FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The University of Arkansas Press is bringing back Elvis this spring. This time, though, it’s poets, and not impersonators, who pay tribute to The King.

All Shook Up: Collected Poems about Elvis, compiled by Will Clemens with photographs by Jon Hughes, will be published in February. Poets in the anthology include Joyce Carol Oates, Ai and James Seay. Clemens and Hughes both teach at the University of Cincinnati.

All Shook Up combines history, myth and art in the words of well-known poets and the photographs of Jon Hughes.

The Press continues its tradition of publishing original poetry with two collections. The first, The Throats of Narcissus by Bruce Bond, combines the classical myth of Narcissus with the life cycle.

The second work, Meditations, With Distractions, Poems 1988-98, by James J. McCauley, features a broad range of subjects, from fate of a drunk in a cheap hotel room to the life of a deaf-mute monk.

Going further back in time, the Press continues its coverage of Civil War history with The Preacher’s Tale: The Civil War Journal of Rev. Francis Springer, Chaplain, U.S. Army of the Frontier, edited by William Furry, editor of the Illinois Times. Springer enlisted in the 10^th Illinois Cavalry in 1861 at the age of 51. He witnessed the Battle of Prairie Grove and was later named post chaplain at Fort Smith, where he ministered to troops and to displaced refugees from the war. The intimate journal reveals the author’s thoughts on the nature of war, the meaning of violence and the role of religion.

The Preacher’s Tale is part of an ongoing series, The Civil War in the West, edited by Anne J. Bailey and University of Arkansas history professor Daniel E. Sutherland.

The South and the North are re-visited in The South in Modern America: A Region at Odds, by Dewey Grantham, Holland N. McTyeire Professor of History Emeritus at Vanderbilt University. The book details an account of the Southern experience since the end of Reconstruction It describes the interplay between the South, the North and the rest of the nation, showcasing the conflicts and tensions, the struggle to reconcile divergent issues and the attempt to realize historical ideals. The book will be available in April.

In May the Press will present the first of two books to explore the current state of the American newspaper. Leaving Readers Behind: The Age of Corporate Newspapering, is edited by Gene Roberts, former executive editor of the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer, who now teaches at the University of Maryland College of Journalism; Thomas Kunkel, dean of the University of Maryland College of Journalism; and Charles Layton, a freelance writer and book editor who spent 20 years working as a news and features editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Contributors include University of Arkansas professor emeritus Roy Reed.

The book examines the rise of newspaper corporations that has led to buying, selling and consolidation of newspapers across the country, and how it has affected reporting and news coverage. The book asks the crucial question: Are American communities - in the very middle of the so-called information explosion - in danger of becoming less informed than ever?

Another long-time newspaper editor has a book coming out of the Press in May. John S. Workman, an ordained Methodist minister, author and newspaper editor and columnist, has written Travels in a Tree House: Essays on Life and Other Joys. This collection of essays from his newspaper columns offers salt-of-the-earth wisdom and humanity along with a sense of humor about life’s worries and contradictions.

June will see the publication of Autumn Equinox by Jabbour Douaihy, an author and literature professor at the Lebanese University. Nay Hannawi, who holds a master’s degree in literary translation from the University of Arkansas, translated the book from its original Arabic. The book chronicles the experiences of a young man who returned to his Lebanese village after attending college in the United States. It spans the time from the end of may to the equinox in September of 1986, documenting his efforts to remake himself through changes to his reading and writing, his eating habits, his clothes, his posture, his family and his love life. It is the recipient of the Arabic Translation Award for 2001, jointly sponsored by the Press and the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies.

For information on the books or to obtain a catalog, please call 1-800-626-0090, or send e-mail to uaprinfo@uark.edu.

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