In a recent article that ran in the Samson Independent in Clinton, N. C., Julie Williams, author of the newly released Wings of Opportunity: The Wright Brothers in Montgomery, Alabama, 1910 remembers her tenure there as a very young journalist, when she honed her reporting skills and learned to appreciate the importance of home-town journalism …
NewSouth author Steve Suitts recently contributed an op-editorial to the Daily Report, Fulton County Georgia’s leading source for legal news and information. In the editorial, Suitts, author of Hugo Black of Alabama: How His Roots and Early Career Shaped the Great Champion of the Constitution, discusses the historical context of a recent Supreme Court ruling which struck down congressional limits on corporate campaign contributions …
The Alabama Department of Archives and History honored its highest-ranking female employee, reference department head and black history and genealogy specialist Frazine Taylor, with a retirement party attended by some 100 people on Monday, February 1. The Montgomery Advertiser covered the event and interviewed admiring colleagues including ADAH director Dr. Ed Bridges, who praised her professionalism and observed, “Frazine’s become a national leader in the field” …
Alabama readers will dive into The Adventures of Tom Sawyer after the kickoff of the Big Read program held yesterday, February 2, on the steps of the State House in Montgomery, Alabama. Lt. Governor Jim Folsom began the initiative by reading the first page of Mark Twain’s classic novel, surrounded by legislative representatives and librarians. Sponsored by the state libraries of Alabama, the event inaugurated Alabama’s first ever Big Read program, highlighted by the publication of a special edition of Tom Sawyer produced by NewSouth Books …
“It may still be frosty outside but in the South it’s always Okra Season!” So says the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) in announcing the books named to its 2010 winter/spring Okra Picks list. Lucky for us at NewSouth, Rheta Grimsley Johnson’s new memoir made the cut. Thanks, SIBA. Of Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming, Rick Bragg says, “Rheta Grimsley Johnson writes with nothing short of beauty about childhood, lost loves, sad dogs, and everything else worth knowing about.” Watch for it in April …
“The Alabama Guide: Our People, Resources, and Government is a humdinger and ought to be on a book shelf in every home in the state,” says Alvin Benn in his January 13, 2010 Montgomery Advertiser column. NewSouth Books Editor-in-Chief Randall Williams coordinated and designed the over 700-page Alabama Guide in association with the Alabama Department of Archives and History …
David Rigsbee, whose book The Red Tower: New and Selected Poems will be published by NewSouth in September 2010, will receive the Sam Ragan Award for Distinguished Service to North Carolina Arts Thursday, February 4 at St. Andrews College in Laurinburg, North Carolina …
NewSouth author and former politician Glen Browder is receiving national attention for his new book Stealth Reconstruction: The Untold Story of Racial Politics in Recent Southern History, in which he and co-author Artemesia Stanberry discuss the fascinating history of the unheroic, quiet, practical, biracial work of some white politicians and black leaders …
The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star recently ran an op-ed piece, written by NewSouth author and historian Paul Gaston, honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and discussing his lasting influence on race relations and politics in the United States …
Bay of Pigs veteran Joe Shannon of Birmingham, who died on January 5, was rememberd in an Associated Press article carried by the Montgomery Advertiser and MSNBC.com. According to the story, Shannon was “one of the few surviving American pilots who participated in the failed invasion of Cuba in 1961” …