I know we’re not supposed to have favorite authors here at the Press, but since I live in the IT World and rarely interact with our authors, I’ll provide myself with something of an exemption. Last September I wrote about E. Patrick Johnson’s newly released book, titled Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South. At that time I had… Continue Reading Pouring Tea: The Fall 2009 Tour Begins
As I have written here before, I’m a Yankee Vegetarian who came to the South too late to discover the taste of North Carolina Barbecue (in any of its varieties). However, as a self-proclaimed Foodie and something of a geek, if there’s one thing that brings out my inner Alton Brown it’s some good old Food Science. And I don’t… Continue Reading Better Barbecue Through Chemistry!
CNN.com recently ran a story about scientists at Florida Atlantic University researching and considering ways to harness energy from Gulf Stream currents off the coast of Florida. We happen to have a Gulf Stream expert in the UNC Press family, so we asked Stan Ulanski, author of The Gulf Stream: Tiny Plankton, Giant Bluefin, and the Amazing Story of the… Continue Reading Power from the Gulf Stream
For those of us of a certain age (read: Old Folks) reading has a deep association with many of our senses that the current trend towards e-Readers simply do not provide. Books, those physical collections of bound pages provide us with a certain weighty heft that lets us know we are reading something substantial. There is the tactile satisfaction that… Continue Reading The Smell of Books
Yes, it’s another post about American Idol. I swore off American Idol as a huge Time Drain after last season (the first season we’d watched in years) and was brought back into it ONLY because one of my former students, Anoop Desai, (a UNC alum who did his graduate thesis on NC Barbecue!) was in the semi-finals. For those of… Continue Reading Anoop Makes It to the Top 13!
One of the great things about Citizen Journalism is that all of us can take what we think is a Good Idea and put it out into the blogosphere and see if it takes wings. One such idea was forwarded to me by my wonderful wife with the subject line “now this would be a good blog entry for the… Continue Reading A Stimulus Proposal: Invest in Books
Yes, this is a blog posting about American Idol. I’m in charge of the blog for a while and I’m going to write about things that I think should be brought to the public’s attention. And Anoop Desai is certainly one of those things. Back in a former life I was a Children’s Librarian in two Wake County, North Carolina… Continue Reading An Idol from UNC – Chapel Hill
The past few weeks here in the Raleigh -Durham -Chapel Hill area were filled with the type of weather you’d rather read about than have to live through: rain, snow, black ice in the mornings, a damp cold and the occasional wind to cut through most clothing. This section of North Carolina tends to get a serious dose of what… Continue Reading Last Sunday in Durham
While Google may be marking today as the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, many of us here at the UNC Press are thinking of another 200th birthday. Today marks the bicentennial birthday our our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, a reoccurring subject in many of our titles. Two titles in particular come to mind today. The first is Russell McClintock’s “Lincoln… Continue Reading UNC Press Authors at the Lincoln Presidential Library
This is quite the week for Leslie Brown, author of “Upbuilding Black Durham.” On February 1st it was announced that Ms. Brown book on the history of the black community in Durham, North Carolina had won the 2009 Frederick Jackson Turner Award. This award, first given in 1959 as the Prize Studies Award of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, has… Continue Reading Leslie Brown and “Upbuilding Black Durham”
In a former life I was a Children’s Librarian. Books written for kids is still one of my most preferred genres when seeking out books to read (much to my wife’s constant bewilderment). And while the UNC Press has published two recent titles for kids (“The Adventures of Molly Whuppie and Other Appalachian Folktales” and “Taffy of Torpedo Junction“) neither… Continue Reading Caldecott and Newbery Award Winners Announced
In 1860 one of the largest and most successful plantations in North Carolina was Somerset Place. In the course of becoming one of the state’s most prosperous rice, corn, and wheat plantations, the plantation’s owner, Josiah Collins, became one of the largest slaveholders in the state. Somerset Place covered as many as 100,000 acres and was home to more than… Continue Reading Dorothy Spruill Redford on WUNC’s “The State of Things”
The University of North Carolina Press is proud to announce that it is part of a $1-Million grant to establish a collaborative publishing program dedicated to indigenous studies. The grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation teams the UNC Press with the University of Arizona Press, the University of Minnesota Press, and Oregon State University Press. Mark Simpson-Vos, an acquisitions… Continue Reading UNC Press Awarded Mellon Grant for Indigenous-Studies Series
In a recent article by Naomi Alderman in The Guardian (UK) the author writes on “How the web is undermining reading.” In the article Ms Alderman writes: ” Reading has been on the decline for the past half-century – largely, it seems, because television has replaced reading in our leisure time. I love television: even with the slew of boring… Continue Reading Does the Web Undermine Reading?
Things have been a bit on the busy side here at the Press lately. Add in our once-every-three-year dumping of snow and yesterday had all the makings of an ‘interesting’ day. Still, many of our staff took time at lunch to gather in our Boardroom, the largest room in the building, and the only room with a television set, to… Continue Reading The Age of Obama
From the Typewriter to the Bookstore: A Publishing Story (via Macmillan USA on YouTube) Ever wondered how a manuscript becomes a book? Just what goes on with an author? What happens at a publishing house? Who does what? How does which? Where does what go when? And, most importantly, how much money does an Editorial/Acquisitions Assistant really make? Well wonder… Continue Reading From Macmillan Digital – “From the Typewriter to the Bookstore: A Publishing Story”
When Popular Woodworking and Woodworking Magazine held their “Woodworking in America” workshop in November 2008 they called upon the one man who all woodworkers could admire and appreciate to deliver the keynote address: star of PBS’s The Woodwright’s Shop and author of our series of “Woodwrights” books, Roy Underhill. For the uninitiated, Roy Underhill is the modern-day woodworking guru for… Continue Reading A Woodwright Considers the Axe
While the rest of the country is awaiting January 20th to begin their (Presidential) Inaugural festivities, we in North Carolina have already begun our Inaugural celebrations with a series of celebrations in honor of our first woman Governor in the state’s history. Beverly Perdue may not be officially sworn in as Governor until Saturday morning, but the festivities started Thursday… Continue Reading New NC Governor Reaches Across the Table to Bridge Differences
What better way of starting the New Year than by taking a giant step forward? And what better way of taking a giant step forward than by looking backwards? It is in this light that the UNC Press is proud to announce a new series that looks back at the rich history of books published by the UNC Press over… Continue Reading Moving Forward by Looking Back: Enduring Editions
o hai, so ise lokin on teh interwebs teh oder dae n i finds pikshur of grate-grate-grate-grate… well, waybaxs granma kitteh. her sittin in haichair waren a dress n axin bout din-din. vry silly pikshur, rlly. but bes kat site on allada interwebs! dey sez it vry 1st pikshur for dems! pikshur remines me of oder pikshurs hooman shows to… Continue Reading LOLCats for “Pets in America”
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