Indiana University Press blog

Choir featured in 'Searching for Hope' to perform at Carnegie Hall

In 2009, award-winning Indianapolis Star columnist Matthew Tully walked into the halls of Manual High School, a failing school in a rough Indianapolis neighborhood. Without so much as a glance, he had been granted unfiltered access to Manual for an entire school year. Little did he know what would become of it. In a series of columns for the Star, Tully began to tell the complex story of the everyday drama, failures, and triumphs in one of the nation’s many troubled urban public high schools. The community’s reaction was astounding. Newspapers weren’t dead.

On February 20, the Manual High School choir, the ManualAires, will perform during an event at Carnegie Hall, featuring composer Greg Gilpin (a Manual fan) and Clay Aiken, among other performers. The choir is a big portion of Tully’s new book, Searching for Hope: Life at a Failing School in the Heart of America. One of Tully's columns about the choir moved Star readers to mail in nearly $100,000 in donations and afforded the kids the opportunity to accept their invitation to perform. The donations came in increments of $2 to $20,000.

Tully’s book, set to release this month, is not a collection of these columns, but a first-person account of his experience, his time with students, parents, teachers, counselors, police, and administrators, and his assertion that schools like Manual are a national emergency and should be treated as such.

"A gritty, wonderfully honest investigation of life in an urban American high school in the 21st century. The despair, the apathy, the misplaced anger, the frustrations and fights for something better are all there. The school in Indianapolis where Tully spent so much time is close to what I have found in many big cities, but few reporters have gone as deep as Tully has,” said Jay Mathews of the Washington Post.

In this gripping story, Tully walks readers into classrooms, offices, and hallways, painting a vivid picture of the profound academic problems, deep frustrations, and apathy that absorb and often consume those within. Yet this intimate view also reveals the hopes, dreams, and untapped talents of some amazing individuals. Providing insights into the colossal challenges confronting those who seek to improve the quality of America’s schools, and those who do not, Tully argues that school leaders and policy makers must rally communities to heartfelt engagement with their schools if the crippling social and economic threats to cities such as Indianapolis are to be averted.

About the author
Matthew Tully is a political columnist for the Indianapolis Star. His columns on public schools have helped drive debate over education reform in Indiana. Tully’s commentary has appeared in the Wall Street Journal and Education Week, and he has appeared on MSNBC, NPR, and numerous other national media outlets. He was named Indiana Journalist of the Year in 2008 and won the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism in 2010. For more information on the book, visit Tully's blog or listen to an IU Press podcast with him.

'A Prophetic Peace' author Alick Isaacs attends National Prayer Breakfast at White House

Alick Isaacs, author of A Prophetic Peace attended the 60th National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., today, February 2, capping a season of honors for IU Press books in the field of Jewish studies and their authors.

The awards and honors demonstrate IU Press’s lasting relevance for scholarship, teaching and learning, notably in the area of Jewish Studies, said the Press's director Janet Rabinowitch.

The White House Prayer Breakfast is an interfaith gathering of men and women to discuss political and social issues. President Barack Obama, members of Congress and other dignitaries gathered with leaders from across the country and around the world. Isaacs was invited in recognition of his Talking Peace project, the aim of which is to bring individuals of different views together to share varying understandings of peace. The project is sponsored by Mishkenot Sha'ananim, an international cultural center in Jerusalem.

Isaacs writes that his combat experience in the second Lebanon war provoked him to search for a way of reconciling the belligerence of religion with its messages of peace, challenging deeply held convictions about Judaism, Zionism, war and peace. In his readings of Biblical prophecy and rabbinic law, Isaacs draws on the writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jacques Derrida, Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Buber, among others, to propose an ambitious vision of religiously inspired peace. Rejecting the notion of Jewish theology as partial to war and vengeance, A Prophetic Peace points to the ways in which Judaism can be a path to peace.

In addition to Isaacs’s attendance of the prayer breakfast, recent awards for IU Press books include:

• The Jewish Book Council named Gender and Jewish History, edited by Marion A. Kaplan and Deborah Dash Moore, the winner in the Anthologies and Collections category of the 2011 National Jewish Book Awards. Modern Ladino Culture, Olga Borovaya’s study focusing on the three major forms of Ladino literacy production, was a finalist in the Sephardic Culture category.
• The American Academy for Jewish Research named Law and Truth in Biblical and Rabbinic Literature by Chaya T. Halberstam the winner of the 2010 Salo Wittmayer Baron Prize. The prize is awarded annually to a first-time author of an outstanding book in Jewish studies.
• The American Jewish Historical Society has named three IU Press publications as Essential Readings in American Jewish History for 2010: Jewish Bialystok and Its Diaspora by Rebecca Kobrin; The Prophetic Minority by Gerald Sorin; and Judaism’s Encounter with American Sports by Jeffrey S. Gurock.

To see a complete list of our Jewish Studies titles, visit our website.

Kathy Sloane to appear on KPFA radio show

Kathy Sloane, author of Keystone Korner, can be heard this Saturday, Oct. 29, on the Berkeley, CA radio station KPFA 94.1 FM. She will be interviewed on Kris Welch's   "Saturday Morning Talkies" show, which airs from 9:00-10:00 a.m. (PST). Sloane's interview will begin around 9:30 a.m. (PST).

If you are not in the Berkeley area, you can listen to the show on KPFA's website.

Norbert Krapf's poetry to be featured on The Writer’s Almanac again

For a second time, Norbert Krapf's poetry will be featured on The Writer's Almanac. His poem "Uncle" will be part of the September 14 show. Previously, his poem "Boy Scouts Camping Out" was selected for the July 23rd episode.

You can listen to The Writer's Almanac on these stations or as a podcast.

Norbert Krapf is author of Invisible Presence and Bloodroot. His upcoming poetry collection Songs in Sepia and Black and White will be published next year.

Nancy Hiller to be featured in Bloom Magazine and Old-House Interiors

Nancy Hiller, author of The Hoosier Cabinet in Kitchen History and the forthcoming A Home of Her Own, will have articles featured in two magazines. Hiller's article "Women and their [Sp]Houses" will appear in the October 2011 issue of Old-House Interiors. The August/September issue of Bloom Magazine features her article about painter and IU Press book subject, T.C. Steele. Check your local newsstands for copies of these magazines!

Norbert Krapf's poetry to be featured on The Writer’s Almanac

Norbert Krapf's poem "Boy Scouts Camping Out" will be featured on The Writer's Almanac this Saturday, July 23. The program is available on these stations or as a podcast.

Krapf is author of Invisible Presence and Bloodroot. His upcoming poetry collection Songs in Sepia and Black and White will be published next spring.

Bloomington: Midwest Living's "Best Food Town"

Midwest Living just announced its five "Best Midwest Food Towns," and Bloomington was among those recognized. Coming in at number four, Bloomington is the second smallest town on the list and, according to Midwest Living, surprising for the depth its adult dining scene offers and its heavy reliance on local products. 

Contributing to this depth is FARMbloomington. Owned and operated by IU Press author Daniel Orr, FARMbloomington is highlighted in Midwest Living's rankings as one of Bloomington's best restaurants. If you are ever in Bloomington, Midwest Living suggests stopping by FARMbloomington to pick up one of its "signature buttermilk biscuits, with eggs, bacon, gravy—or just a smear of butter."

If you are interested in Bloomington food, Chef Orr, or just food in general, be sure to check out Chef Orr's two cookbooks, FARMfood and Paradise Kitchen.

William D. Middleton, famed railroad author, dies

We are saddened to report that IU Press author William D. Middleton has died. The following article is reprinted by permission of TRAINS Magazine:

By Kevin P. Keefe

LIVONIA, N.Y. — William D. Middleton, 83, an author and photographer who enlightened and entertained nearly three generations of TRAINS readers, died late yesterday. He had been living in recent months near his son, Bill.

A railroad journalist of wide-ranging interests and expertise, Middleton earned more than 80 bylines in TRAINS since his first article in the April 1951 issue. He also served for many years as a contributing editor to the industry trade magazine Railway Age.

As a photographer, Middleton’s credit line appeared with countless photos in TRAINS, and his images appeared on the cover 20 times. His work as a photographer was profiled in the Spring 2011 issue of CLASSIC TRAINS.

Middleton also had few peers in the railroad book field. He wrote or co-wrote 23 volumes, many of them standards in the field. Middleton played a leading role in the creation of the “Encyclopedia of North American Railroads,” the landmark one-volume reference published in 2004 by Indiana University Press.

Born in Davenport, Iowa, on March 25, 1928, Bill Middleton became immersed in railroading at an early age. His father, William, was a physician for the National Indian Service. His grandfather, also William, was born in Scotland and was the first chief physician for the Rock Island Railroad.

At age 10, young Bill took his first photograph of a train, using a Brownie box camera to frame a Great Northern train on a small bridge near his home in Wolf Point, Mont.

A civil engineer by profession, Middleton graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1950. At RPI, he became friends with a young Jim Shaughnessy, a photographer with equally big accomplishments in his future.

Middleton went to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, then embarked on a distinguished 30-year U.S. Navy career that included service in Korea, Japan, Turkey, and Morocco. After the Navy, he continued his engineering career, capping it off with a 13-year tenure as chief facilities officer at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, from which he retired in 1993.

All the while, Middleton remained remarkably prodigious as an author. His many articles in TRAINS reflected his restless curiosity: electric traction, of course (his specialty), but also steam locomotives, railroad engineering, international passenger trains, and operations.

Of his many books, the three volumes in his memorable “traction trilogy” are classics of the genre: “The Interurban Era” (1961), “The Time of the Trolley” (1967), and “When the Steam Railroads Electrified” (1974), all originally for Kalmbach Books. He also wrote definitive books on two of Chicago’s Insull interurbans, “South Shore: America’s Last Interurban” (1970) and “North Shore: America’s Fastest Interurban” (1968), published originally by Golden West Books.

Recent titles have included a delightful personal memoir, “Yet There Isn’t a Train I Wouldn’t Take,” (2000, Indiana University Press), and, with his son Bill (William D. Middleton III), a biography of one of his heroes, “Frank Julian Sprague: Electrical Inventor and Engineer” (2009, IU Press). He tied railroading directly to his profession in “Landmarks on the Iron Road” (1999, IU Press) and “The Bridge at Quebec” (2001, IU Press).

Middleton was a quiet force in railroad publishing. Soft-spoken and collegial, he displayed the sort of leadership that certainly came in part from a Navy career. On the “Encyclopedia” project for IU Press, he (along with co-leaders George Smerk and Roberta L. Diehl) kept an 18-member editorial board in line, coaxing the unwieldy volunteer staff into producing a sprawling, indispensable reference.

He also made many friends through his photography, among them Stan Kistler and Fred Schneider III, who collaborated with Middleton for nearly 40 years by doing the darkroom work on Bill’s expertly composed black-and-white images.

Middleton’s wife of 53 years, Dorothy, herself an accomplished teacher and museum docent, died in 2009. He is survived by his two sons, Nick, in Seattle, and Bill, in Livonia.

True Brew author captures 2nd place in national contest

Congratulations to Rita Kohn, who placed 2nd in this year's National Federation of Press Women's (NFPW) 2011 Communications Contest for her book True Brew! Kohn's book had previously taken first in the Woman's Press Club of Indiana (WPCI) communications contest and from there was sent on to the national competition. WPCI is an affiliate of the National Federation of Press Women. Kohn's book competed with first-place winners from 26 other NFPW affiliates for the national award. The award winners will be honored during a banquet at the NFPW national conference Sept. 8-10 in Council Bluffs, IA and Omaha, NE.

Bruce Ledewitz to conduct workshop at annual conference

Bruce Ledewitz, author of Church, State, and the Crisis in American Secularism, will conduct a workshop on Sunday, June 19, at the annual conference of The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science. The topic of the workshop is, "What Kind of Establishment Clause is Appropriate for Religion in an Age of Science?" The conference runs from June 18-25, and will take place at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, NY. The theme for this year's conference is "Doing Good, Doing Bad, Doing Nothing: Scientific and Religious Perspectives." For more information, visit the conference website.