New This Week: February 18th

We’re excited to have three new books publishing today on topics including poetry, women’s basketball history, how media mistreats Black girls, and a dive into grief across generations and oceans. Learn more about these titles below or visit our Hot Off the Press page to see everything new publishing this month.

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Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women’s Basketball by Pamela Grundy, Susan Shackelford

“A must-read for anyone who loves the game. Pamela Grundy and Susan Shackelford introduce us to the women who opened the gymnasium doors for generations to come.”—Rebecca Lobo

“When it comes to women’s sports, people don’t know enough about us. Now doors are opening. People are able to see us, they’re able to hear us. We’re about to move light years ahead. We need to bring our history with us.” —Seimone Augustus, four-time WNBA champion

Black Girls and How We Fail Them by Aria S. Halliday

“In Black Girls and How We Fail Them, Aria Halliday eloquently and incisively captures the relationship between popular culture and the sociological realities that shape our collective understanding of race and gender in America. Halliday’s book is a penetrating examination of how depictions of Black girls and women in music, film, and politics both animate and reflect the way they are treated in society at large. This book is both an invitation and an opportunity. I am so grateful it exists.”—Clint Smith, author of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery across America

“A timely and honest love letter to Black girls and an exploration of accountability for those who love and misunderstand them alike. A must-read for those inside and outside popular culture’s long reach.”—Regina N. Bradley, author of Chronicling Stankonia: The Rise of the Hip-Hop South

Saltwater: Grief in Early America by Mary Eyring

Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press

“In Saltwater, ‘grief’ names trouble of all sorts: pain, suffering, affliction, injury, discomfort, sorrow. It hangs in the air as a lingering mood: subtle, quiet, gnawing. Treating equally the physical and the psychic, the experiential and the expressive, Eyring teaches us how to listen to those who grieve and how openness to pain changes our perception of the past, and of the present.”—Kathleen Donegan, University of California, Berkeley

“A profound meditation on the universality and historical specificity of grief, Saltwater traces a historical mood across court records, testimonies, medical tracts, and the land and water traversed by Indigenous and Black Americans as well as European settlers. This book is essential reading for early Americanists and a timely reflection on the subtle forms of grief that constitute the human experience.”—Sarah Rivett, Princeton University

The Anthology of Black Mountain Poetry edited by Blake Hobby, Alessandro Porco, Joseph Bathanti

“Well thought-out, the selections in this anthology beautifully introduce readers to this special college and to poets deserving of high praise and appreciation.”—Library Journal, starred review

“This anthology brings together an inspiring range of poetries, a monumental feat that showcases the ripple effect still felt today, over ninety years later. This poetry archive is of major historical significance. Kudos to the editors, their impressive teamwork, and the resources this tome brings to fans and scholars everywhere.”—Anne Waldman, author of over sixty books, cofounder of the Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and Distinguished Professor of Poetics at Naropa University.