We hope you’ve got your hot chocolate and eggnog ready for this winter season! Today we wanted to share some holiday gift recommendations from our staff. Don’t forget, we’re having a Holiday Sale too! Save 40% on any of these great stocking stuffers and all of our other UNC Press print books. You’ll also receive free shipping on orders of… Continue Reading Staff Picks: 2021 UNC Press Holiday Gift Guide
In Two Captains from Carolina, Bland Simpson twines together the lives of two accomplished nineteenth-century mariners from North Carolina–one African American, one Irish American. Though Moses Grandy (ca. 1791- ca. 1850) and John Newland Maffitt Jr. (1819-1886) never met, their stories bring to vivid life the saga of race and maritime culture in the antebellum and Civil War-era South. With his lyrical prose and inimitable voice, Bland Simpson offers readers a grand tale of the striving human spirit and the great divide that nearly sundered the nation.
In this interview on NC Bookwatch, Simpson speaks with host D.G. Martin about Two Captains from Carolina and the fascinating lives led by Grandy, former slave turned Boston abolitionist, and Maffit, a midshipman in the U.S. Navy at age thirteen turned legendary blockade runner. Simpson also explains his reasons for contrasting these two men with each other in this “nonfiction novel.” Continue Reading Video: Bland Simpson on NC Bookwatch
In an excerpt from Bland Simpson’s nonfiction novel Two Captains from Carolina, we get a glimpse of Moses Grandy’s early career as a boatman—the freedom he felt on the water and the opportunities that lay ahead. Continue Reading Excerpt: Two Captains from Carolina, by Bland Simpson
In this video, Bland Simpson reads from his epic tale of race and war, “Two Captains from Carolina,” at UNC’s Bull’s Head Bookshop, November 13, 2012. Continue Reading Video: Bland Simpson reads from “Two Captains from Carolina”
UNC Press is announcing that after 34 years with the publishing house, editor-in-chief David Perry intends to retire in March 2013. Perry joined UNC Press as an editorial assistant in 1979 and was named the Press’s editor-in-chief in 1995. Continue Reading UNC Press Editor-in-Chief David Perry to Retire
Bland Simpson, author of Two Captains from Carolina: Moses Grandy, John Newland Maffitt, and the Coming of the Civil War, reveals how the stories of two men can tell the saga of race in the antebellum and Civil War-era South. Continue Reading Interview: Bland Simpson on Two Captains from Carolina
This week in our North Carolina icons series we’re featuring the Great Dismal Swamp, which stretches from Norfolk, Virginia to Elizabeth City, North Carolina. It’s number 80 on Our State magazine’s 100 North Carolina Icons list, where it’s described: “Birds don’t find the swamp dismal at all. More than 200 species of birds can be spotted there during the year. Grab your binoculars and go.” Continue Reading North Carolina Icons: The Great Dismal Swamp
We recently spoke to Bland Simpson and Scott Taylor about capturing the essence and spirit of a large, rich place in photographs and words in the book they co-authored, The Coasts of Carolina: Seaside to Sound Country. For a limited time, their book, among many other great gift books, is available with a 20% discount through the UNC Press Holiday… Continue Reading Interview: Simpson & Taylor on Carolina’s Coasts
This weekend is Waterfowl Weekend at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center at Harkers Island, North Carolina. Our authors, Bland Simpson and Scott Taylor will surely be there. Their book is The Coasts of Carolina: Seaside to Sound Country. What it is, it seems to me, is a love letter to the southern part of the NC coast—its… Continue Reading Bland Simpson and Scott Taylor at Harkers Island’s Waterfowl Weekend
On July 26, a mural named SERVICE was dedicated at UNC’s School of Government in the Knapp-Sanders Building. The mural, depicting a gathering of African-American leaders at the counter of a diner, was painted by Colin Quashie as a creative interpretation of the historical 1960 Greensboro, North Carolina, sit-in. We will be featuring each of the eight panels in a… Continue Reading UNC Press takes a field trip to see SERVICE
Hearty congratulations to multiple UNC Press authors who have recently been honored by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources for their outstanding work in North Carolina history and culture. Anna Hayes was awarded the Ragan Old North State Award for Nonfiction for Without Precedent: The Life of Susie Marshall Sharp. The award is given yearly by the North Carolina… Continue Reading North Carolina Award Winners
UNC Press author Bland Simpson has made his name on a myriad of talents, one of which is his superb ability to write about North Carolina’s coastline. Since 1993, UNC Press has published five of Simpson’s books about the area, with the most recent work–The Inner Islands–scheduled for paperback publication in the spring of 2010. I mention Simpson because his… Continue Reading David Stick 1919-2009
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