Indiana University Press blog

Book review: Prince Twins Seven-Seven

"This book is essential reading for students of culture and personality in folklore and anthropology and oral history and autobiography." —Journal of American Folklore

Three IUP books reviewed in American Ethnologist

Three IUP books are reviewed in the current issue of American Ethnologist:

The American War in Contemporary Vietnam
"The American War in Contemporary Vietnam is essential reading for anyone teaching or wanting to understand Vietnam today and would be useful in teaching seminars or upper-level courses on Vietnam, Asia, memory, and history, as well as discussions of ethnographic methodology."

Islamophobia/Islamophilia
"Overall, the volume is an impressive collection of serious discursive analyses that heighten our sensitivities to the forms arguments about Islam take; while always indexes of power, it is clear that the shared terms of global debates about Islamic reform do not always correspond
to shared meanings."

Live from Dar es Salaam
"In Live from Dar es Salaam, Alex Perullo focuses on the creative practices Tanzanians in the music economy in Dar es Salaam utilize as they try to make something of a living in difficult economic times. Perullo also shows how music in Tanzania transitioned from work to a commodity as the country itself moved from a socialist to a capitalist political–economic ideology."

Katrina Daly-Thompson to give talk at Interdisciplinary Humanities Center

Author Katrina Daly-Thompson will discuss her book Zimbabwe's Cinematic Arts at the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center in Santa Barbara, CA, Friday, April 26 at noon (PT). In this lecture, she'll reflect on discourses of identity that pervade local talk and texts in Zimbabwe, a nation beset by political and economic crisis. For more information on the event, visit the center's website.

Transit named a 2013 BTBA finalist

We are pleased to announce that Abdourahman A. Waberi's novel Transit, translated by David Ball and Nicole Ball, is a finalist for the 2013 Best Translated Book Award! These awards, which were founded by the Three Percent blog, recognize the best original works of international poetry and fiction published in the United States during the previous year.

Commentary about each book will be posted on Three Percent's blog until the winner is announced May 3 at 5:30 p.m. during the PEN World Voices/CLMP Fest at the Washington Mews in New York. Each winning translator and author receives a $5,000 award and plaque. To find out why Transit should win, read here.

Abdourahman Waberi to present lecture at Alliance Francaise

Abdourahman Waberi, author of Transit, will present a lecture at Alliance Francaise de Washington in Washington, DC, March 21 at 7:00 p.m. The event will be in French and English. For more information, visit Cultural Tourism DC's website.

Book review: From Protest to Challenge, Volume 6

"[A] timely book offering a distinctive mix of insightful analysis and supporting primary documents, ensuring that it is a crucial read for anyone interested in the intriguing events of apartheids’s demise." —Political Studies Review

Global African Voices series featured in Words Without Borders

In his piece for Words Without Borders, Anderson Tepper has some very nice things to say about us and our Global African Voices series. He writes that he was "intrigued by the idea of this series" and praises our press for "helping to blaze a trail in contemporary African writing, reclaiming and reissuing works other publishers had ignored." He goes on to recognize some other university presses that are also doing international literary series. Visit the Words Without Borders site to read the entire article.

Transit named to Best Translated Book Award Fiction Longlist

We are pleased to announce that David Ball's and Nicole Ball's translation of Transit by Abdourahman A. Waberi was named to the 2013 Best Translated Book Award Fiction Longlist! These awards, which were founded by the Three Percent blog, recognize the best original works of international poetry and fiction published in the United States during the previous year. Finalists in both the fiction and poetry categories will be announced April 10, with the awards ceremony taking place in New York City May 4. Each winning translator and author receives a $5,000 award and plaque. Good luck to Transit!

Book reviews: Being Maasai, Becoming Indegenous

Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous was reviewed in the following publications:

"This book is written in a lucid, direct style. ... Those of us working in East African rangelands should be grateful to Dorothy Hodgson for this thoughtful, timely, and important work." —African Affairs

"[P]rovide[s] invaluable insight into the regional context, as well as useful analyses for those researching ethnic conflict and policy implications in other parts of the world." —Leeds University Centre for African Studies

"The book is a wonderful achievement and evident in it is the author's genuine hopefulness and sensitivity about the goals and future of Maasai in Tanzania." —Pastoralism

"Overall this serves as an important reminder of the ongoing struggle for political representation and recognition of rights and resources faced by marginalized pastoralist communities throughout Africa." —Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

"Through what she terms 'nodal' ethnography, Hodgson provides a fascinating and close-up look at the origins, motivations, and complications of the emergent NGO sector among one of Africa’s most iconic groups." —International Journal of African Historical Studies

Book reviews: Love in the Time of AIDS

Love in the Time of AIDS was reviewed in the following publications:

"This is a sobering and complex book, and the powerful ethnographic excavation of the multiple factors transforming everyday intimacy in contemporary South Africa is a testament to Hunter’s skills as a researcher and author." —Gender, Place, & Culture

"[C]ontribute[s] a stirring history of the present of South Africa, and of the unequal world of which it has been and remains a materially and ideologically formative part." —South African Historical Journal

"Mark Hunter’s work is an important contribution to the historical and anthropological literature on the South African HIV/AIDS epidemic and should be considered required reading for scholars and graduate students interested in the social, cultural, and economic dynamics of post-apartheid South Africa." —Journal of African History

"In this timely and important book, Hunter interrogates misperceptions about AIDS, sexuality, human rights, and gender injustices that perpetuate harmful constructions of African sexuality. Challenging the assumption that Africa is 'loveless,' an emancipatory concept typically reserved for those living in modern Western democracies, Hunter restores questions of love, tenderness, and intimacy in this rich ethnography of gender and sexuality in South Africa." —American Journal of Sociology

"Love in the Time of AIDS is one of the most important books on AIDS in Africa that has been published so far." —African Studies Review

"Many books continue to be written on the phenomenon of AIDS. Most of these limit themselves to particular facets of this multifaceted disease. Love in the Time of AIDS attempts, and achieves, a remarkable comprehensiveness." —English Academy Review