Rheta Grimsley Johnson Talks One Book One Community with Baton Rouge Media
Baton Rouge media turned their spotlights on Rheta Grimsley Johnson recently as residents embarked on the One Book One Community summer read program featuring Johnson’s travel memoir Poor Man’s Provence: Finding Myself in Cajun Louisiana. In a show airing July 31, Johnson told syndicated talk show host Jim Engster that she was “flabberagasted and honored” to have her book selected for the One Book program …
Bob Zellner’s Wrong Side of Murder Creek Wins Lillian Smith Book Award
The Southern Regional Council in conjunction with the University of Georgia Libraries recently named NewSouth author Bob Zellner a recipient of the 2009 Lillian Smith Book Award for his civil rights memoir The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement …
NewSouth Books to Publish Adventures of Tom Sawyer for National Endowment for the Arts’ Alabama Big Read
It doesn’t happen often, according to Molly Thomas-Hicks at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), that a regionally based publishing house is selected to publish a work for its Big Read program. So NewSouth Books was especially honored to learn that it had been named to publish The Adventures of Tom Sawyer for the 2010 Alabama Big Read …
Jackie Matte Talks MOWA Band of Choctaws with University of Alabama Birmingham Magazine
The Birmingham News and the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s weekly magazine recently featured Jacqueline Matte, historian and NewSouth author of They Say the Wind is Red: The Alabama Choctaw — Lost in Their Own Land. The magazine article centers on Matte’s combined efforts with UAB anthropologist Loretta Cormier to validate the existence of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians …
Dr. Regina Benjamin Named Surgeon General by Obama Administration, Profiled in American Crisis
Dr. Regina Benjamin — profiled by journalist Frye Gaillard in his essay in American Crisis, Southern Solutions: From Where We Stand, Promise and Peril — has been named the next surgeon general by President Barak Obama. Benjamin is an Alabama physician and, as president of the Alabama Medical Association, was the first female African America president of a state medical association …
Roger Reid’s Space Rockets to Alabama Department of Ed’s Emphasis on Reading List
Space, the young adult novel by Roger Reid, has been named to the Alabama Department of Education’s Emphasis on Reading list for the school year 2009-2010. Mr. Reid was the only Alabama author to have a book so designated …
Rheta Grimsley Johnson’s Poor Man’s Provence Named Baton Rouge’s One Book One Community Summer Read
NewSouth Books was honored to learn that Rheta Grimsley Johnson’s memoir, Poor Man’s Provence: Finding Myself in Cajun Louisiana, was named by the Baton Rouge One Book Community (OBOC) Program as its summer 2009 reading selection. In his message at the OBOC kick-off event, East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor Kip Holden said, “Let us become tourists in our own state and realize once again that whether it’s in the food or the music, [what we have in Louisiana] adds up to a magic that cannot be found anywhere else in this country†…
Fire Ants, Others Praised on LibraryThing Website
Fire Ants has recently been reviewed on LibraryThing. Fire Ants, a collection of short stories by Gerald Duff, won a rave review for Duff’s ability to “capture the southern voice honestly.” LibraryThing member Banoo writes that Duff’s “words cover you like a worn quilt on a cool, humid southern night. Slipping into this book is effortless and more than a little welcoming.” He goes on to praise the depiction of the characters: “His people are real. Some are slightly damaged, broken by hard use over long years, or hungry for something lacking in their environment, or just plain damaged. I couldn’t help but think of Faulkner” …
Ted Dunagan Wins Georgia Author of the Year Award for A Yellow Watermelon
Ted Dunagan received the Georgia Author of the Year award in the Young Adult category for his debut novel, A Yellow Watermelon, in a ceremony held June 13 at the KSU Center in Kennesaw, Georgia. Katherine Mason, Assistant Professor of English Education at Kennesaw State University and lead judge of the Young Adult category said, “A Yellow Watermelon reveals the power of friendship and loyalty to overcome racial and economic prejudice in 1940s South Alabama. Told from twelve-year-old Ted Dillon’s point of view, the story is suspenseful and captivating, with authentic dialogue and engaging sentence variety.”
Foster Dickson Enjoys Black Belt Treasures, Store That Does More
Author Foster Dickson writes about a recent book signing at Black Belt Treasures, “Since my book I Just Make People Up: Ramblings With Clark Walker was published, I’ve had a number of book-signings. One of the most rewarding to date was an event at Black Belt Treasures in Camden, Alabama, a few weeks back. Whether to call Black Belt Treasures a bookstore, or a gift shop, or a gallery, or a cultural center, I don’t know for sure. It’s actually all these things and more” …