Last Thursday the Press had a fabulous launch party for Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue at The Pit in downtown Raleigh. We celebrated with authors John Shelton Reed, Dale Volberg Reed, and William McKinney as well as several pitmasters featured in the book, including Ed Mitchell (pitmaster at The Pit), Samuel Jones (3rd-generation pitmaster at the… Continue Reading Holy Smoke launch night at The Pit
On WUNC’s (91.5 FM Chapel Hill) The State of Things today at noon, Frank Stasio and a panel of guests will be discussing the legal and religious meanings of marriage in light of the passage of Prop 8 in California and similar amendments in other states. Guests will include UNC Press author E. Patrick Johnson, professor in the Department of… Continue Reading E. Patrick Johnson on today’s State of Things
Folks, Holy Smoke is hot! Thank you! The book popped up in the #15 spot in hardcover nonfiction on SIBA’s (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) Southern Indie Bestseller List for the week ending November 2. This morning’s News & Observer featured an interview with the Reeds. Today, John and Dale Reed talked to Frank Stasio on The State of Things. (Podcast… Continue Reading Ssssmmmokin’!
Well, it’s the semi-annual “clean-up day” here at UNC Press. That means everybody (except Courtney, whose office is always clean) takes some time to get their offices in order, thin out their email archives, and purge outdated files. A few extra HUGE recycling bins are brought in and are often filled to overflowing. Oh, the paper! Remember when everybody started… Continue Reading John and Dale Reed brighten UNCP clean-up day
It’s hard to think about anything else right now, as far as I’m concerned. And I don’t even watch teevee! That’s the thing about the internet: if you need a fix of pretty much anything, you can get it, and get it immediately. Sometimes hitting “refresh” over at fivethirtyeight.com or pollster.com feels as good as hitting the release on the… Continue Reading This week in history: all our presidents got elected
Three UNCP authors deserve special cheers for winning awards recently: Rob Christensen, author of The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics, has been awarded the 2008 Ragan Old North State Award for Nonfiction by the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association. The successor to the organization’s Mayflower Cup, the Ragan Old North State Award honors Sam Ragan: poet, critic, publisher, and… Continue Reading Christensen, Shelby, Hogan earn awards
The Wall Street Journal has published a series of “Five Best” book lists in various subjects this month, including books on financial meltdowns and books on the history of medicine. This week’s list offers Pulitzer Prize-winning author James M. McPherson‘s top five books about the Civil War away from the battlefield. Of the five books on McPherson’s list, one is… Continue Reading James McPherson’s top five books on the Civil War away from the battlefield
The world’s largest annual book trade show, the Frankfurt Book Fair, just wrapped up its 60th anniversary gathering. From October 15-19, the Frankfurt, Germany, fair hosted more than 50,000 visitors each day, peaking at a record 78,218 on Saturday! Vicky Wells, our director of contracts and subsidiary rights, hopped on a plane last week, crossed the Atlantic and touched down… Continue Reading Frankfurt Book Fair 2008
Before the week gets away from me, I wanted to be able to share some more of the online buzz UNC Press books have gotten lately. It’s all about FOOD . . . Nancy Carter Crump’s Hearthside Cooking: Early American Southern Cuisine Updated for Today’s Hearth and Cookstove is hitting bookstores now. Get an early taste over at Gherkins and… Continue Reading Online book buzz: the food’s the thing
The University of North Carolina Press was not the only out-of-towner attending the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville Oct. 10-Oct. 12. Comedian and actor Robin Williams strolled through the War Memorial Plaza on Sunday and checked out what UNC Press had to offer. He even purchased Lincoln and the Decision for War, by Russell McClintock, as seen in this… Continue Reading Robin Williams stops by UNC Press Booth in Nashville
According to an article in the New York Times today, tens of thousands of eligible voters have erroneously—and illegally—been removed from voter rolls in at least six battleground states, including North Carolina. On top of the fact that it is against the law (with few exceptions, such as death) to purge voter rolls within 90 days of an election, many… Continue Reading Verifying your voter registration status
See Gus Read. Gus is reading a book. Read, Gus! Read! What book is Gus reading? Oh, oh! Gus is reading a banned book! Bad, Gus! Bad! Gus should not read banned books! Banned books are bad. Bad, banned books. Bad! Banned books might make you think in ways book banners think you should not think! That sort of thinking… Continue Reading See Gus Read!
Dear, sweet readers, do you know what this week is? It’s Banned Books Week, brought to you by the American Library Association. It’s that time once a year when we celebrate the freedom to read what we want by flaunting all the books that people at one time or another, for one reason or another, didn’t want somebody to read.… Continue Reading Call for Entries: Get Caught Reading . . . a Banned Book! Send pics!
Greetings from Mobile, Alabama! What a weekend-well-spent at the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (commonly referred to as SIBA) 2008 trade show. The University of North Carolina Press received quite a bit of positive feedback for many reasons. EVERYONE we spoke with is anxiously awaiting the arrival of Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue and couldn’t give enough praise… Continue Reading UNC Press in Mobile, AL
If you didn’t go check out the videos mentioned in Tom’s post on Sweet Tea a couple of weeks ago, go do it now. In fact, here’s a direct link to the page where the videos are. Go on. I’ll wait. . . . . . . Okay, I actually just went and re-watched all six of them again. I… Continue Reading E. Patrick Johnson’s “Pouring Tea” in Chapel Hill and Durham
I grew up in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, the eldest child of parents who’s idea of gastronomic adventure was going out to the local Hot Shoppes Cafeteria (you southerners just think the K&W and you’ll get the idea). It wasn’t until I was eighteen, when I grew my hair long, pierced my ear, and became a vegetarian that… Continue Reading A Yankee Vegetarian Considers North Carolina Barbecue
Less than a week after Hurricane Gustav kept many of us watching The Weather Channel, hoping New Orleans would be spared a repeat of the flooding damage brought by Hurricane Katrina, those of us in North Carolina are now watching as Tropical Storm Hanna is taking aim at the Carolina coastline. Many of us here at the UNC Press have… Continue Reading Hurricane Season Comes to the Carolinas
Our adoration and appreciation with WUNC’s “The State of Things” continues to grow on an almost weekly basis. Today, for instance, host Frank Stasio interviewed Anna Hayes on her new biography of Susie Marshall Sharp. Hayes’ book, “Without Precedent: The Life and Times of Susie Marshall Sharp” looks at the life of the first woman judge in the state of… Continue Reading “Meet Anna Hayes” on The State of Things
When Hurricane Katrina moved northwest through the Gulf of Mexico, hitting the Gulf Coast of the US in late August of 2005 I had only the briefest of connections to the city: my parents had attended a convention there in the late 60s, a friend I had grown up with lived there with his wife right after graduating from the… Continue Reading Hurricane Katrina: August 29, 2005
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