Indiana University Press blog

April author events for Norbert Krapf

IUP author and former Indiana Poet Laureate Norbert Krapf has the following events planned during National Poetry Month in April:

April 5-7
Krapf, along with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey, will be the featured reader at the Scissortail Creative Arts Festival at East Central University in Ada, OK. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit the festival's blog. 

April 13
Krapf will give a poetry reading as part of the annual meeting of the Society for German American Studies (SGAS). The meeting takes place at the University of Kansas and the Oread Hotel. For more information, visit the SGAS website. 

April 28
The Village Lights Bookstore in Madison, IN, will host a reading and a booksigning with Krapf as part of the bookstore's Poetpalooza. The event will be held from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. For more information, visit the bookstore's website. 

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.

IU Authors' Series features discussion on Rachel Peden

Our regional books editor Linda Oblack kicks of the 10th season of the IU Authors' Series this Saturday, Feb. 12 with a presentation on Rachel Peden. The talk, entitled Full Circle: Why Rachel Peden's Books are Still Important 50 Years Later, will cover Peden's books and her current popularity. The event begins at 10 a.m. at the DeVault Alumni Center. The cost is $15 and you must register online by Friday to attend.

Printing a Book, Old School

Thanks to our assistant sales manager (aka @metakatea) for sharing this on her Twitter page:

Give thanks for books during Thankfully Reading Weekend

A tweet from Jenn at Jenn's Bookshelves about her reading plans for Thanksgiving weekend has inspired others to join her for Thankfully Reading Weekend. I can't think of a better way to spend the time after my self-induced Thanksgiving food coma! There are no rules—just pick up a book and read! You can show your support for Thankfully Reading Weekend by signing up on the Book Blog Social Club site.

Banned Books Week begins today

Today marks the beginning of the annual Banned Books Week, during which the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment are celebrated. In honor of this occasion, I'm listing the some of the banned and challenged classics from the American Library Association's website. (I've put an asterisk next the ones I've read.) What banned books have you read from this list? Post your comments below.

1. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald*
2. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger*
3. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck*
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee*
5. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
6. Ulysses, James Joyce
7. Beloved, Toni Morrison*
8. The Lord of the Flies, William Golding*
9. 1984, George Orwell*
10. Lolita, Vladmir Nabokov
11. Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck*
12. Catch-22, Joseph Heller*
13. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley*
14. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway*
15. As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
16. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway*
17. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad*
18. Their Eyes were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston*
19. Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison*
20. Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison*
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell*
22. Native Son, Richard Wright*
23. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey*
24. Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut*
25. For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway*
26. The Call of the Wild, Jack London*
27. Go Tell it on the Mountain, James Baldwin*
28. All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
29. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
30. The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
31. Lady Chatterley's Lover, DH Lawrence
32. A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
33. In Cold Blood, Truman Capote*
34. Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
35. Sons and Lovers, DH Lawrence
36. Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
37. A Separate Peace, John Knowles
38. Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs
39. Women in Love, DH Lawrence
40. The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer
41. Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
42. An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser
43. Rabbit, Run, John Updike

Book Blogger Appreciation Week: reading habits survey

In honor of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, I took this survey designed specifically for book nerds like me. Please post back some (or all) of your answers to these questions. I'm interested to know what I have in common with other bibliophiles. —Lindsey, IU Press intern

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack? 

I snack at all times. Lately I've been enjoying pita and hummus and Chef-Boyardee. Yeah, the college diet.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you? 

Books for school: yes. My own: Sometimes. Borrowed: Never.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears?

Receipts.

Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?

Both.

Hard copy or audiobooks?

I'm trying to like audio books.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?

It depends on how interesting I find the book.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?

I usually circle it and come back to it.

What are you currently reading?

Sister Carrie.

What is the last book you bought?

The Sun Also Rises.

Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time?

I accidentally start several at a time.

Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?  

Anywhere quiet, particularly afternoon.

Do you prefer series books or stand alone books? 

Usually stand alone books.

How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?)

Unread, half read, read.

Happy Book Blogger Appreciation Week!

Have you hugged a book blogger lately? September 14 - 18 is Book Blogger Appreciation Week! We may not literally be able to hug them, but we do figuratively embrace all the book bloggers who have written about our books. We appreciate your support!

To find out more about Book Blogger Appreciation Week, visit their website or follow them on Twitter.

Video: Instant books via the Espresso Book Machine

Video from the Telegraph article: "Printing machine will make rare books instantly available"

New releases for April

Check out the following titles we've published this month! If you would like to receive notifications about our new releases directly in your inbox, please join our email list.

A Conservationist Manifesto
Scott Russell Sanders
Practical, ecological, and philosophical grounds for a conservation ethic

Orthodox Jews in America
Jeffrey S. Gurock
How American Orthodox Jews have coped with the challenges of religious freedom, economic opportunity, and social acceptance

A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Mark Tessler
An expanded and up-to-date edition of this classic history

Both Right and Left Handed
Bouthaina Shaaban
Personal stories of Arab women illustrate their daily lives and struggles

India's Immortal Comic Books
Karline McLain
A pioneering study of Indian comic book culture

Youth, Nationalism, and the Guinean Revolution
Jay Straker
How youth-centered ambitions destroyed the ideals of nationhood in Guinea

Catholic Women of Congo-Brazzaville
Phyllis M. Martin
The changing roles and relationships of women of the Catholic Church in Africa

Nollywood
Edited by Pierre Barrot
Captures the excitement and vitality of a spontaneous film movement

Phenomenological Interpretations of Aristotle
Martin Heidegger. Translated by Richard Rojcewicz
An early articulation of Heidegger's philosophical method

The Essential Santayana
Edited by the Santayana Edition. Compiled and with an introduction by Martin A. Coleman
Santayana's most important writings collected in one volume

Susanne Langer in Focus
Robert E. Innis
A thorough account of Langer's philosophical career

From Sight to Sound
Nicole M. Brockmann
A fun and practical approach to learning improvisation

Gender Violence in Russia
Janet Elise Johnson
Why some international interventions succeed while others fail

Buying Respectability
Thomas Adam
How newly wealthy Americans gained social status by importing philanthropic innovations from Europe