A celebration of the Mississippi Delta in words and pictures, this volume brings to life this storied region of the South. Actor Morgan Freeman provides a foreword in which he recounts his personal history as a child in the Delta and discusses why he was pulled back to his ancestral home, despite its challenges.

A Spirit of Dialogue: Incarnations of Ogbanje, the Born-to-Die, in African American Literature Christopher N. Okonkwo Christopher Okonkwo’s A Spirit of Dialogue adds to the slowly growing body of well-researched, thought-provoking explorations of Africa’s knowledge systems that go deeper than previously imagined in their ability to inform African descendants on both sides of the Atlantic.” -Anthonia Kalu, University of North Colorado

To Lift Up My Race: The Essential Writings of Samuel Robert Cassius Edited by Edward J. Robinson Born into slavery in 1853, Samuel Robert Cassius is a fascinating and instructive example of the first generation of freed slaves in the United States. This collection of writings by Cassius gives us the man—evangelist, educator, farmer, entrepreneur, postmaster, politician, and father of twenty-three—in a significant moment in the emergence of black culture and society between Reconstruction and the Great Depression.

A Godsend to His People: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Marshall Keeble Edited by Edward J. Robinson Marshall Keeble stands as one of the Church of Christ’s most influential and celebrated African American evangelists. He helped establish over two hundred churches and baptized approximately forty thousand individuals during his nearly seventy years of ministry. A Godsend to His People brings to light over forty years of Keeble’s writings.

Phillis Wheatley’s Poetics of Liberation: Backgrounds and Contexts John C. Shields Phillis Wheatley was the first African American to publish a book on any subject in America and only the second woman to do so. Phillis Wheatley’s Poetics of Liberation is a groundbreaking study of this important and most controversial writer.

]]> http://utpress.org/utpressblog/2008/02/05/celebrating-african-american-history/feed/ http://utpress.org/utpressblog/2008/01/07/new-from-tennessee/ http://utpress.org/utpressblog/2008/01/07/new-from-tennessee/#comments Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:35:57 +0000 Cheryl http://utpress.org/utpressblog/2008/01/07/new-from-tennessee/ The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume 7, 1829
Andrew Jackson
Edited by Daniel Feller, Harold D. Moser
Assistant editors: Laura-Eve Moss and Thomas CoensWith this seventh volume, The Papers of Andrew Jackson enters the heart of Jackson’s career: his tumultuous two terms as president of the United States.

A Death in the Family A Restoration of the Author’s Text The Works of James Agee, Vol. 1 Edited by Michael A. Lofaro Associate General Editor: Hugh DavisPublished in 1957 to wide acclaim, James Agee’s A Death in the Family was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature. However, the novel had been so heavily edited that it little resembled the original manuscript. The inaugural title of the University of Tennessee Press’s scholarly edition of The Works of James Agee, this restored text of A Death in the Family is, in many ways, a new novel.

The Ramseys at Swan Pond The Archaeology and History of an East Tennessee Farm Charles H. Faulkner“The Ramseys at Swan Pond [demonstrates] that history can be thoroughly informed by careful archaeological investigation, and that archaeology can also be informed by detailed and carefully conducted historical research. This is one of the best examples of the blending of both disciplines into a single study that I have read.” —Patrick H. Garrow

Professional Pursuits Women and the American Arts and Crafts Movement Catherine W. ZipfThe American Arts and Crafts movement was a major factor in changing the status of women as professional workers. Professional Pursuits examines the participation of women in this significant design movement and the role they played in revolutionizing the position of women in the professional world.

]]> http://utpress.org/utpressblog/2008/01/07/new-from-tennessee/feed/ http://utpress.org/utpressblog/2007/12/04/the-gift-of-reading/ http://utpress.org/utpressblog/2007/12/04/the-gift-of-reading/#comments Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:17:52 +0000 Cheryl http://utpress.org/utpressblog/2007/12/04/the-gift-of-reading/ Books are wonderful gifts! This holiday season give the gift of great reading to the book lovers on your list.

Winter Lightning: A Guide to the Battle of Stones River Matt Spruill and Lee Spruill A sequential series of twenty-one “stops” through the Stones River battlefield over the exact routes used by both Union and Confederate armies, with details on key points. The guide divides the battle into three segments: the west flank, the center, and the east flank.

The Warrior’s Path: Reflections along an Ancient Route Casey Clabough Casey Clabough hiked more than five hundred miles of the Warrior’s Path from Maryland to Tennessee. This story of Clabough’s journey is also a meditation upon the extraordinary people and events that have populated the thoroughfare over the course of several centuries.

Autumn Spring Sam Pickering “No one creates so many memorable, saucy aphorisms-piquant, bitter-sweet, arousing.” —Pat C. Hoy II, New York University

Some Day I May Find Honest Work Sam Venable Tennessee humorist Sam Venable has been tickling funny bones in print for more than twenty-five years. Someday I May Find Honest Work is a collection of 125 of his columns, many of which originally appeared in the Knoxville News Sentinel. In these warm and witty pieces, Venable pokes good-natured fun at everything from fast food to government folly, from high-tech confusion to the perils of aging.

Run in the Fam’ly: A Novel John J. McLaughlin “Mr. McLaughlin employs his mastery of vernacular speech, his understanding of the street cultures of Chicago and Oakland , and his deeply human understanding. . . . Run in the Fam’ly is an exceptional work of fiction.” —James Alan McPherson, author of Elbow Room, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

John J. McLaughlin / Hardcover / 304 pages

Peter Taylor is one of the South’s most celebrated writers—the author of acclaimed short stories, plays, and the novels A Summons to Memphis and In the Tennessee Country. The Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel, cosponsored by the Knoxville Writers’ Guild and the University of Tennessee Press, honors the memory and work of Peter Taylor by bringing to light new works of high literary quality. The newest addition to the distinguished list of recipients is John J. McLaughlin for his novel, Run in the Fam’ly. Six additional books have received this honor: Blood Kin by Mark Powell (2005), Fire on Mount Maggiore by John Parras (2004), Minyan: Ten Jewish Men in a World That Is Heartbroken by Eliezer Sobel (2003), Blue by Sarah Van Arsdale (2002), A House All Stilled by A. G. Harmon (2001), and The Marriage of Anna Maye Potts by DeWitt Henry (2001). ]]> http://utpress.org/utpressblog/2007/10/01/the-legacy-of-peter-taylor/feed/ http://utpress.org/utpressblog/2007/09/04/celebrating-humor-and-humanity/ http://utpress.org/utpressblog/2007/09/04/celebrating-humor-and-humanity/#comments Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:00:43 +0000 Cheryl http://utpress.org/utpressblog/2007/09/04/celebrating-humor-and-humanity/ Icons Sam Pickering and Sam Venable have long entertained their reading audiences with witty and humorous observations about day-to-day living. Both men have released a new book this season; Pickering’s Autumn Spring and Venable’s Someday I May Find Honest Work are now available in bookstores, online bookstores, and at utpress.org.

Autumn Spring Sam Pickering / Paperback / 152 pages / More info or read excerpt “No one creates so many memorable, saucy aphorisms-piquant, bitter-sweet, arousing.” -Pat C. Hoy II, New York University Sam Pickering’s essays are funny and wise-and always intoxicating, eggnog to warm glazed winter nights and juleps to cool sweltering summer days. He wanders Connecticut, Canada, and the South, seeding his old farm in Nova Scotia with words and scattering paragraphs in and about classrooms at the University of Connecticut.

Some Day I May Find Honest Work Sam Venable / Paperback / 232 pages / More info or read excerpt In these warm and witty pieces, Venable pokes good-natured fun at everything from fast food to government folly, from high-tech confusion to the perils of aging, from the eternal strife between the sexes to daily life in East Tennessee.

“Satan and Adam” at Journeyman’s Road book launch party, Terra Blues, New York, Book Expo America 2007. Bluesmen Sterling “Mister Satan” Magee (l) and Adam Gussow (r), author of Journeyman’s Road: Modern Blues Lives from Faulkner’s Mississippi to Post-9/11 New York.