The University of Arkansas Press is happy to announce the forthcoming publication of eleven titles in the Fall 2021 season.
Wild about Harry: Everything You Have Ever Wanted to Know about the Truman Scholarship, edited by Suzanne McCray and Tara Yglesias, is the latest in a series of edited collections from the National Association of Fellowships Advisors. Wild about Harry makes the Truman Scholarship application process transparent to applicants and their advisors. This collection of essays teaches readers how to gain the most from the application process, how to connect past involvement and successes to future academic and career goals, how to approach interviews, and how to embrace the opportunity if selected for an award. Now available.
George Dixon: The Short Life of Boxing’s First Black World Champion, 1870–1908 by Jason Winders “rescues the tale of this first Black world boxing champion from history’s dustbin,” writes Christopher Klein, “and gives readers ringside seats as Dixon battles not just fellow fighters but also the racism of Jim Crow America while becoming champion on three continents. Thoroughly researched, this book brings to life the true story of a remarkable sporting trailblazer.” Available in September.
American Atrocity: The Types of Violence in Lynching by Guy Lancaster “marks the further emergence of Guy Lancaster as a major voice in the re-writing of the history of racial violence in the US past,” writes David Roediger. “It shows to full advantage the command of sources that so distinguishes his work on ethnic cleansing in Arkansas, but adds deep, philosophically informed reflections probing the role of lynching in patterns of terror and in the reproduction of white supremacy. Compact, provocative, and attentive to complexity, this arresting book especially excels in showing the entanglements of extralegal punishments with state violence.” Available in October.
Like We Still Speak by Danielle Badra is the winner of the 2021 Etel Adnan Poetry Prize. Series editors Fady Joudah and Hayan Charara write in the preface: “This is a deeply spiritual book, all the more so because of its clarity and humility. Yet, we cannot walk away from the addictive command that so many of these poems ask us to follow: to read them along plural paths whose order changes while their immeasurable spirit remains unbound. Each poem is a singular vessel—of narratives, embodiments that correspond with memories, memories that recollect passion. . . . Like We Still Speak is a sanctum. Inside it, we are enthralled by beauty, consoled by light, sustained by making.” Available in October.
The Provisions of War: Expanding the Boundaries of Food and Conflict, 1840–1990, edited by Justin Nordstrom, is part of the Food and Foodways Series. The Provisions of War examines how soldiers, civilians, communities, and institutions have used food and its absence as both a destructive weapon and a unifying force in establishing governmental control and cultural cohesion during times of conflict. Historians as well as scholars of literature, regional studies, and religious studies problematize traditional geographic boundaries and periodization in this essay collection, analyzing various conflicts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through a foodways lens to reveal new insights about the parameters of armed interactions. Available in November.
Remote Access: Small Public Libraries in Arkansas by Sabine Schmidt and Don House is the culmination of a fascinating three-year effort to document the libraries committed to serving Arkansas’s smallest communities that took the artists to every region of their home state. Part of The Arkansas Character Series, Remote Access is a testament to the essential role of libraries in the twenty-first century and a clear-eyed portrait of contemporary rural life, delving into issues of race, politics, gender, and isolation as they document the remarkable hard work and generosity put forth in community efforts to sustain local libraries. Available in November.
Broken Dreams: Another Year Inside Boxing is the latest from International Boxing Hall of Fame journalist Thomas Hauser. Each year, readers, writers, and critics alike look forward to Thomas Hauser’s newest collection of articles about the contemporary boxing scene. As Booklist has proclaimed, “Many journalists have written fine boxing pieces, but none has written as extensively or as memorably as Thomas Hauser. . . . Hauser remains the current champion of boxing. . . . Hauser is a treasure.” Available in November.
Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread: A Country Inn Cookbook, 30th Anniversary Edition by James Beard Award winner Crescent Dragonwagon brings back in to print a beloved cookbook—born of a legendary country inn in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Infused with hospitality, and brimming with good humor, generosity, and a deeply respectful sense of place, Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread invites readers to create a storied table, at home in their kitchens yet as big as the world. Available in November.
Rising Star: The Meaning of Nikki Haley, Trump’s Unlikely Ambassador by Jason A. Kirk analyzes Haley’s ascendance in the Republican party, from her governorship of South Carolina as a woman of color—where she faced extraordinary challenges in a state reckoning with tragedy, race, and its own history—to her elevated profile as Donald Trump’s representative to the United Nations, where as the daughter of immigrants she would become the face of his America First policy to the world. This book, in its consideration of a wide range of perspectives, illuminates how Haley’s combination of political talents and her identity as an Indian American, Christian, southern woman have made her an unlikely bridge between the Trump years and the GOP’s embattled path forward, and, by all accounts, a significant political force. Available in December.
Food Studies in Latin American Literature: Perspectives on the Gastronarrative, edited by Rocío del Aguila and Vanesa Miseres presents a timely collection of essays analyzing a wide array of Latin American narratives through the lens of food studies. Part of the Food and Foodways Series, topics explored in these essays include potato and maize in colonial and contemporary global narratives, the role of cooking in Sor Juana’s poetics, the centrality of desire in twentieth-century cooking writing by women, the relationship between food, recipes, and national identity, the role of food in travel narratives, and the impact of advertisements in domestic roles. Available in December.
Friday Comes on Tuesday: An Adventure at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, written by Darcy Pattison and illustrated by Rich Davis. The real Friday is a Jack Russell Terrier that belongs to Alice Walton, the founder of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. In this story, written by award-winning children’s author Darcy Pattison and illustrator Rich Davis, readers join the fun as Friday takes a last visit to Crystal Bridges before leaving for the winter. Friday trots through the galleries, taking selfies and saying goodbye to all of his friends—Maman the spider, Rosie the Riveter, George Washington, and many others. Available in December.
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