“Voices from the Nueva Frontera: Latino Immigration in Dalton, Georgia,” combines a historical impact study and an oral history of Hispanic immigrants living in the mill town and surrounding areas. It is being published this week the University of Tennessee Press.” —Excerpt from The Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Read the full story.

Congratulations to Philip Brady, author of By Heart: Reflections of a Rust Belt Bard. By Heart has been chosen as Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year for 2008 in the category of Essays.
 
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6/14/09: Kiawah Island, SC - “Blues in the Night” at the Rivercourse Club with Eddie Shaw & the Wolf Gang (4 PM) For info, call 843-768-9166

6/15/09: Knoxville, TN - Barley’s Taproom (10 PM) www.barleystaproom.com/knoxville/

6/16/09: Huntington, WV — The V Club (8 PM) www.myspace.com/wvvclub

6/17/09: Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live (7:30 PM, with special guest Charlie Sayles, a street-harp legend!) www.worldcafelive.com/

6/18/09: New York, NY - Lucille’s Bar & Grill at B. B. King’s (8:30, with Robert Ross opening & closing) www.bbkingblues.com/lucilles/index.shtml (for Robert Ross, visit: www.robertrossband.com/ )

6/19/09: Piermont, NY - The Turning Point www.turningpointcafe.com/

6/20/09: Portsmouth, NH - The Press Room (9 PM) www.pressroomnh.com/

No Peace for the Wicked: Northern Protestant Soldiers and the American Civil War by David Rolfs

TVA Archaeology: Seventy-five Years of Prehistoric Site Research, edited by Erin E. Pritchard

The University of Tennessee Press awarded the 2009 Joseph E. Johnson Award of Appreciation to Women’s Athletic Director Joan Cronan. The award is in recognition of Joan’s unflagging support of the press’s production of In the Footsteps of Champions: The University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers, The First Three Decades. Written by long-time Lady Vol supporter and UT staff member Debby Schriver, the book details the birth and growth of the premier women’s athletic program in the United States. The award was presented to Cronan by Dr. Johnson and UT Press director, Scot Danforth.

Afterward, Lady Vols who were spotlighted in Footsteps received a special salute in recognition of their accomplishments. More info on In the Footsteps of Champions at www.utpress.org/footsteps

King of the Moonshiners
Lewis R. Redmond in Fact and Fiction
With a Foreword by Durwood Dunn

Lewis R. Redmond was an archetypal moonshiner. On March 1, 1876, the twenty-one-year-old North Carolinian shot and killed a U.S. deputy marshal who tried to arrest him on charges of illicit distilling. He then fled to Pickens County, South Carolina, where, within three years, he gained national notoriety as the “This book deconstructs Redmond, whose dangerous persona captured the imagination of the middle-class American public.
Read more about King of the Moonshiners.
Read the feature in The Wall Street Journal.

Their Ancient Grudge
Harry Harrison Kroll
With an Introduction by Richard L. Saunders

First published in 1946, Harry Kroll’s portrayal of the legendary Hatfield-McCoy feud (1878-90) is seen through the eyes of six women of the two families. Their Ancient Grudge is the last major treatment of this iconic sliver of American culture completed before the story struggle was reinterpreted by a later generation of historians. In crafting this compelling tale, Kroll drew both on historical studies and on interviews with descendants of the Hatfield and McCoy families as well as with other residents of the Tug Valley area of Kentucky and West Virginia.

Beech Mountain Man
The Memoirs of Ronda Lee Hicks
Thomas Burton, author of The Serpent and the Spirit: Glenn Summerford’s Story
With a Foreword by John Shelton Reed

Hicks recounts his life’s highs and lows with great candor and sometimes jarring humor. Readers might wonder how Ronda Hicks lived to tell his fascinating tales at all.

“Thomas Burton’s edition of what amounts to an autobiography of Ronda Lee Hicks-fighter, drinker, womanizer, and storyteller-represents a wiff of late-night honky-tonk whiskey and tobacco in its realism. . . . Hicks is a talented raconteur, whose gifts are well displayed in Burton’s careful editing.” —Erika Brady, Western Kentucky University

Mike Guillerman, author of Face Boss: The Memoirs of a Western Kentucky Coal Miner, March 14 at the Union County Library (KY).

Mike at Our Robin’s Nest (Morganfield, KY), March 13.

2009 Book Signing Dates

Sat., April 11, 2pm-4pm
Barnes & Noble
624 South Green River Rd.
Evansville, IN

Sat., April 18, 9am-4pm
Southern Kentucky Book Fest
Sloan Convention Center
Bowling Green, KY

Sat., April 25, 10am-2pm
Henderson County Public Library
101 South Main
Henderson, KY

Sat., April 25, 3pm-5pm
Matt’s News & Gifts
Henderson, KY

Sat., May 2, 10am-1pm
Crittenden County Library
Marion, KY

Sat., May 9, 1pm-3pm
Hopkins County Library
Madisonville, KY

Sat., May 9, 4pm-6pm
Readmore Book-N-Card
Madisonville, KY

Fri., May 15, 5pm-7pm
My Sister’s Attic
Providence, KY

Sat., May 16, 10am-12pm
George Coon Library
Princeton, KY

Sat., June 6, 10am-11am
Benton Public Library
Benton, IL

Sat., June 6, 1pm-3pm
Harrisburg District Library
Harrisburg, IL

Sat., June 13, 1pm–4pm
Books-A-Million
4606 Frederica St.
Owensboro KY

Sat., June 27, 2pm-5pm
Books-A-Million
Paducah, KY

Sat., July 11, 9am-10:30am
Harbin Memorial Library
Greenville, KY

Sat., July 11, 11am-12:45pm
Central City Library
Central City, KY

In the Footsteps of Champions
The University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers, the First Three Decades
Debby Schriver
Foreword by Mia Hamm

It’s here! Experience the journey of women’s intercollegiate athletics from the beginning to the present day. While the record-setting basketball dynasty of Coach Pat Summitt and the successes of ten other outstanding sports teams create fascinating stories in themselves, the Lady Volunteers story actually begins as early as 1893, when the first women enrolled at the University of Tennessee.

There are lots of book signing events scheduled. Join us! Go to the UT Press Facebook page to see what events are coming up for In the Footsteps of Champions.

Getting into the Game: Confessions of a Non–Sports Fan
By Cheryl Cranick

I’m not a sports fan. Frankly, my only experience with the Vol teams was grumbling over parking during games. I always believed that large schools should put academics before athletics. However, as an intern at the University of Tennessee Press, I had the privilege of a sneak peek read of “In the Footsteps of Champions.” I hate to admit when I am wrong, but I’m willing to fess up.

The Lady Vols are champions far exceeding their NCAA ranking. They are part of a path to greatness that began more than a century ago. Playing with meager support, both financial and emotional, they took the field to prove girls can play sports. In the years after being Lady Vols, these women are Olympians, highly successful professionals, and leaders in their communities.

Reading the book as a woman and history buff, I was touched by the Lady Vol’s stories. Terry Hull Crawford battled body image and the ideal of womanhood as she hid her sports gear under a fashionable London Fog raincoat. But when she hit the field, she pulled her coat off to compete. Though she shed her “femininity” at the sideline, it did not make her any less of a woman. It was OK that she played to win. Susan Thornton used commonsense to solve the problem of heavy track equipment. A metal suitcase and a red wagon became extensions of her gear, but it did the job. The teams drove themselves to games and held bake sales to pay for the gas. But they were determined. And look where they are today.

Pat Summitt’s players are expected to attend class when not on the road. And they must be in the first few rows. When Bridgette Gordon skipped class due to snow, she was biking five miles alongside Pat the next day at 5 a.m. Bridgette learned a valuable lesson that morning.

To “get me into the game,” my internship supervisor gave me basketball box seats against LSU. Even though the ladies lost, I had an amazing time. The energy of the Vol fans and the spirit of the players were electrifying. Although it was obvious in the last few minutes that they were not going to win this time, they kept playing. That impressed me. It just wasn’t their night, but that didn’t stop them from being champions.