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Barbara Shoup will sign copies of her latest novel, An American Tune, on the following dates:
December 1
Shoup, along with 12 other IU Press authors, will appear at the Holiday Author Fair from 12 to 4 p.m. at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center in Indianapolis.
December 7
Bookmamas in Indianapolis will host a booksigning with Shoup from 6 to 8 p.m.
December 8
Shoup will discuss and sign copies of her book at Viewpoint Books in Columbus, IN at 2 p.m.
Two IU Press books have been reviewed in the Fall 2012 issue of Feminist Formations:
Women and Social Reform in Modern India
"In order to illuminate the social and cultural contexts obscured by such shortcuts, Sarkar and Sarkar suggest using nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century reform to analyze concurrent shifts in gendered systems of social regulation, especially through religious orthodox and revivalist movements, and gendered engagements with the state, especially through law ...The Sarkars’ project, however, is much larger than creating a more accurate narrative of social reform in late-colonial India."
"Sreenivas’s discussion points to the importance for feminist scholarship of exploring the links among conjugality, kinship, and capitalisms both historically and today."
Poet Norbert Krapf has the following December events planned for his latest release Songs in Sepia and Black and White:
December 1
Krapf, along with 12 other IU Press authors, will sign copies of his book at the Holiday Author Fair from 12 to 4 p.m. at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center in Indianapolis.
December 7
Krapf will present a free reading from his poetry collection at Indy Reads in Indianapolis at 7 p.m.
December 12
Krapf will read German roots poems from Songs in Sepia and Black and White at the monthly Stammtisch gathering of the Indiana German Heritage Society. The reading will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Max Kade Room at the Athenaeum in Indianapolis. There is an optional dinner at 6:30 p.m. The reading is free and open to the public.
IU Press sponsoring editor Linda Oblack will give a talk on our Break Away Books imprint this Friday, November 30 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. in the Bloomingtonfoods' Community Room (316 W. Sixth St., Bloomington, IN). This free event is part of the Lemonstone reading series presented by the Writers Guild at Bloomington.
About Break Away Books:
Focusing on fiction, memoirs, creative nonfiction, and poetry with a Midwest connection, this series places characters and/or action in the Midwest, yet has a universal reach as well, not of a region, but transcending region. The books connect the reader to the region via childhood memories, the land itself, defining moments in one's life that took place in the region, historical subjects or events.
Four award-winning authors and contributors to the forthcoming collection New Stories from the Midwest will participate in a panel titled “The Creative Process, Midwestern Style” at WordFest: Wabash Valley Creative Writing Symposium December 1 at Vigo County Public Library in Terre Haute, IN.
Panelists Ian Stansel, Chad Simpson, Bonnie Nadzam, and Beth Mayer will discuss how the Midwest fits into their writing process from beginning to end. Jason Lee Brown, editor of New Stories from the Midwest and Eastern Illinois writing instructor, will moderate the panel, which will take place from 2:45 to 3:45 p.m.
For a complete list of events, see the WordFest website.
Barbara Vinick and Shulamit Reinharz, editors of Today I Am a Woman, have the following events planned for December:
December 2
December 9
Temple Shalom of Medford in Medford, MA hosts the authors for coffee and a book discussion. The coffee begins at 9:30 a.m. with the authors' presentation following at 10:00 a.m. Suggested donation is $5.
For a complete list of events, visit the authors' blog.
On December 1, meet several IU Press authors and get books signed at the Indiana Historical Society's Holiday Author Fair! The event takes place at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center in Indianapolis from 12 to 4 p.m.
More than 80 Indiana authors will be present at the fair. Thirteen of those authors are from IU Press, including:
Ray E. Boomhower
Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary
Richard Fields
Songs in Sepia and Black and White
Monika Herzig
David Baker
Michael A. Homoya
Orchids of Indiana and Wildflowers and Ferns of Indiana Forests
Rita Kohn
True Brew, Long Journey Home, and Always a People
Norbert Krapf
Songs in Sepia and Black and White, Bloodroot, and Invisible Presence
Michael Martone
Not Normal, Illinois, Double-wide, Fort Wayne is Seventh on Hitler’s List
Marsha Williamson Mohr
Indiana Covered Bridges and Indiana Barns
William O’Rourke
Confessions of a Guilty Freelancer
Rachel Berenson Perry
Barry Gealt, Embracing Nature and T.C. Steele and the Society of Western Artists, 1896–1914
John C. Shively
The Last Lieutenant
Barbara Shoup
An American Tune
Dan Wakefield
Going All the Way
The Holiday Author Fair is free with admission to the Indiana Experience. For more information, visit the IHS website.
Now that the 2012 presidential election is over, how will history remember it? Author David M. Jordan shows that historical memories of elections can change over time. Specifically, he looks at the 1944 presidential race in his book FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944 (now available in paperback). Jordan discusses the fascinating campaign between FDR and Dewey in an interview orignally posted on our blog last year:
Many assume that FDR’s 1944 re-election was a given, but the presidential race was much closer than many recall. Why has the historical memory of this election changed?
I believe that the historical memory of FDR as a candidate who never lost is part of it—“how could FDR even have a close election?”—and the fact that it was very much a part of the war and the war effort. Also perhaps the fact that Dewey lost again four years later tends to lower him in the historical memory.
What were the reasons that the election was so close?
The country seemed to be trending toward more conservatism and the liberalism of the New Deal was fading as the economy improved. A lot of folks were also unhappy with the government-imposed restrictions of the war effort, and the rumors about Roosevelt’s health had some effect, as did all the Communism talk by the Republicans. And, while it didn’t affect the electoral college vote, FDR’s popular vote in the South went down, as the Democratic strength in the South started on its way down.
What is one of the most interesting aspects of the election?
The most interesting aspect of the election in my eyes was the struggle for the selection of the Democratic vice-presidential nominee: the down-grading of Wallace, the push for Byrnes and others, the reluctance of Truman, and, most of all, the “hands-off” and sometimes duplicitous attitude of Roosevelt.
In the preface, you write about some of your childhood recollections of this presidential election. What is your most vivid memory from that time?
What I remember most is my mother’s constant talk about how bad FDR was. I also have a vivid memory of going to my local barber shop and, while waiting, picking up and reading LIFE magazine and a feature on Senate races across the country; I particularly recall reading about Leverett Saltonstall of Massachusetts and Wayne Morse of Oregon.
FDR’s personal physician made misleading statements about the president’s health to keep the public in the dark about the seriousness of his condition. Do you think it’s possible to keep this kind of information a secret today?
No, I think today’s media would never stand for something like what Dr. McIntire did. Even then, the reporters could see that Roosevelt looked a lot different from before and they felt that there was something they weren’t being told, but they had nowhere else to turn. Today, even if the mainstream media were to go along with some kind of a cover-up, all those magazines that turn up next to the supermarket check-out lines would have a field day with the president’s health secrets.
How did Dewey, who has been described as “cold,” “humorless,” and having “little natural political endowment,” end up securing the 1944 Republican nomination?
The main reason he got it was the fact that Republican politicians across the country felt that Dewey was the only one who could carry New York State against Roosevelt. They looked at what he had done in the 1938 and 1942 statewide elections and they figured he had a good chance of carrying NY (as well as the other eastern states like Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, etc.). Most of them liked Bricker much better than Dewey, but they didn’t think Bricker had any real chance to crack the eastern-states bloc. And, of course, Dewey had very persuasive agents like Brownell and Jaeckle going around the country pushing his (invisible) candidacy and getting delegates lined up.
What were some new or surprising facts you learned while doing research for your book?
I never knew about Willkie and the Wisconsin primary until I started on the book or the Warren VP-boom that he scuttled or the struggle to permit some sort of military voting.
How long did it take you to complete the research for the book?
Looking back, I would say it was some six or seven years, with my first research trip to Notre Dame to go through the Frank Walker papers.
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