The book, edited by UAlbany Professor Emerita of English Judith E. Barlow, is a collection of thirteen short plays by women that were originally produced by the Provincetown Players. Here's an excerpt from the article, including part of the interview with Judith:

"What made the Provincetown Players different from anyone else was that they performed American plays," said Barlow. As a result, they had a tremendous impact on the development of modern theater. In seven years, they produced almost 100 plays by some 50 artists, a large number of which were written by women.

Thirteen of the 29 people listed in the group's incorporation papers were female. Barlow shines a light on a one-act play from each of the female Players.

The Players were mostly white, middle class, and had some college education. But they considered themselves radical bohemians and performed in an abandoned wharf down the street from Glaspell's house on Commercial Street in Provincetown, Mass. They included an anarchist friend of Emma Goldman who sold tickets, and they questioned accepted notions about birth control, marriage, spinsters and the double standard.

Read the full article here and order a copy of the book here.

Road Trip with Dad

2010-06-17T11:52:00.002-04:00

Truckin' with Sam: A Father and Son, The Mick and The Dyl, Rockin' and Rollin', On the Road is a perfect Father's Day memoir. In the book, Lee Gutkind recounts his cross-country road trips with his son, Sam, as they traversed North America talking, laughing, learning, and bonding. As one of a growing number of “old new dads” (recent studies have shown that one in ten children are born to fathers over forty), Gutkind faced challenges—both mental and physical—not faced by younger dads, not the least of which was how to bond with a son who was so much younger than himself. Gutkind’s approach to this challenge has been to spend one to two months of every summer “truckin’” with Sam, a term they define as a metaphor for spontaneity, a lack of restriction: “Truckin’ means that you can do what you want to do sometimes; you don’t always need to do what’s expected.”

ForeWord Reviews said: “Gutkind delivers according to his reputation. Truckin’ is by turns cerebral and funny. It makes for an enjoyable ride.”

Visit the book's website for more excerpts and other exclusive content, including TriQuarterly Online's interview with Lee and Sam!

Happy Father's Day!

Summer in the Hamptons

2010-06-14T13:50:00.000-04:00

Whether you are heading to the Hamptons for a little summer fun or just watching Royal Pains and wishing you were there among the farmers, fishermen, artists, billionaires, and celebrities who populate the eastern end of Long Island, In The Hamptons Too will be your book of choice this summer. Dan Rattiner, editor and publisher of Dan's Papers, is back with his second book of stories about the people who live, work, and play in one of America’s best-known summer colonies, ranging from colorful locals like former East Hampton Town Supervisor Richard T. Gilmartin and marine patrol policeman Ralph George, to more well-known figures like Kurt Vonnegut, Betty Friedan, Alger Hiss, and Martha Stewart.

Rattiner has been covering the Hamptons for over fifty years and this second offering of tales from the Hamptons will make for the perfect beach read this summer. You can also catch the author at one of several readings he'll be giving this summer. Check out his full tour schedule on our events calendar.

The Italian Actress

2010-06-03T08:57:00.002-04:00

Claudia Cardinale, then and now.

Geoffrey Mock recently interviewed Frank Lentricchia for Duke Today, Duke University's daily news and information resource. The interview focuses on Frank's new novel, The Italian Actress, about a has-been American filmmaker in Italy encountering love, cruelty, death, and the enchanting Claudia Cardinale. Lentricchia explains his inspiration:

“Some of this is me trying to come to terms with mortality and the cult of beauty,” he said in an interview.

“When I saw [Claudia’s photograph], I was stunned by it. I wanted my lead character to be obsessed with her youth and beauty. His problem is he cannot accept change, either in her or ultimately in himself.”

Hudson Valley Writers Reflect on Writing

2010-06-01T10:42:00.002-04:00

In River of Words: Portraits of Hudson Valley Writers, seventy-six contemporary writers consider the literary life, the craft of writing, and the beauty of New York's Hudson Valley. With text by Nina Shengold and photos by Jennifer May, the book takes us inside the lives of these writers and examines the pull of the Hudson Valley. For centuries, writers have drawn inspiration from the Hudson River and its surroundings. John Burroughs, James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Edith Wharton all lived and worked in the region immortalized by the Hudson River School of painters. River of Words offers intimate portraits of the current crop of Hudson Valley writers as they continue the tradition of writers drawing inspiration from this distinctive American landscape.

Jennifer May recently created a website for the book that is chock full of exciting content, including sections focusing on the seventy-six writers, excerpts, and news and current events.

Breaking news from Book Expo: Selzer wins another award!

2010-05-26T16:05:00.000-04:00

Seems like only yesterday we were announcing that Richard Selzer's Knife Song Korea won an Independent Publisher Book Award (in fact, it was just last week). Just moments ago, we received word from our people at Book Expo that it's also been awarded the 2009 Editor's Choice Award for Fiction by Foreword Magazine! Congratulations are once again in order for Richard.

Selzer Novel Wins Award

2010-05-20T13:37:00.001-04:00

The 2010 Independent Publisher Book Awards were recently awarded, and Knife Song Korea has tied for silver in the category of Literary Fiction. Congratulations to author Richard Selzer and to all of the other award winners!

Check out the full list of award winners.

Visit us at Book Expo America

2010-05-18T10:45:00.000-04:00

Next week, we'll make our annual trek down to BookExpo America (BEA), the largest publishing event in North America. Publishers, booksellers, authors, librarians, and more will gather in New York City to celebrate publishing, books, and all things related.

We'll be featuring our newest books in the exhibit hall and many of our noted authors will be on hand for autographing sessions, including Binnie Klein, Barbara Chepaitis, Anthony V. Riccio and Silvio Suppa, and Dan Rattiner. BEA will take place from May 25-27 at the Javits Center in New York City. Passes are available to the public, so be sure to stop by and check us out!

On The Evolutionary Review

2010-05-12T10:02:00.000-04:00

Watch Joseph Carroll discuss the journal he coedits (with Alice Andrews), The Evolutionary Review. Joe explains the journal's aim and style as well as the state of the two-cultures synthesis as it exists within the humanities and social sciences today. Enjoy!

Keep on truckin'

2010-05-05T10:37:00.002-04:00

Available next month, Truckin' with Sam is the story of a father and son as they drive across North America in a pickup truck—talking, laughing, fighting, and bonding. The authors, Lee Gutkind and his son Sam, have launched a great website where you can listen to the Dead's "Truckin'", read excerpts from and reviews of the book, and follow the authors' promotional reading schedule (that part coming soon).

Truckin’ with Sam is an honest, moving, and often hilarious account of one father’s determination to bond with his son, a cross-country travelogue that will appeal to old dads, new dads, and women who want to know more about how dads (and sons) think and behave. Preorder your copy of this perfect Father's Day gift today.

Occultist John Dee inspires oddball opera collaboration

2010-04-28T11:20:00.003-04:00

Sixteenth-century alchemist and occultist John Dee—often referred to as the "conjurer to Queen Elizabeth"—will ~~soon~~ at some point be immortalized in an opera, to be cowritten by the duo behind the cartoon rock band Gorillaz—Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett—and Watchmen author and magician, anarchist, and bearded wonder, Alan Moore. We say "at some point" because, as The A.V. Club reports, the project is in the very early stages of development. Here's a snippet from their latest report:

Albarn confirms that the story will concern the life of famed alchemist John Dee, the 16th-century thinker who blurred the line between science and mysticism with his equal devotion to mathematics and stuff like trying to talk to angels in their own language. But in addition to his dabbling in the occult, Dee was also a pioneer in navigation, a noted astronomer, served as a political advisor to Elizabeth I, and amassed the largest library in England—in short, he’s a real nerd’s nerd, right down to his fascination with the supernatural.

Obviously, a collaboration between Moore and Gorillaz based on the life of John "He Talks to Angels" Dee could turn out to be, as The A.V. Club puts it, "one of the most geek-tastic projects of all time."

Coincidentally, our book John Dee's Occultism: Magical Exaltation through Powerful Signs, by noted Dee scholar György E. Szonyi, is newly available in paperback. Renaissance Quarterly said of it:

“The scholar at whatever level interested in understanding the range and scope of occult philosophy in the early modern period, will find Szonyi’s one of the best first books to read.”

In short, it's a perfect companion for those looking to bone up on John Dee and occultism in order to fully appreciate what will surely be an eccentric opera on one of the towering figures of Renaissance mysticism.

Book review: Blows to the Head

2010-04-27T11:07:00.004-04:00

Binnie Klein's Blows to the Head continues to garner positive reviews and attention. Here's a sampling from the latest review, from The Jewish Chronicle:

Klein offers a light-hearted, self-deprecating, and entertaining romp through her unusual experiences as a boxer, using them to connect with her current activities, her past, and her Jewish identification.

Read the full review. Also, we're happy to share Binnie's book trailer, below!

Busy busy busy

2010-04-20T16:48:00.000-04:00

Spring has sprung in the northeast, and as usual that means our next seasonal catalog—the fall seasonal catalog, mind you—will be dropping soon. We've been busy working on that lately, hence the lack of exciting new blog posts. We hope to remedy this soon, but while you wait, remember to become fans of SUNY Press on Facebook, where you can follow our latest news and notes. Also, get out and enjoy the spring weather!

Holocaust Remembrance Week

2010-04-14T09:32:00.004-04:00

April 11-18 is Holocaust Remembrance Week. In light of the timing, we'd like to share some of our books on the topic with you. Click on the book covers to learn more about each title.

Integral Options Cafe

2010-04-12T12:05:00.001-04:00

As mentioned in an earlier post, we're taking orders for the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, plus releasing books in our new companion series on Integral Theory. We've recently discovered the Integral Options Cafe, and thought that readers of our new journal and series might find the blog of interest. Here's how William Harryman at the Cafe describes his mission:

Integral Options Cafe offers a place to discuss all things related to a Buddhist, integral worldview. While theory is important (Buddhism, Ken Wilber, Spiral Dynamics, psychology, and Integral Theory), so is politics, art & poetry, human values, popular culture, and humor. I invite comments, different points of view, and anything that can add to a civil discussion of living in an integral world.

Stan Grof, author of the forthcoming SUNY book Holotropic Breathwork, is actually featured in today's post on the Integral Options Cafe. The article offers a thorough exploration of how Grof helped "launch the dawn of a new psychedelic research era." It's a must-read for anyone interested in Grof, his research, and his impact on the field.

Find us on Facebook

2010-04-06T09:07:00.001-04:00

Short but important post for today: SUNY Press is on Facebook! Find us there by clicking on the Facebook link you see on the right side of our blog, just beneath our logo.

Tell your friends!

Prestigious publication grant awarded by French Embassy

2010-04-05T09:40:00.003-04:00

SUNY Press has received a prestigious Hemingway Grant from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy supporting the forthcoming publication of Guilty, an important work by the 20th-century French philosopher Georges Bataille. Translated and with an introduction by Stuart Kendall, Guilty will be published in January 2011 in the SUNY series in Contemporary French Thought, edited by David Pettigrew and Francois Raffoul. Check back often to our website for further details on this exciting new translation, the first to include the full text of Bataille's Oeuvres Completes.

Should lawmakers be allowed to draw their districts?

2010-03-31T10:15:00.000-04:00

Seymour P. Lachman answers "no" in his recent New York Times op-ed piece. The former five-term New York state senator and coauthor of the forthcoming book, The Man Who Saved New York: Hugh Carey and the Fiscal Crisis of 1975, says that his years spent working in state government convinced him that allowing lawmakers to redraw districts can create a sort of lifetime tenure for elected officials and a near "imperial level of control for the majority leadership."

Read the full op-ed here.

The Digital Revolution

2010-03-30T09:11:00.001-04:00

Today we'd like to share a message from our Executive Director, Gary H. Dunham.
________________________________________________________

Greetings,

It’s high time to speak again about the digital revolution. Dizzying advances in digital communication technologies make it an extraordinarily promising time to be a publisher. At the start of the second decade of the twenty-first century, our authors are sharing their creativity and scholarly research with readers through a wide array of means and media, only one of which is the printed book. As I have often said, those publishers who cling only to the printed book often are not standing in the same room where authors and readers are holding conversations. It’s time to move to where the information flow is taking place.

Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely adore an elegantly designed, printed book—a real, bound narrative that’s portable, acquires a wonderfully vintage smell over time, carries the marks and moments of its owner, and looks so right on a shelf. Printed books will not and should not go away, but they are part of a richer, more dynamic world of information sharing nowadays. It is our responsibility as a publisher to track closely and understand the evolving, myriad ways that authors and readers connect, and to offer a range of choices to both facilitate that communication and enhance the worldwide visibility and accessibility of SUNY Press publications. You deserve that attention and vision from a university press, and so do the lives, peoples, topics, issues, and histories that we share through publications.

Embracing the latest in digital communication technologies is thus a key cornerstone of SUNY Press’s long-term strategic plan. Many of the strategic initiatives and partnerships necessary to carry out this transformation are in full swing, and let me mention some of them here. Our seasonal catalog is now primarily issued as an online, interactive edition. All new titles and a growing number of our backlist are offered in XML, the most versatile and powerful digital platform available. We’re making huge strides towards realizing our dream of a largely virtual warehouse. Each new scholarly monograph published by SUNY Press is available simultaneously in an eco-friendly and affordable DirectText electronic edition. The press’s new journals and conference proceedings dissemination programs are also digitally based, allowing purchasers the freedom and flexibility to buy a digital or print-to-order copy of the whole volume, an individual chapter, or bundles of chapters. We have also aggressively pursued partnerships with a host of online partners in order to maximize the presence of our publications on the Web: NetLibrary and ebrary offer thousands of SUNY Press titles to libraries; Amazon's Kindle now features SUNY Press best sellers, with thousands more soon to be available; Barnes & Noble currently offers over 1,000 SUNY Press e-books, with thousands more on the way. And Google currently makes available thousands of SUNY Press books on Book Search, all of which will soon be sold also through the revolutionary Google Editions program. Wherever you look for a book on the Web, nowadays you are very likely to run into a SUNY Press publication.

Whew! There’s much going on here, digital-wise, and so much more in the works. Stay tuned!

Until next time,

Gary H. Dunham
Executive Director

Integral Theory

2010-03-29T14:04:00.000-04:00

We're happy to announce that orders are now being taken online for the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice (JITP), "the official outlet for material related to Integral Theory and its application." This quarterly, peer-reviewed journal provides research on humanity’s most pressing problems. JITP articles are written by experts from several disciplines, including ecology, religion, sustainability, leadership, psychology, psychiatry, coaching, business, politics, and education.

Subscribe today, and browse back issues as well.

Be on the lookout in the coming months for new books in our companion series on Integral Theory. The first book in this new series, A Guide to Integral Psychotherapy, is available in April.

Get your ebooks here, there, and everywhere

2010-03-25T14:27:00.004-04:00

Have you visited the SUNY Press eBookStore lately? If not, then you may not realize we have 230 (and counting) downloadable books available, including Black Elk Speaks.

We also have a growing list of ebooks available for both the Kindle and the nook. So far there are ~~over 500~~ 1000 titles for the nook and around 50 for the Kindle, with many more to come for both, of course. So the next time you're looking at our books on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, check for the ebook version for your preferred device.

ForeWord Book of the Year Finalists

2010-03-22T15:02:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to authors Richard Selzer, Joe Amato, and Eve Pell. Their books were recently name ForeWord Book of the Year Finalists!

2009 Finalists in Fiction - Literary Category

Knife Song Korea, by Richard Selzer

2009 Finalists in Autobiography/Memoir Category

Once an Engineer, by Joe Amato

We Used to Own the Bronx, by Eve Pell

The 2009 Book of the Year Award winners will be announced on May 25 at a ceremony at BookExpo America. The winners are being selected by a panel of librarians and booksellers.

ForeWord's Book of the Year Awards program was designed to discover distinctive books from independent publishers across a number of genres. The Awards program often serves to provide these worthy projects with a second wind of publicity.

The Problem with Pacifism and How to Fix It

2010-03-18T09:10:00.003-04:00

Dustin Ells Howes, author of Toward a Credible Pacifism: Violence and the Possibilities of Politics, wrote to share some information on a couple of upcoming speaking engagements in Syracuse and Oswego, New York. Both events are open to the public. Dustin will also have a few books on hand for purchase and signing.

Here is the basic appearance info:

March 25th, 2pm
Lemoyne College
Grewen Auditorium
Sponsored by the Center for Peace and Global Studies. Co-Sponsored by the Department of Political Science and the Lectures Committee.

March 25th, 7pm
SUNY-Oswego, Hart Hall Basement
Sponsored by Peace and Conflict Studies, Political Studies, Global and International Studies, Civic Engagement Coalition, Interdisciplinary Programs and Activities Center

Talk Title: The Problem with Pacifism and How to Fix It (same talk at both locations).

Here is a brief description of what Dustin will be discussing:

Most pacifists argue that violence is immoral and making politics more ethical requires a more or less wholesale rejection of it. Yet nearly every political ideology besides pacifism – liberalism, conservatism, fascism, communism, and anarchism – remains unconvinced. Professor Howes argues that this is because pacifists too often try to tackle the problem of violence from an ethical as opposed to a political standpoint. Pacifists should cede that, at least on their own terms, the major ideologies have made an effective case for the legitimacy of violence. The political significance of Gandhi’s techniques is that he showed that violence is never necessary. A practical pacifism can concede that violence sometimes works and sometimes produces just results, but hold fast to the insight that there is almost always an alternative to violence that is more responsible. Gandhi demonstrated this by inventing a political technique that, even in the context of extreme instances of violence and oppression, has just as much of a chance of succeeding as violence.

Dustin Ells Howes is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Louisiana State University and the author of Toward a Credible Pacifism: Violence and the Possibilities of Politics. He studies political theory with a particular emphasis on the problem of violence and politics and has published articles in International Studies Quarterly, Human Rights Review, and Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He received the Tanner Award for Teaching Excellence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a contributor to the blog Waging Nonviolence.

Author Spotlight: Annette Dunlap

2010-03-17T10:47:00.000-04:00

We're happy to share with you that author Annette Dunlap set up her own author's page over at Amazon. Here's a bio she put together for the page:

When people ask me why I wrote a biography, I tell them it was on my "bucket list." Ever since I was a schoolgirl, I have enjoyed reading about other people's lives, and I determined that one day a book of mine would be in the biography section of the library. The decision to write about Frances Cleveland was made during my years as a marketing professor at a small, liberal arts college in North Carolina. The advertising textbook discussed the advent of mass marketing, and mentioned that a very attractive first lady's image was used, without her permission, to market a wide variety of products. That first lady was Frances Folsom Cleveland. I did a little background reading, and learned that she was our nation's youngest first lady, that her wedding took place in the White House, and that there was a 27 year age difference between her and her husband, Grover Cleveland. Such is the stuff of novels, but as is often the case, the facts may be more believable than if an author had used the same characters in a work of fiction.

Frank is my first book, but it will not be my last. I am at work on a second book, again to be published by SUNY Press/Excelsior Editions.

You can track Annette's recent events related to her biography of Frances Folsom Cleveland, Frank. Annette's also listing her upcoming events, including one tonight in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Let's Be Frank: First Ladies & Second Marriages

2010-03-15T10:15:00.001-04:00

Annette Dunlap's recent book, Frank: The Story of Frances Folsom Cleveland, America's Youngest First Lady, is the first full-length biography of America’s youngest, and possibly most underrated, First Lady. This past weekend, Annette participated in a Q&A for Parade Magazine. The question concerned First Ladies who've remarried (hint: her expertise on Frances Folsom came in handy). Check it out!

On the Origins of Comics

2010-03-11T12:57:00.002-05:00

Brian Boyd's fascinating essay in the inaugural issue of The Evolutionary Review is now available online for you to read—for free! Here's the opening two paragraphs, to set the scene a bit:

Comics can have almost no mass and yet be the most mass of mass arts: Garﬁeld has had up to 263 million readers a day. Comics constitute a new art, just over a century old, and usually an unusually accessible one. So what can evolution add to our understanding of comics?

Evolution lets us see comics, like almost anything human or even alive, in a panoramic context but also in extreme close-up, as close as a comics artist trying to grab readers’ attention in this frame or with that angle. And it can zoom smoothly between these two poles. Evolution offers a uniﬁed and naturalistic causal system from the general to the very particular. Far from reducing all to biology and then to chemistry and physics, it easily and eagerly plugs in more local factors—in a case like comics, historical, technological, social, artistic and individual factors, for instance—the closer we get to particulars. Evolution accepts multilevel explanations, from cells to societies, and allows full room for nature and culture, society and individuals.

Read the article and then subscribe to The Evolutionary Review (download the entire issue, order a hard copy, or order individual articles).

New York's Indie and Small Press Book Fair

2010-03-09T11:01:00.000-05:00

Check out this LA Times article about last weekend's New York Indie and Small Press Book Fair. Author Binnie Klein (Blows to the Head) is featured prominently in the piece. Here's another picture of Binnie, relaxing at the Excelsior Editions table with our very own James Peltz.

Dutch Albany Extravaganza

2010-02-26T14:30:00.000-05:00

Attention Albany, NY area residents: Save the date and mark your calendars for the Dutch Albany Extravaganza on Sunday, March 7th! From the Capital Region food blog, Table Hopping:

The event will include traditional Dutch treats and coffee at the Bistro/Bar at 74 State, a trolley tour of historic Albany locations, lecture by food historian Peter G. Rose on Dutch art and food, and a traditional Dutch dinner at Marché.

Peter G. Rose, food historian and author, will also be giving a lecture on Dutch art and food. Rose, recipient of the Alice P. Kenney Award for research and writing on the food customs and diet of the Dutch settlers in New Netherland, is author of Summer Pleasures, Winter Pleasures, a cookbook filled with informative and tasty Hudson Valley recipes.

This will be a day of events that you won’t want to miss.

Visit Table Hopping for the pricing and menu information, and check out Peter G. Rose’s cookbook.

SUNY's Statewide Conversation

2010-02-22T11:00:00.007-05:00

Last Friday the Press took part in SUNY’s sixth Statewide Conversation at SUNY Plattsburgh. SUNY Press joined forces with SUNY Central Administration to showcase SUNY at Sixty, an in-depth look at SUNY’s history, political landscape, evolving mission, institutional variety, international partnerships, leadership, and much more. Hot off the press, SUNY at Sixty also marks the first set of conference proceedings published by the SUNY XPress digital program. Check out some pictures from the event below. The Press will also be taking part in upcoming conversations at Upstate Medical University and the University at Albany!

The Great Rabbino interviews Binnie Klein

2010-02-18T14:27:00.001-05:00

Another day, another interview for Binnie Klein! This time she discussed Blows to the Head with Jeremy Fine at the "Ultimate Jewish Sports Blog," The Great Rabbino. Klein reflects on her life as a Jewish woman and how she became captivated with the boxing world.

I was quite the unlikely contender – quite sedentary – and certainly did not come from a background of athleticism, growing up in Newark, New Jersey in the 1950s. One day, while training with my coach John Spehar, a former middleweight state champion, and quite a history buff, I asked: “John, were there ever any Jewish boxers?” I was amazed and fascinated to hear about the 26 champions between 1910 and 1940. For reasons I could not fathom at the time, the existence of these Jewish athletes was very important to me, and led me to research their lives and their achievements.

Read the full interview and keep up with Binnie at her website.

Binnie Klein, Boxing, and Boomer Lit

2010-02-12T14:52:00.003-05:00

We've all heard that the boomer generation wields an enormous amount of buying power in today's consumer culture. So it only makes sense that the number of "boomer lit" titles seems to be growing steadily in recent years. Women On Writing (WOW) explores this genre and asks "Do readers want to follow the antics of a fifty-something woman as she looks for love while finding herself? Can a literary genre about the boomer generation draw enough interest to sustain it?" The answers appear be to complicated.

SUNY Press author Binnie Klein was interviewed for the article and shared her thoughts on her book, Blows to the Head, and if it fits in with other so-called "boomer lit" books.

Klein has mixed feelings about the boomer lit category. She says any time a genre is created, there’s a tendency to assign it a connotation or quality that doesn’t accurately describe it. On the other hand, boomer lit is an interesting marketing tool about the power of change and reinvention that she finds interesting. “Good books are good books whether you call them a catchy genre or not.”

Read the rest of Binnie's interview and the full article here. Do you read boomer lit? If so, what attracts you to the genre? And what are some of your favorites?

Before we go, here's a recent interview with Binnie on WTNH's Connecticut Style. Enjoy!

Inside the Olympic Industry

2010-02-11T12:56:00.001-05:00

The opening ceremonies for the Vancouver Olympics are Friday night, and Olympic fever is spreading quickly. Vancouver's online source, Straight, is featuring four of the best books on the Olympics—and one of them is Inside the Olympic Industry: Power, Politics, and Activism, by Helen Jefferson Lenskyj. Here's their take on the book:

There are other solid critiques of the Olympics, such as Andrew Jennings’s two Lords of the Rings books and Helen Lenskyj’s more recent Olympic Industry Resistance: Challenging Olympic Power and Propaganda, which was published in 2008.

But this penetrating analysis by Lenskyj, released in 2000, remains a classic for how thoroughly it exposes the secrecy, elitism, hypocrisy, corruption, and lack of accountability of what she calls the “Olympic industry”. Lenskyj, a Toronto sociologist and activist, wrote the book at the height of a scandal over the Salt Lake City bid committee’s unethical gift-giving to International Olympic Committee delegates.

It’s worth noting that the Vancouver bid committee never released an itemized list of its expenditures to suppliers of goods and services, so there’s no way of telling if our city won the Games through similar means. Lenskyj’s book points out that bid and organizing committees have never been covered by freedom-of-information legislation, furthering the lack of transparency—though that will change for the London Games in 2012.

Lenskyj also shows how the Olympic Charter’s ban on “political, religious or racial propaganda” near venues is designed to stifle dissent in host cities. In addition, Inside the Olympic Industry shines a light on how the media and universities have been complicit in suppressing public debate. “A beautified, gentrified city with state-of-the-art professional sport facilities has no value to men, women, and children whose basic needs are not being met,” Lenskyj writes.

If you want to know why there will be so many protesters on the streets of Vancouver on Friday (February 12), this book provides the answer.

Read the rest of the list here, and check out Helen's other books on the Olympics.

Black History Month

2010-02-10T09:34:00.001-05:00

Every other day this month, the SUNY Press homepage will be featuring a select list of titles for Black History Month. Our African American Studies list alone consists of more than 120 titles. Celebrate the month by exploring books written by and for African Americans.

Look Who's Talking: Eve Pell

2010-02-08T14:03:00.004-05:00

Eve Pell (above, left), author of We Used to Own the Bronx, was recently interviewed at Boca Grande Talk, the online home of Florida's Gasparilla Gazette. Eve was in town to visit former roommate Alice Gorman (above, right), a Boca Grande resident, and to speak to a sold-out benefit audience at Johann Fust Community Library with "revolutionary tales of her unique life and times." Enjoy the full Q&A here.

The Examiner reviews Blows to the Head

2010-02-02T15:50:00.002-05:00

Our boxing week continues. Today we have a review of Binnie Klein's book to share, courtesy of Joseph Roche at The Examiner. Here's an excerpt:

The most interesting parts of Klein’s book are the little things about the Jewish experience that are shared across generations. The stories of Jewish fighters changing their names so that their mother’s wouldn’t find out that they were boxing (to Jewish mother’s boxing was a shanda), or stories of Klein’s family and her upbringing – the father who for much of the story she seems in a mixture of fear and reverence of winds up at the end being somewhat redeemed with the simple acknowledgement that he always kept driving to the “motel with the pool.”

Read the full review and visit Binnie's website for more on Blows to the Head.

Book signing for Blows to the Head

2010-02-01T15:45:00.002-05:00

Binnie Klein read from and signed copies of her book, Blows to the Head: How Boxing Changed My Mind, this past Saturday at Barnes & Noble in North Haven, Connecticut. Binnie and her boxing coach, John Spehar, struck a pose at the event. As Binnie says: "In mid-life, I picked up the unusual stone of boxing that appeared on my path and boxer/coach John Spehar helped me realize a dream."

Binnie, signing copies.

Launching the Journals Program: The Evolutionary Review

2010-01-27T10:20:00.007-05:00

We are excited to begin a new Journals Program here at the Press, starting with the inaugural issue of The Evolutionary Review: Art, Science, Culture.

Over the past several years, “literary Darwinism,” evolutionary aesthetics, and evolutionary cultural theory have expanded and flourished, displaying their vitality in numerous articles and books, and gaining ever-increasing visibility not just in academic journals but in newspapers and magazines aimed at educated general readers. The Evolutionary Review (TER) now offers a forum for the whole scope of evolutionary thinking in every field of human interest.

Most of the writers contributing to TER are academics, but the editors didn’t want this to be an “academic” publication. Even in its more respectful connotations, the word “academic” suggests writing oriented to specialized professional audiences highly tolerant of routine recitations, dry facts, neutral or conventional authorial personas, an impersonal manner, and prose that is merely efficient—not aesthetically pleasing, not expressive or evocative, not, in itself, enjoyable to read. Why should serious writing be dull? The editors (Alice Andrews and Joe Carroll) decided that they would make pleasure for readers one of the chief criteria for selecting contributions to TER. They aimed at eliciting critical reflections that would charm the imagination with wit, humor, and invention. They wanted prose that would please the tongue and tickle the ear, satisfying a lust for language that is sinuous, vivid, sharp, and clear.

The editors knew many evolutionists with lively, cultivated minds. They saw that many humanists have acquired a sophisticated understanding of human evolutionary biology and that many evolutionary scientists have become increasingly alert to the peculiarly “human” character of “human nature”—recognizing that culture has a truly exceptional importance for this one species. The time, then, seemed right. Even five years ago, such a journal might not have been possible. The first volume of TER splendidly demonstrates that evolutionary cultural critique can be wide-ranging, powerful, and subtle. The editors and contributors are confident that a vast territory lies open here for exploration. The pool of potential explorers has no visible limits. Come join us!

Interview with author of Vampire God

2010-01-25T13:50:00.001-05:00

TheoFantastique, described as "a meeting place for myth, imagination, and mystery in pop culture" recently interviewed Mary Hallab, author of Vampire God. It's a fascinating and in-depth interview in which Mary expounds on the major themes of her book. Enjoy!

Take a breather

2010-01-20T09:55:00.002-05:00

This Friday, January 22nd, is the Global Day Of The Breath. From the website Breathwork:

This is the day that the whole planet is invited to participate in some form of conscious breathing.

The event(s) are nominally organised by the International Breathwork Foundation through the National Coordinator for your region. If you do not know who this is, follow the link and search the IBF members list.

If you want to participate and cannot or do not want to find an IBF NC or event, then please do the following:

• At midday wherever you are...
• Stop what you are doing...
• Sit quietly...
• Close your eyes...
• Focus your attention on the physical sensation of your breath moving in and out of your body...
• Continue you to do this for 15 - 30 minutes or longer if you wish

This sounds quite relaxing, so count us in. Sharon Mijares' book, The Revelation of the Breath: A Tribute to Its Wisdom, Power, and Beauty, would make for some wonderful reading, should you decide to pursue the healing power of the breath more regularly. And coming this fall we're publishing the latest from Christina and Stanislav Grof, the developers of holotropic breathwork. Stay tuned for more on this exciting new project.

Go, Tell Michelle: From Page to Stage

2010-01-18T12:27:00.002-05:00

Go, Tell Michelle is making the transition from the written page to the performance stage. Here are the details, straight from the GTM Sisterhood Network blog:

On January 19th, we will make history when the dramatic adaptation of "Go, Tell Michelle: African American Women Write to the New First Lady" comes to the stage at Allen Hall Theater at the University at Buffalo. Adapted and directed by Robert Knopf, chair of the University's Theater and Dance Department, "Go, Tell Michelle: the Play" will feature three readers; Karima Amin, Peggy Brooks-Bertram and Barbara Seals Nevergold.

Congratulations to Barbara and Peggy on this exciting development. For more on the dramatic adaptation, check out recent posts on the GTM Sisterhood blog and also visit our events calendar for exact time and location information.

Author Spotlight: Samer S. Shehata

2010-01-15T09:40:00.000-05:00

Samer S. Shehata is Assistant Professor of Arab Politics at Georgetown University and the author of the new book, Shop Floor Culture and Politics in Egypt, an ethnographic study of textile factory workers in Alexandria, Egypt. Samer's been busy promoting the book these past few months and recently shared some of his multimedia interviews with us.

Samer was interviewed by the publication for the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown and you can read it here. The school's media relations office also produced a video interview with him; watch it here. Finally, you can listen to an in-depth interview where Samer explores what he learned while researching and writing the book, including how the "tools of a different discipline—cultural anthropology, specifically the discipline of ethnography—opened up the world to him in way that had great implications both for the book and for his teaching."

Aging by the Book

2010-01-13T09:22:00.000-05:00

Kay Heath, author of Aging by the Book: The Emergence of Midlife in Victorian Britain (now available in paperback), is today's feature interview on ROROTOKO. In the piece, Kay discusses the origins of our often unhealthy obsessions with aging. Here's a snippet describing the personal experiences that sparked Kay's interest in writing the book:

I became interested in writing about age as a “non-traditional” graduate student in my early forties. Not just self-conscious about being older than my classmates, I also couldn’t help but notice that sometimes I was older even than the professor. As we discussed race, class, and gender as key aspects of identity, I began thinking about age. My fellow grad students were finding life partners and wondering whether to have babies, but I was parenting teenagers and dating after the end of a twenty-year marriage. My life stage seemed just as important as my middle-class, white femaleness. I became fascinated with the ways midlife was portrayed—and overlooked—in the texts we were reading. I began researching this topic and found midlife anxiety in a wide variety of nineteenth-century publications: conduct books, medical texts, and advertisements, but especially in novels.

Hitting with her best shot

2010-01-12T09:07:00.004-05:00

Binnie Klein, author of Blows to the Head: How Boxing Changed My Mind, was recently interviewed by Ken Best on WPKN. Fittingly, the interview begins with Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"! The New Haven Register also ran a feature story on Binnie, which you can read here. Be sure to check out Binnie's website as well, which is chock-full of all things related to the book and her boxing experiences.

Deciphering Warhol and Van Gogh

2010-01-11T09:07:00.007-05:00

The New Yorker recently ran two stellar pieces on legendary artists (summarized nicely at The ArtBlog), one by Adam Gopnik about Vincent van Gogh and his severed ear and the other from Louis Menand concerning Andy Warhol's life and work. They're engrossing articles, with revealing facts and analyses on these artists, which is surprising, given that these are two of the most studied and dissected artists of all time.

We highly recommend both essays, with a chaser of the following books from last year, Mystery of The Night Café: Hidden Key to the Spirituality of Vincent van Gogh and Materializing Queer Desire: Oscar Wilde to Andy Warhol for additional perspectives and critical analyses.

Have you read these essays and/or books? If so, what are your opinions?

Congratulations to SUNY Press award winners

2010-01-08T10:37:00.001-05:00

Five SUNY Press titles have been named 2009 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Titles. Here are the winners:

Measured Meals: Nutrition in America
By Jessica J. Mudry

Digital Diaspora: A Race for Cyberspace
By Anna Everett

The Politics of Inquiry: Education Research and the "Culture of Science"
By Benjamin Baez and Deron Boyles

The Lebanese Army: A National Institution in a Divided Society
By Oren Barak

Fairy Tales: A New History
By Ruth B. Bottigheimer

Congratulations to all of our award-winning authors!

Staid publishing world rejoices—in a dignified manner, of course

2010-01-05T15:14:00.002-05:00

From today's New York Daily Intel:

Back in December, the staid publishing world was ruffled by the news that both Editor & Publisher and Kirkus Reviews were to be shuttered by parent company Nielsen Business Media as part of a massive restructuring. But Daily Finance reported this morning that there's still hope for at least one of those venerable titles. Read the rest here.

Last month, the possible shuttering of Kirkus did set off yet another round of "death of publishing" missives. At the time, we enjoyed this reasoned piece on the matter, also from New York, which nicely summed up how Kirkus was(is?) viewed:

The Pepsi to Publishers Weekly's Coke when it comes to prepub press, Kirkus was always known, to the booksellers and industry reporters who relied on its write ups of forthcoming titles, as the cranky one ... Kirkus could usually be counted on to demolish the overblown writers, and to be unsparing when it came to first novels by photogenic young things. A rave in Kirkus was truly a prize; a hatchet job was an easy enough excuse for a bookstore owner, besieged by the sheer volume of books being flogged, to move on. Read the rest here.

The Kirkus story looks like an evolving one, so we'll keep our eyes on it.

Happy New Year!

2009-12-22T10:37:00.005-05:00

In this industry, we're always working toward future publishing deadlines. So, as we leave 2009 behind, it actually feels like we've been living in 2010 (and beyond) for some time now. However, it's worth noting that 2009 was a stellar year for SUNY Press. The year was full of memoirs, oral histories, blood-suckers, letters to the First Lady, and cookbooks, to name only a few. As we move into the new year, this blog will continue to update you on the latest news and notes from the Press, including exciting new e-content, journals, conference proceedings, art books, regional studies, scholarly monographs, and much more.

Happy New Year!

We Used to Own the Bronx: Notable Book for 2009

2009-12-21T10:05:00.001-05:00

Another day, another book makes another year-end best books list. This time it's Eve Pell's We Used to Own the Bronx. Eve's inside story of privilege, wealth, and the American upper crust made the San Francisco Chronicle's list of notable books for 2009.

Go, Tell Michelle among critic's top books for 2009

2009-12-18T11:45:00.001-05:00

Seems like only yesterday that we published Go, Tell Michelle, our book of letters written by African American women to Michelle Obama. In actuality, that was back in January of this year, right before the Presidential Inauguration. The book received quite a bit of attention during that momentous time. Now it's good to see it appearing on critic Kam Williams' list of the Ten Best Black Books of 2009 (nonfiction category). Williams is a member of the New York Film Critics Online, Rotten Tomatoes, the African-American Film Critics Association, and the NAACP Image Awards Nominating Committee.

So, as we near the close of 2009, we've come full circle in a way—back to the book that successfully launched 2009 for us. Congratulations again go out to the book's coeditors, Barbara A. Seals Nevergold and Peggy Brooks-Bertram.

Critics' Pick for 2009: Knife Song Korea

2009-12-15T13:30:00.005-05:00

Congratulations are in order for Richard Selzer, whose novel Knife Song Korea was named one of the California Literary Review's Critics' Picks for Best Books of 2009. Here's a snippet of the glowing review:

“...a number of novella’s are among the classics of U.S. literature: Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, Steinbeck’s classic Of Mice and Men, and Philip Roth’s Goodbye, Columbus to name just three. Knife Song Korea may come to join that distinguished collection. It is a lapidary work of exceptional artistry as well as a valuable addition to the body of notable works by physician-writers.” — California Literary Review

Check out the Review's full list of top books for 2009 (you'll find Knife Song Korea on the fiction list, just below Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice), then read the entire book review.

The holiday sale continues!

2009-12-14T09:43:00.003-05:00

Just a friendly reminder: over at our website we're offering 20% off plus free shipping—all December long! So head over and take advantage of these great offers while they last.

Dunlap leads Agassi in North Carolina

2009-12-11T11:40:00.002-05:00

Here's a fun tidbit. Looks like author Annette Dunlap's book Frank: The Story of Frances Folsom Cleveland, America's Youngest First Lady finished November at # 3 on the nonfiction bestsellers list in Sandhills, North Carolina—ahead of Andre Agassi's splashy new biography. C'mon Carolina book buyers—let's make a run at the Sarah Palin bio in the top spot next! Congratulations, Annette!

Thoughts on Oprah's next move

2009-12-10T12:00:00.002-05:00

We asked Cecilia Konchar Farr (author and coeditor of two previous books on Oprah's Book Club) to share her thoughts on what's next for the queen of all media, Oprah Winfrey, now that she's leaving her daytime talk show behind in 2011. Read on to see what Cecilia had to say about that as well as Oprah's savvy trendsetting ways, watching shows online, and why we desperately need some exciting discussions of books on TV (something beyond the currently somber affairs broadcast on C-SPAN and PBS).

Oprah is leaving network television. So who isn’t? I grew up in the sixties a walking talking TV Guide for our three TV stations. My first crushes were Peter Tork, Manolito Montoya and John-Boy Walton, in that order; my after school hours were spent not with homework and hovering parents, but with hours of Dark Shadows and Star Trek re-runs. I patterned my early career on Linda Kelsey’s character from Lou Grant. And yet, I can’t remember the last time I tuned into prime-time programming or even the evening news. My nineteen-year-old daughter gets her TV shows on her computer, and my sixteen-year-old son uses his television exclusively for gaming. It isn’t even hooked up to our cable.

Chicken Little media commentators should take this moment to remember that Oprah is nothing if not a savvy first adopter of trends that American women faithfully follow. Not only did she all but invent the latest self-help craze, but she was an early presence on satellite radio, and her website continues to be one of the richest and most accessible on the internet. With that in mind, I’m willing to bet that Oprah’s recently announced retirement from her CBS program and her move to cable TV and her own network (“OWN”—Oprah Winfrey Network—ah, the irony for the woman who, literally, has everything) will mark not the end of her influence but the expansion of it.

In fact, as a book lover and admirer of Ms. Winfrey, I look forward to what’s ahead. Here’s why: Imagine what she can do with all of that programming, without the constraints of a traditional, ad-driven, one-hour talk show format. She might do for cable networks what she did for TV talk shows, contemporary novels and women’s magazines. Based on her track record, I predict she will raise the level of discourse by at least a couple of notches, while being respectfully attentive to the desires of the mostly middle-aged and middle-class women in her audience. When Oprah turns her energies toward cable, maybe fewer women on Oxygen will snap or dash incessantly to the top of the Empire State building because they believe in love. And why not? Most critics agree that Oprah single-handedly stopped the downward spiral of chair-hurling exhibitionism of eighties daytime talk shows. Who better to stop the Meg Ryan re-run insanity and give women the variety and depth they deserve from the television stations that cater to them?

I anticipate that OWN might herald a return to conversations about writing, to indulgent hours spent over food and novels, to the lively exchanges between readers and authors that characterized the first six years of Oprah’s Book Club. I want to hear that old Oprah toast, “Here’s to books!” On Oprah’s network, we could hear it every day. It will be no less valuable for being sandwiched between hours of Drs. Phil and Oz.

Even before Oprah’s Book Club, I had been wishing for a Reading Rainbow for grown-ups, a TV show that captures the joy so many of us find in reading. After visiting many book groups in my research over the past five years, I can’t stop asking why Book TV is so painfully boring. Shouldn’t TV about books be even more engaging than the Discovery, Food or History channels? I blush when I listen to critics, writers and scholars on C-SPAN, PBS and NPR. Why do we get so solemn when we talk about books, modulating our tones and reining in our enthusiasms? This is terrific stuff we’re dealing with. We should sound like Mythbusters Adam and Jamie at the scene of an explosion.

And who better to capture that level of excitement than Oprah? She’s done it before, if only once a month or so for six years. With OWN, she will have the space and time to do it again. And if she builds it, women will come—or is it that she builds where innovative women are already going, pursuing Jon Stewart or Tony Soprano? Either way, it’s OK to say so long to Oprah on CBS. The new OWN might very well launch my generation into the strange new TV world our children are already exploring. I just hope Oprah brings her Book Club along for the ride.

The Oprah Affect

2009-12-04T11:20:00.005-05:00

Oprah Winfrey recently announced that she'll be ending her wildly successful television show in 2011 after 25 years on the air. This led to shock across the Internet and the question of who will replace the daytime queen?

Book publishers also weighed in on the loss, especially as it relates to selling books. “Listen, anytime we lose an outlet as significant as Oprah’s, it’s not a plus,” said Random House spokesperson Stuart Applebaum. “She had the potential to move that sales needle like nobody else on the air. Or frankly in any other medium we care about.” Over at MediaBistro, GalleyCat had a different opinion, one worth reading in order to understand both sides of this divide.

This is as good a time as any to revisit a couple of books that explore the argument over the cultural impact of Oprah's Book Club. Cecilia Konchar Farr's Reading Oprah and The Oprah Affect (coedited by Farr and Jaime Harker) look at how the Book Club changed America's reading habits. Here's what Bitch had to say about Reading Oprah:

“…Farr doesn’t just present an airtight defense of Oprah’s Book Club as a positive cultural force; she also takes on the Western canon and the critics who create and sustain it … As … Farr sees it, Oprah’s greatest sin, in the eyes of these critics, is her commitment to getting books into the hands of the masses … and encouraging them not only to talk about books as if they matter, but as if their own lives matter, too … [Farr] … presents her views in an eminently rational, plainspoken, and impeccably informed voice ... it’s difficult not to give Oprah some long-overdue props for her impressive achievement.”

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-02T10:11:00.001-05:00

The holidays are in full swing, and we'd like to wish everyone a very merry holiday season. Over at our website we're offering a special holiday discount for the entire month of December: 20% off all titles plus free shipping! So shop 'til you drop—our Excelsior Editions collection offers a nice selection of gift items, from art books to cookbooks to calendars and more!

You may also notice while surfing our site that it's been through a full redesign—a fancy new look plus improved functionality! We invite you to check out the spiffy new site design and drop us a line about it in the comments section below.

Convicted Survivors

2009-11-24T16:07:00.008-05:00

Maria Suarez and Elizbeth Dermody Leonard

The Orange County Register recently ran an engrossing article about Maria Suarez, a sex trafficking victim who was imprisoned by her abuser for five years in the late 1970s and then imprisoned for 22 more years in the California Institution for Women for the 1981 death of her abuser. The abuser was murdered by a neighbor, but Suarez was unjustly convicted of the crime. The story does end happily, with Suarez now free (she was pardoned a few years ago by the Governor of California) and working to raise awareness about the very real issue of human trafficking. SUNY Press author Elizabeth Dermody Leonard met Suarez years ago, while doing research for her dissertation on women who had been imprisoned for the death of their abusers.

[Maria's] case also reveals a ray of hope. That's because someone—Elizabeth Dermody Leonard—was paying attention. And she helped kick off the process that would eventually free Suarez, now 49.

Friday, Suarez spoke before a group gathered at the Borders bookstore in Costa Mesa brought together by the nonprofit Live2free, a group that seeks to raise awareness about human trafficking. And it was Leonard, a sociologist and criminologist who teaches at Vanguard University, whom Suarez acknowledged as her "inspiration" during her talk.

"She's the one who actually started to open up files (of people who) were wrongfully convicted... And a lot of people started coming out, to be free. And... I thank you for that because you are part of my freedom," Suarez told Leonard, who was in the audience.

During the time that Leonard was meeting with Suarez, she was working on Convicted Survivors, which details the experiences of women imprisoned for killing their male abusers and their treatment by the criminal justice system. Leonard’s in-depth interviews reveal what Maria Suarez and countless other women experience in these situations: they are slow to identify themselves as battered women and continue to minimize the violence done to them, make numerous and varied attempts to end abusive relationships, and are systematically failed by the systems they look to for help. Ultimately these stories are ones of hope, and in the case of Maria Suarez, that hope of freedom sustained her for years.

The first time Leonard saw Suarez after Suarez' release was in the spring of 2006, when Suarez returned to her former prison to see a play based on Leonard's research. Leonard says she strives to either talk by phone or meet the former inmates in person at least once after their release. She notes that their voices, among other things, change dramatically.

"It's like they're 20 years younger."

When she saw Suarez for the first time as a free woman, Leonard noted the difference: Shoulders back; a confident stance, a smile.

"She came back to the prison to help others. I can't imagine the type of courage it takes to walk back (behind) those walls, to hear the sound of the door clanging shut," Leonard says.

"But she knew that it gave hope to the others, and she wanted to encourage hope."

Put up your dukes

2009-11-19T11:10:00.008-05:00

Binnie Klein is many things: a psychotherapist, a lecturer at Yale University's Department of Psychiatry, and even the host of a popular weekly music and interview program on WPKN radio. She's also an avid boxer. One of these things does not fit with the others, right? Binnie took up boxing in her mid-fifties, and the sport has helped her undergo a fascinating midlife transformation. She's written a new book on her love affair with boxing, called Blows to the Head: How Boxing Changed My Mind. The Jewish Ledger recently interviewed Binnie about the book, boxing, and how the ring has helped her explore both her roots and a surprising chapter of the Jewish immigrant experience. You can read the full interview here.

Let them eat cake

2009-11-10T09:23:00.002-05:00

Mary Hallab, author of Vampire God, was the guest of honor at a book launch party last week, thrown by her friends and colleagues. She sent some photos of the party. Remember the book cover image?

Well, here it is again...on a cake:

That's a pretty good likeness! And we love the subtle shadings of the blue frosting—the more unnatural the frosting color the more we want to taste it. Mary says the cake was made by Sarah and Phong Nguyen, "amazing cake makers (and artist and short story writers—both University of Central Missouri faculty)." Here's Mary cutting into the creepy cake:

Mary's pals certainly know how to throw a fun book launch party. Great job, all around. Thanks for sharing these photos, Mary.

Albany Antiquarian Book Fair

2009-11-09T10:47:00.010-05:00

SUNY Press was one of 60 exhibitors at the 35th Annual Albany, NY Antiquarian Book Fair in the historic Washington Avenue Armory. Dealers from at least ten states and Canada were selling antiquarian and out-of-print books, manuscripts, autographs, postcards, maps, posters, photographs and ephemera. Because many of the dealers specialized in New York/Northeast items, we brought along some of our Excelsior titles, which highlight the cultural and historical impact of New York state on the world.

We had a steady stream of people browsing and buying all day, and the fair itself seemed very well attended. Thanks to our partners at the Albany Institute of History & Art for sponsoring this event once again.

Cooking your way through the Hudson Valley

2009-11-05T11:07:00.018-05:00

Food historian and writer Peter G. Rose's new cookbook, Summer Pleasures, Winter Pleasures, offers a variety of recipes that spotlight the historical and culinary heritage of New York's Hudson Valley. Peter was interviewed in today's Albany Times Union. The interview is followed by a series of recipes from the book. We hope you have fun creating these Hudson Valley dishes in your kitchen.

As a teaser, here's one of the recipes from the book:

Pork Chops with Pears and Blue Cheese

Makes 4 servings

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 thick pork chops
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 large pears, quartered, cored and peeled
1/2 cup white wine or water
4 ounces crumbled blue cheese

In a frying pan, heat oil. Season pork chops with salt and pepper and fry until browned on both sides.

In the meantime, cut each pear quarter lengthwise into 3 slices. Add pears to the browned chops, along with the wine or water. Cover pan, reduce heat, and cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until the chops are done.

Uncover pan and sprinkle crumbled blue cheese on top. Turn off heat, replace the cover and allow pan to stand for a few minutes.

Peter will be at "Sip & Sign," a free book signing with 25 authors, from 1 to 4 pm Nov. 14 at Millbrook Vineyards & Winery, 26 Wing Road, Millbrook, NY. Call (845) 677-8383 for details.

Saving Troy

2009-11-02T13:27:00.002-05:00

Troy, New York native Bill Patrick was interviewed in the Albany Times Union about his book, Saving Troy: A Year with Firefighters and Paramedics in a Battered City. Patrick worked with firefighters in the city for over a year while he gathered their stories for his book. He explains how this opportunity afforded him a different view of the city he'd grown up in:

"For one thing, you go everyplace. And you see every kind of person—every class, every walk of life—and you go inside their houses. Which is even weirder. I mean you can wander around the streets and see most of these people, but at 2 in the morning to be in their living room stitching them up or delivering a baby or trying to stop the bleeding coming out of somebody, that's a whole different situation."

For more information on the new paperback edition, visit our website.

Vampires on Film

2009-10-30T09:15:00.003-04:00

As part of our continuing look at vampires (Happy Halloween, after all), we've asked Mary Hallab, author of Vampire God, to take a stab (ouch!) at telling us what she sees, as a keen cultural critic, when she looks at a couple of classic vampire film posters. Okay, one is a classic, the other probably only ran on those 2:00 am up-all-night creature-feature TV shows. After each image below, Mary follows with her thoughts.

Mary says:

I have a t-shirt with this picture on it. I don’t wear it many places.

This is an ad for the 1931 movie of Dracula, with Bela Lugosi, as you can see, apparently strangling Mina, but of course, that is not what he is doing because these movie vampires bite—they don’t strangle—and no such picture appeared in the movie.

The poster is selling sex and violence--mostly violence, I would say, given the position of Dracula’s hands. But isn’t Dracula up to more than just sex and violence? Not that he isn’t having fun, but it would seem sad for a powerful supernatural being like Dracula to go chasing all over Europe just to grab the neck of an English bunny, desirable as she may be.

Or is he Death destroying youth—and life? He is perhaps a demon lover, only without bothering too much with the lover business.

What would this movie be like if we were to take away the vampire idea? Dracula would just be a dirty old foreigner skulking around after innocent English girls. Maybe it would be like The Lodger. The horror in both of these movies comes from the Gothic setup, the camera angles, the sharp contrasts, the mystery, the surprises (better, all this, in The Lodger than in Dracula).
But Dracula is undead—a supernatural being—and this expands the meaning of the movie. Dracula is, after all, Death itself—and so he includes us all.

Mary says:

Vampire Circus is a Hammer vampire film, but without Dracula. For a summary and favorable review, check out the Movie Feast blog.

This is not a very good poster, is it? Where is the circus? There is an actual circus in the movie, complete with vampires. It visits this isolated little town in the middle of a plague. Most of its citizens are dead by the end of the movie in addition to some vampires. All in all, it is a pretty good movie as vampire movies go. Very colorful.

It is true, as the blog says, that this film ignores a lot of Hammer Film vampire lore—or Bram Stoker or Tod Browning vampire lore. But it excels in Hammer sexiness and grisliness.

The film maintains the folklore idea that the vampires cause the plague or vice versa. Which is to blame? The vampires are the bringers of death. These vampires can flourish because of the general cowardliness and corruption of some of the community and because of the plague. And the circus suggests the irresponsibility and fecklessness of the town’s citizens in the face of disaster. All these motifs are integrated into a theme of life as a sort of circus of death (rather than dance)—which suggests, of course, that, ultimately, there is nothing to be done about it. But have sex. This is a Hammer film, after all, so there are lots of boobs and bottoms.

The poster is wretched. No one in the movie puts little people in his mouth.

Vampire Blues

2009-10-28T09:15:00.006-04:00

So, in her last post, Mary Hallab discsussed vampires' sexiness, among other things. Today she explores how immortality also provides vampires a link to their pasts, which often causes them a great deal of sturm und drang. They can't seem to fully escape the past, nor do some of them want to. Why do audiences find this appealing? Read on...

Sexiness is not all that immortality offers. It also offers ties with the past. The more I read and watch vampire stories, the more I am convinced that one reason for their popularity is their constant movement back and forth between present and past—although admittedly the past is often quite fabulous. Early folklore vampires do not hang around very long, one generation maybe, at most, but scholars tell us that they serve to stand for family continuity within the system of belief and ritual associated with the dead. They are related to ancestor worship, and come from our past to reward or punish us. They remind us to respect our ancestors and our elderly.

Well, you might say, but modern vampires do not do this. And I might say: Watch some vampire movies and notice how the vampires live in the past, in recollections and in flashbacks. Dracula in the novel and the movies reminisces about his family and their heroic history, which he remembers perfectly, having been there. Have you seen the television series Forever Knight? We are constantly popped back into seventeenth-century France, with costumes and all. Buffy’s Angel and Spike are always repenting their historically disreputable behavior, amply demonstrated in flashbacks. They can never escape it. Is there a message there? Why would modern American youth care for such a message?

And do we entirely want to escape our history? If the past enters our modern world insidiously, affects us, determines our actions, will it be for good or evil? Should we love it or hate it? The nineteenth century admired and tried to emulate the Middle Ages. Dracula is a perfect villain from the Middle Ages and he teaches (unwillingly, of course) knightly heroism to Van Helsing’s band of vampire killers. In some works, the vampire is the Knight. In either case, he stands for traditional virtues lost or revived, perverted or ennobled. The vampire asks us: To what extent is the survival (or revival) of the past in the present desirable? What good is the past to us?

Order your copy of Vampire God today.

From Oscar Wilde to Andy Warhol

2009-10-27T12:11:00.002-04:00

Last week, Elisa Glick, Associate Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Missouri, read excerpts from her new book Materializing Queer Desire: Oscar Wilde to Andy Warhol at the Center Project in downtown Columbia, Missouri. Glick discussed the relationships between homosexuality and modernism through well-known icons, especially Oscar Wilde and Andy Warhol. The student paper covered the event:

Calling Warhol the "first great pop dandy," Glick said the artist used glamour, effeminacy and celebrity connections to advertise himself as an artist. But, she said Warhol might have just been reflecting what people in the world around him valued.

You can read the full article here.

Who Controls New York City Mayors?

2009-10-27T09:07:00.006-04:00

With election day fast approaching, Lynn A. Weikert's new book, Follow the Money, is especially timely. Especially if you reside in New York City.

This book explores the leadership of government on the local level. What goes on between the financial elites who control the nation’s purse strings and the political leaders elected by us, the citizens of New York City? What deals are made that affect the lives of ordinary New Yorkers? What compromises do New York City politicians make when dealing with the most powerful people in the financial world?

That's from Lynn's recent feature article over at Rorotoko. In the piece, Lynn explores the major themes of her book and takes hard look at the powerful influences of financial elites over New York City’s mayors. Her book presents some staggering evidence regarding the extent to which these elites have exploited financial crises and crippled the power of mayors over the years.

Read the rest of the article here and order a copy of the book here.

The Vampire as Metrosexual

2009-10-26T11:07:00.002-04:00

We're back from our hiatus with another entry from Mary Hallab, who's new book, Vampire God, is out now. Today Mary looks at what makes vampires so sexy these days—is it just because they're dead? Or is it because they're dead and they all seem to dress so well and have ridiculously over-moussed hair? We'll let Mary explain:

Is Edward, from Twilight, sexier because he is dead? Well, yes. Anyone can be charming and good looking, but what counts is being a vampire. Just being handsome is not enough, especially with that silly hairdo. Early folklore vampires, of course, were not looking to be sexy, and anyway, everyone in the neighborhood could recognize them when they appeared, usually bloated and smelly, and just as unpopular as they had been in life. Moreover, no vampire folklore has these village deviants living forever (just till their flesh decayed). Forever came with Romanticism and the literary vampires who had Satan on their side or who were pretty evil anyway. (And we all know how the wicked live forever.) Polidori made his vampire from Byron so he had to be supernaturally irresistible (as Byron supposedly was, to Polidori’s annoyance and that of a lot of other men down to the present). With Byron’s wicked charm and stunning good looks to draw on, most subsequent literary vampires lived longer and got sexier and better dressed. Well, except for poor Varney the Vampire in the nineteenth century; he was a more “realistic” vampire, ugly and stinky though properly dressed. He never could seem to get the girls. But then, they did not know he was an immortal (like a Greek god); he just did not have the pizzazz, and finally he gave up and immolated himself. When a guy gets to be a god, he just gets more desirable (and so do the gals, apparently, and bustier). If properly managed, immortality has all sorts of side benefits. Envy. Didn’t the Greeks envy their gods? Didn’t they feel awed and joyful to attract their good favor (most of the time when it was not fatal)? Didn’t it offer them some interesting opportunities? Didn’t it raise them and make them special? Isn’t this after all what Edward is doing for poor Bella Swan (and all the female audience)? Isn’t this what even Bela Lugosi did? Or Lestat? Isn’t this sexy?

Tune in for more later this week. Go back and read parts one and two as well.

Some Die Just to Live: Vampires and Immortality

2009-10-15T09:02:00.002-04:00

It's time for another installment in our series exploring the enduring appeal of the vampire. Once again we're sharing some of author Mary Hallab's thoughts on the subject. Mary's new book, Vampire God, is available now, just in time for some spooky Halloween reading. Today, Mary looks at immortality as it pertains to the vampire, and asks just how far you'd go to be like Nosferatu and the rest of the undead. Take it away, Mary...

The superstitions and beliefs attached to folklore vampires suggest their connection with ancient pagan gods and goddesses of death and the underworld, from where, of course, new life arises. Why did the folk retain these beliefs and customs, for example, in their burial rituals and stories even in the face of the church’s disapproval? And why, since the eighteenth century have vampires and their “lore” recurrently revived in literature to become a constant fixture in our modern pantheon of folk figures? Do they mean the same to us as they did to the peasant folk? Well, yes, because they have something to say about immortality, about the desperate desire of mortal beings to live forever, to hold on to their selves, on this earth, with their friends and family. And they allow us to contemplate all the ramifications inherent in this desire, from the scientific impossibility of its ever being realized to the ethical and spiritual desirability. I have a Richard III t-shirt that says, “How far would you go to be a king?” The vampire leads us to ask, “How far would you go to live forever?” Would you drink blood from your cat? Would you insult a priest? Would you sleep in the dirt? Vampire literature from Varney to Dracula to Edward asks these questions, including, Would you want to live forever anyway, and if so, why?

For more of Mary's musing on vampires, check out part 1 of this ongoing series, and scare up a copy (yes, we went there) of Vampire God.

We'll offer up more of Mary's vampire posts as the month rolls along. Check back often.

Going Blind, a memoir and meditation on blindness

2009-10-13T14:51:00.016-04:00

Mara Faulkner grew up in a family shaped by Irish ancestry, a close-to-the-bone existence in rural North Dakota, and the secret of her father’s blindness—along with the silence and shame surrounding it. Dennis Faulkner had retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disease that gradually blinded him and one that may blind many members of his family, including the author.

Going Blind explores blindness in its many permutations—within the context of the author’s family, more broadly, as a disability marked by misconceptions, and as a widely used cultural metaphor. Mara delicately weaves her family’s story into an analysis of the roots and ramifications of the various metaphorical meanings of blindness, touching on the Catholic Church of the 1940s and 1950s, Japanese internment, the Germans from Russia who dominated her hometown, and the experiences of Native people in North Dakota. Neither sentimental nor dispassionate, she asks whether it’s possible to find gifts when sight is lost.

Listen to the podcast of a recent interview between Mara and Kathy Parker, head librarian at the College of St. Benedict, where Mara is Associate Professor of English. Mara's book is available at our website.

Mara will be signing books at the College of St. Benedict Bookstore on Saturday, October 24, from 10:30–11:30 am.

Twilight, True Blood, Vampire Diaries ... They've come to suck your blood

2009-10-07T08:50:00.003-04:00

Seems like you can't turn a darkened street corner these days without running into a fanged creature of the night. With all the books and movies about vampires lately, it might seem like they are experiencing a renaissance in popularity. Actually, they've always been popular. After all, you were eating Count Chocula for breakfast years ago, remember?

We were partial to Boo Berry, ourselves.

Just in time for Halloween, Mary Hallab's new book, Vampire God, explores the timeless appeal of the undead. Mary sent us some of her thoughts on our long love affair with the vampire. Here's the first in a series of posts from Mary on the topic.

Vampire literature and movies have always been popular. In my book Vampire God, I wanted to see if I could find out why. I think I did, but doing so was more complicated than I had expected. Since then, vampires have become even more popular, especially after the publication of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight books. And, guess what? This popularity has little to do with sex—or not sex directly, rather sex and death, the cycle, sex and death, sex and death, sex and death. I mostly skip the sex part; everyone knows about that. But I have a lot to say about death—that’s the focus of the book. Vampires are dead, after all. And that is why they are popular. Vampires give us the chance to contemplate death without really facing it at all—from all sorts of angles, personal, social, religious—and imagine different possibilities, in the various forms that writers have made available for us, including hot babes, cool dudes, vicious villains, femmes fatales, grubby kids, hillbillies, socialites, loners, groupies, even superheroes—all of them dead . . . but still alive. They usually don’t even stink, and they certainly don’t rot (unlike those disreputable zombies), and they frequently wear very nice clothes. Their double existences speak to our fears and desires related to questions about God, the soul, and the meaning of life, and perhaps most important: What is death and what can we do about it?

Tune in throughout the month of October for more of Mary's vampire-themed posts. In between watching your Buffy DVDs and taking the Are You A Vampire? quiz, of course.

Inaugural John G. Neihardt Lecture

2009-10-05T11:46:00.008-04:00

On Tuesday, October 6 at 6:00 pm, join SUNY Press and the Albany Institute of History & Art for the Inaugural John G. Neihardt Lecture. The lecture will feature a talk by renowned anthropologist and historian Anthony F.C. Wallace. Wallace's talk will center around the Tuscarora Indian nation and include a tribute to John G. Neihardt and Black Elk. Neihardt was the celebrated author of twenty books of poetry, fiction, and philosophy, many of which are now available from SUNY Press. The John G. Neihardt Lecture was established by Coralie Hughes in honor of her grandfather. SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher will give a brief introduction.

Click here for more information and directions.

Wilson Center event photos

2009-09-28T11:30:00.002-04:00

Renée Jones-Bos, Ambassador of the Netherlands to the United States

Following up our post from last week about the recent panel discussion at the Wilson Center on U.S.-Dutch relations, we have some photos of panel participants to share. Thanks go out to Timothy McDonnell at the Wilson Center for sending along these photos.

For more info on the event, check out our earlier blog post. For more on the SUNY Press book Four-Centuries of Dutch-American Relations, which was featured at the event, click here.

L. Paul Bremer III, former U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands

Hans Krabbendam, Assistant Director of the Roosevelt Study Center

Giles Scott-Smith, Senior Researcher at the Roosevelt Study Center

Hudson 400 Dinner in Downtown Albany

2009-09-25T09:23:00.017-04:00

Albany Institute of History & Art curator Doug McCombs and Marché's Executive Chef Brian Molino

(photo from the Table Hopping article on the event)

This Saturday, September 26th, Marché at 74 State will be offering a Hudson Quadricentennial dinner. The menu for the event was developed by the Albany, NY restaurant’s head chef, Brian Molino, in consultation with curators Tammis Groft and Doug McCombs, from the Albany Institute of History & Art. Molino also found inspiration in our new cookbook Summer Pleasures, Winter Pleasures: A Hudson Valley Cookbook. Albany Times Union senior writer Steve Barnes wrote about the upcoming event:

The meal, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the restaurant in the downtown hotel, features five courses modeled after food found on menus and in records at the Albany Institute, for which the meal is a fundraiser.

Besides sturgeon—served lightly smoked and roasted, with butter-braised cabbage—dinner will feature oysters, turkey, lamb, rabbit, pork, local vegetables and, for dessert, warm bread pudding with black currants and candied quince; the courses will be paired with beverages from Brewery Ommegang, which makes Belgian-style ales in Cooperstown.

Molino describes the fare as refined, fine-dining interpretations of dishes he found in records at the museum and books by food historian Peter G. Rose, whose works include Food, Drink and Celebrations of
the Hudson Valley Dutch and the recently released Summer Pleasures, Winter Pleasures: A Hudson Valley Cookbook.

Sounds delicious. Click here for the rest the article. Do you need reservations, you ask? Yes, you do. It may be too late at this point, but it's worth giving them a call at 518-434-7410. This promises to be a fantastic culinary experience.

Four Centuries of Dutch-American Relations

2009-09-23T14:37:00.016-04:00

Last Friday, the Wilson Center, in cooperation with the Netherland-America Foundation, Roosevelt Study Center, and the Embassy of the Netherlands, hosted a discussion of U.S.-Dutch relations in the post-1945 era in connection with the publication of Four Centuries of Dutch-American Relations.

The panel consisted of L. Paul Bremer III, former U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands; Renée Jones-Bos, Ambassador of the Netherlands to the United States; Cornelis A. van Minnen, Director of the Roosevelt Study Center and Professor of American History at Ghent University, Belgium; Hans Krabbendam, Assistant Director of the Roosevelt Study Center and the author of The Model Man: A Life of Edward William Bok, 1863-1930; and Giles Scott-Smith, Senior Researcher at the Roosevelt Study Center and Ernst H. van der Beugel Professor of Diplomatic History of Atlantic Cooperation at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands.

Our very own James Peltz was on hand and sent along a link to video of the event, which you can watch at the Wilson Center's website.

The new book, which is based on the most up-to-date research, will be a valuable and much-used reference work for anyone interested in the history and culture of the United States and the Netherlands and the larger transatlantic framework in which they are embedded.

Go, Tell Michelle coeditors profiled

2009-09-17T10:57:00.002-04:00

Barbara Seals Nevergold and Peggy Brooks-Bertram, coeditors of Go, Tell Michelle, were recently profiled in UB Today, a publication of the University at Buffalo. The book is still going strong, as are Barbara and Peggy. We found a good deal of interest in the copies of the book we brought to the Brooklyn Book Festival, in fact.

Read the full profile here.

Robert Moss interviewed about The Firekeeper

2009-09-15T13:38:00.008-04:00

Glens Falls, NY paper The Post Star recently interviewed author Robert Moss about his book, The Firekeeper. Moss talks about his inspiration to write the book:

Before beginning the book, Moss, a native of Australia who moved to Chatham (NY) in 1986, said he knew little about the colonial history of New York. He happened upon a volume of "Sir William Johnson Papers" in the local history section at a used bookstore in Albany.
"I didn’t know anything about William Johnson until I laid my hands on that fat, blue volume. My hand fell on the book, and I opened it at random," Moss said.

Read the entire interview for more on this epic piece of historical fiction, based on the extraordinary story of Sir William Johnson and the author's dreams of a Mohawk “woman of power” who lived three centuries ago.

Visit us at the Brooklyn Book Festival

2009-09-09T09:35:00.001-04:00

We're really excited to be participating in the annual Brooklyn Book Festival this coming Sunday, September 13th at the Brooklyn Borough Hall. As their website says, the festival is a "huge, free public event presenting an array of literary stars and emerging authors who represent the exciting world of literature today."

This year's festival promises to be fantastic. Check out the Village Voice's preview:

Already a geek’s delight, the Brooklyn Book Festival will be even more so this year with the brand-new addition of the New York Comic Con Pavilion. With guest presentations and autograph sessions, the comic-book marketplace has panels including “Sci Fi and Fantasy in NYC” at noon and a conversation with the writers of Marvel at 1 p.m. The most exciting (and free!) literary event in the city, this year’s Brooklyn Book Festival also features events with Colson Whitehead, Mary Gaitskill, Heidi Julavits, Edwidge Danticat, David Cross, Thurston Moore, and Tom Tomorrow—to name just a few. Other panels to look for include one with Pete Hamill and Norris Church Mailer on the legacy of Norman Mailer at 1 p.m., and “Writers on Unforgettable Friendships” with New York Review of Books contributors Oliver Sacks (discussing Francis Crick), Darryl Pinckney (discussing Djuna Barnes), and Anita Desai (discussing Ruth Jhabvala) at 4 p.m.

We'll be at table # 87, so stop by and check out a variety of SUNY and Excelsior Editions titles that celebrate New York. For location and direction information, as well as a full list of authors and moderators who'll be in attendance, visit the festival's website.

Hope to see you there!

Two More Woodstock Reviews

2009-09-08T12:30:00.004-04:00

Woodstock: The Oral History, 40th Anniversary Edition was recently reviewed in both the Miami Herald and at the Nippertown blog. Here's the Herald review:

This is ... an excellent, often spellbinding account in the words of those involved, from doctors and cops to shopkeepers and neighbors to festival organizers and musicians. Makower, a veteran writer, spent a year interviewing 75 participants, and since the year was 1988, the recollections are fresher than those collected four decades after the fact.

And here's part of Greg Haymes' review at Nippertown:

...Makower criss-crossed the country to conduct face-to-face interviews with more than 70 festival participants—musicians, the producers, local residents, tech and backstage personnel and, of course, the fans. When the original edition was published, Rolling Stone magazine called it “the definitive story of the mega-concert.”

The new edition includes new forewords by co-producers Michael Lang and Joel Rosenman, but it’s Makower’s original interviews that are the real reason to celebrate the fact that this book is back in print again.

SUNY Press partners with the Albany Institute of History & Art

2009-09-08T09:55:00.002-04:00

We're happy to share with you that we are now partnering with the Albany Institute of History & Art to offer digital and print editions of previously published works by the Albany Institute, one of the oldest and most prestigious museums in the United States. These works showcase a wide range of topics, including colonial Dutch arts and crafts, contemporary painters of the Hudson River, artists Paul Cushman and Richard Callner, and a celebrated overview of the two-hundred-year history of the Albany Institute. Visit our website for a complete list of these titles.

We're also collaborating with the Institute on new publishing ventures, so stay tuned for more information!

Founded in 1791, the Albany Institute is one of the oldest museums in the United States. Visit their website for more information about the museum and for current exhibitions.

Go, Tell Michelle is an Award Winner

2009-09-04T09:50:00.001-04:00

Go, Tell Michelle: African American Women Write to the New First Lady was recently awarded the 2009 Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Award, in the category of edited volume, presented by the Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH).

Coeditors Barbara A. Seals Nevergold and Peggy Brooks-Bertram will accept the award at the ABWH luncheon on October 3rd in Cincinnati, where they will also be the keynote speakers.

For more on the book, visit our website and follow Barbara and Peggy on their blog.

Woodstock review in School Library Journal

2009-09-03T09:05:00.001-04:00

School Library Journal recently reviewed a selection of new Woodstock books, including our very own Woodstock: The Oral History. Here's what they had to say about the book:

Joe Makower’s Woodstock: The Oral History: 40th Anniversary Edition, published by Excelsior Editions at State University of New York Press, provides a thorough, even scholarly treatment of the festival. This incredibly in-depth recounting has been “culled from face-to-face interviews conducted during 1988 with the people who made Woodstock happen: producers, performers, doctors, cops, neighbors, shopkeepers, carpenters, electricians, lawyers, journalists, filmmakers, and an assemblage of just plain folks who, by design or circumstances, became part of the event.” The separate segments, identified by speaker, are pieced together into a conversational text that takes into consideration everything from Port-O-Sans to peacekeepers to performances and ultimately tells a fascinating story. Small black-and-white historical photos and newspaper headlines are scattered throughout the pages.

SUNY Press partners with the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art

2009-09-02T09:07:00.010-04:00

In our previous post, we mentioned that we've partnered with the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art (SDMA). Today we'd like to give you the full scoop on this exciting new venture. We are now distributing print and digital editions of titles published by SDMA. The books and catalogs cover a range of topics, including nineteenth-century American landscape paintings of the Hudson River; the photography of Eva Watson-Schütze; and artists George Bellow, Rimer Cardillo, and Judy Pfaff. We are also collaborating with SDMA on new publishing ventures.

Located at SUNY New Paltz, SDMA's permanent collection spans a period of almost four thousand years. Areas of specialization include twentieth-century prints and paintings, decorative arts, photographs, Asian art, and Pre-Columbian art and artifacts. The Museum has a special commitment to collecting works of art created by artists that have lived and worked in the Hudson Valley and Catskill regions. Please visit our website for a complete listing of SDMA titles offered by SUNY Press.

SUNY New Paltz wins design award

2009-09-01T10:05:00.017-04:00

The SUNY New Paltz Design & Printing Services department was recently honored with an Award of Excellence from the University and College Designers Association (UCDA). This prestigious award was given for the design of a catalog that accompanied the exhibition “Taking a Different Tack: Maggie Sherwood and the Floating Foundation of Photography,” which was curated by Beth Wilson and presented at SUNY New Paltz’s Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, January 24–April 8, 2009. The catalog was selected for an award out of a total of 1,300 entries from primarily across the United States, Canada, and other countries and was one of 257 winners.

SUNY Press has partnered with SUNY New Paltz to sell Taking a Different Tack and other publications from the Samuel Dorsky Museum.

Author explores Van Gogh's spiritual journey

2009-08-26T09:23:00.011-04:00

ROROTOKO's cover interview for today is with SUNY Press author Cliff Edwards and focuses on his new book, The Mystery of The Night Café, which explores the spiritual vision of Van Gogh’s painting The Night Café. Here's a snippet:

I hope readers will treat it as a mystery to be solved, and will evaluate each of the clues I find and present. Here we have one of the few paintings Van Gogh both signed and titled, a painting he described as “one of my only works with deep meaning.” The mystery is how one painting inside a café for poor workers and misfits can serve as a key to the artist’s spiritual journey.

Edwards provides a fascinating look into his approach to writing this book, which will surely whet your appetite to read the book and solve the mystery of The Night Café yourself.

Interview with Troy native and author Richard Selzer

2009-08-25T10:18:00.017-04:00

The Albany Times Union recently ran an interview with Troy, NY native and SUNY Press author Richard Selzer.

In his letters, Selzer refers to his native city as "my beloved Troy," and still considers himself a Trojan even though he has lived in New Haven, Conn., for 50 years. A retired surgeon and professor of surgery at Yale, the author published his first book of essays about medicine in 1973. Locally, he may be best-known for his 1992 memoir, "Down From Troy", in which he draws the city in luscious glory.

Selzer's two new books include the novel Knife Song Korea, which details a tumultuous year in the life of a young surgeon during the Korean War, and Letters to a Best Friend, a collection of correspondence between he and writer, actor, painter, and filmmaker Peter Josyph.

Woodstock's Aftermath

2009-08-24T09:05:00.002-04:00

Joel Makower recently postsed a bit of a Woodstock wrap up over on his blog. As he says,

While much has been written about the festival, not much has been said about the aftermath. That story, as I chronicled as part of my 1989 oral history book and audiobook, just republished, is almost as tangled and intriguing as the story of the festival itself: How the four young co-producers untangled themselves from lawsuits among themselves and with scores of others. How Warner Bros. made off with the film and music rights, with barely nothing going to the musicians or producers. How the local townspeople around the festival site never got over the experience, in both good and bad ways.

Joel also includes an excerpt from his book that focuses on the unheralded story of Max and Miriam Yasgur, the dairy farmers who rented their land for the festival.

Vera and the Ambassador's new website

2009-08-21T15:50:00.009-04:00

As a follow up to the wonderful review for Vera and the Ambassador that we posted the other day, be sure to visit the book's new website. You can learn more about Vera and Donald Blinken, read an excerpt from the book, and listen to and read assorted interviews, press, and reviews.

Vera and the Ambassador reviewed

2009-08-19T09:50:00.002-04:00

American Foreign Policy Interests recently reviewed Vera and the Ambassador. We've pasted in the entire, glowing review below.

This is an exceptional book by two exceptional people, Vera and Donald Blinken, who set a high standard of achievement in a difficult ambassadorial assignment.

Donald served as U.S. ambassador to Hungary from March of 1994 until November of 1997. An investment banker and patron of the arts with a solid understanding of foreign policy issues, he was ideally suited to serve in the strategically important country of Hungary as it underwent a difficult transition from communism to democracy.

Vera Blinken, a former special assistant for the arts and cultural affairs to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and member of the Board of the International Rescue Committee, was proof that an ambassador’s wife can make a real difference. Hungarian born and fluent in the language, she was able to help Donald interpret the not always easy to comprehend Hungarian patterns of behavior.

Donald had two great achievements during his years in Budapest. He played a critical role in persuading the Hungarian government to accept the U.S. military base in Taszar, essential for U.S. participation in the NATO peacekeeping operation in Bosnia, which also paved the way for Hungary’s eventual entry into NATO. Equally important, his persistent yet diplomatic advice at the highest levels of the government was essential in moving Hungary to free market reforms after years of stultifying state controls.

Vera transformed what had been a somewhat dreary embassy resident, making it an exciting intellectual and cultural center for Hungarian leaders and visiting Americans. She also founded PRIMAVERA, the first breast cancer screening program in Central and Eastern Europe. She was, in every sense, a perfect coambassador.

It was a fitting tribute to Donald and Vera that each of them was awarded Hungary’s highest honor, the Middle Cross of the Order of Merit, something unprecedented for a husband-wife team.

Donald and Vera alternate in recounting the details of their Hungarian experience. They do it in a very frank and personal way, telling of both frustrations and triumphs, so that the reader gets to understand what running an embassy is like and why ambassadors are important.

At a time when President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are seeking to revitalize American diplomacy, this book by the Blinkens provides timely and inspiring testimony of how a dedicated and capable ambassadorial team can advance the interests of the United States.

- Richard N. Gardner, Professor of Law and International
Organization, Columbia University

Author's perseverance pays off with Frances Folsom Cleveland bio

2009-08-18T09:37:00.002-04:00

The Courier-Tribune (North Carolina) has published an early review of Frank, our upcoming biography of Frances Folsom Cleveland. The book is the first full-length bio of America’s youngest, and perhaps most underrated, First Lady. In the article, author Annette Dunlap describes what went into writing the book and how her perseverance paid off in this meticulously detailed account of the First Lady's life.

You can preorder Frank now; it will be published in October.

Author Spotlight: Barbara Seals Nevergold

2009-08-17T11:12:00.013-04:00

Barbara Seals Nevergold has had an amazing year with the success of Go, Tell Michelle, which she coedited with Peggy Brooks-Bertram. You can keep track of Barbara's and Peggy's continuing adventures promoting the book over at their blog; as you'll see, they're extremely hardworking, which is a big reason why the book took off like it did.

Buffalo State Insider recently ran a wonderful profile on Barbara that explores where she's come from and what she's accomplished.

Barbara and Peggy have a number of events on the horizon, which you can find our events calendar.

Woodstock: here, there, and everywhere

2009-08-14T10:05:00.013-04:00

Woodstock: The Oral History author Joel Makower had a busy week, appearing in a number of articles on Woodstock as we approach the anniversary weekend. Here's a sampling:

ABC News ran a reflection on Woodstock the other night, which you can watch at their website. The segment includes interviews with a handful of people who were there, including David Crosby. Joel was interviewed and quoted in the companion online article. Here's a choice bit:

"Woodstock created a can-do spirit among the generation," said Makower. "People came together under the unpleasant circumstances and helped everyone else and survived what everyone outside the festival grounds dubbed as a 'disaster.'"

Joel was also quoted in The Houston Chronicle piece that asks "Does Woodstock mean anything after 40 years?" The Kansas City Star runs down a very thorough list of Woodstock books, including ours. Joel is also quoted extensively in articles in the Louisville Courier-Journal and Gloucester County Times, and the book is featured in articles in the Canton Daily Ledger and on the website Tonic—the place where good lives, don't ya know. We're happy to see the book on a fun site like that.

Joel tells us there's another radio interview coming next week, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, enjoy an anniversary weekend filled with celebrations and reflections.

Woodstock's 40th

2009-08-13T09:01:00.008-04:00

So we're just about there—the 40th anniversary of Woodstock is right around the corner. While you celebrate this weekend—with a copy of the oral history in hand, of course—you may also want to check out some of the following Woodstock-related events, shows, articles, etc.

This Saturday, the site of the original concert will host an anniversary blowout, featuring some of the same performers who were at the original, including Levon Helm, Canned Heat, Ten Years After, and Mountain.

The Times has a review of a new VH1 Woodstock doc set to air this weekend. In the piece, Mike Hale writes

How this intelligent, straightforward film ended up on the network of “Megan Wants a Millionaire” and “Daisy of Love” is a mystery, but we should just be grateful to VH1 for broadcasting it.

Sounds like it might be worth checking out...if you can sit through all of the "Daisy of Love" commercials that are bound to run during it.

We also found a couple of dissenting voices out there this morning, with regards to all this 40th anniversary celebrating stuff. Over at the Huffington Post, Nathan Hegedus has heard enough about how great Woodstock was. He offers a cynical, GenX reply to all the hubbub, you could say. And Mark Hosenball writes for Newsweek that he was there and even he's tired of the nostalgia trip everyone's riding right now.

So however you chose to celebrate—or ignore—the anniversary this weekend, we hope you have a groovy time doing it, man. Sorry, couldn't resist. Now here's Jimi to play us out.

The Woodstock legend lives on

2009-08-10T14:02:00.008-04:00

Joel Makower, author of Woodstock: The Oral History, 40th Anniversary Edition, was interviewed by Tom Keyser for a piece in the Albany Times Union. Here's the article from yesterday's paper; look for Joel on page two.

The book also appears in Newsday's weekend feature, A Festival of Books about Woodstock. Good to see the book keeping company with all of the other Woodstock product out there! If you haven't yet ordered a copy yourself, you can do so here.

You are currently reading one of the 100 Best Book Blogs for History Buffs

2009-08-10T09:10:00.006-04:00

The kind folks over at Online School were keeping tabs on us (and lots of other blogs), it seems. They named us one of the 100 Best Book Blogs for History Buffs. We made the list under the Academic Press category. Thanks, Online School! So, while we pat ourselves on the back, check out the rest of their list and discover some great book blogs.