University of Arkansas Press Celebrates 30 Years

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The Time Between Places: Stories that Weave In and Out of Egypt and America, by Pauline Kaldas.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – When University of Arkansas creative writing professor Miller Williams and professor of history Willard Gatewood founded the University of Arkansas Press 30 years ago, they could hardly have imagined that it would publish the books of future poet laureates, former presidents and National Book Award winners. Yet the University of Arkansas Press has done all of these things, and more.

“Most important of all,” said Tom Lavoie, director of marketing and sales, “the press has survived. It’s not uncommon these days to read about some university presses being closed, others on life support, others downsizing their lists and laying off some staff members.”

This press has continued to move forward and under director Larry Malley has evolved into a thriving publishing house, emphasizing books on the history and politics of Arkansas and the South, African American history, Civil Rights history, the Civil War, Middle Eastern culture and fiction, and poetry. It has collections of books in these areas, including a selection of books by former president Jimmy Carter, award-winning volumes of poetry, and books on sports, music and the outdoors.

The fall catalog of the press reflects its continuing commitment to this diversity of topics.

One such book is the most comprehensive collection of Afghan American writers available today. One Story, Thirty Stories: An Anthology of Contemporary Afghan American Literature, edited by Zohra Saed and Sahar Muradi, collects poetry, fiction, essays and blog selections in one volume. The 50 pieces in this anthology feature 33 men and women, some who characterize themselves as writers, poets and journalists, and others who are community leaders, organizers and diplomats. They show people trying to come to grips with a life in exile, or they trace the migration maps of parents. They navigate the jagged landscape of the Soviet invasion, the civil war of the 1990s and the rise of the Taliban, and the ongoing American occupation.

Another work that addresses the lives of people from different cultures, The Time Between Places: Stories That Weave In and Out of Egypt and America by Pauline Kaldas delves into the lives of Egyptian characters, from those living in Egypt to those who have immigrated to the United States. This collection of 20 stories introduces readers to complex characters, opening a door into their intimate struggles with identity and place.

The press turns from a diversity of cultures to a completely different culture in Boxing Is…Reflections on the Sweet Science by Thomas Hauser. The book collects Hauser’s 2009 articles from secondsout.com, in which he tells stories from behind the scenes in some of the year’s great fights. Hauser is considered “must reading” in the boxing community. Playboy magazine says he “writes about professional boxing in a way no one has ever done before.” This is the seventh book by Hauser that the press has published, including three in his “The Year in Boxing” series.

The Un-Natural State: Arkansas and the Queer South, by Brock Thompson.

Once again, the press veers into a completely different territory with The Un-Natural State: Arkansas and the Queer South by Brock Thompson. The book is a one-of-a-kind study of gay and lesbian life in Arkansas in the 20^th century, weaving together Arkansas history, dozens of oral histories and Thompson’s own story. Through an exploration of identity formation, group articulation, political mobilization and cultural visibility set in the context of historical episodes such as World War II, the Civil Rights movement and the AIDS epidemic, The Un-Natural State contributes not only to the reader’s understanding of gay and lesbian history but also to the reader’s understanding of the South.

The next book offers a look at a bleak part of American history. “White Man’s Heaven”: The Lynching and Expulsion of Blacks in the Southern Ozarks, 1894-1909, by Kimberly Harper draws on court records, newspaper accounts, penitentiary records, letters and diaries to depict the interracial violence that took place in the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Even though some whites tried to stop the violence and bring lynchers to justice, many African Americans fled the Ozarks, leaving only a resilient few behind and forever changing the racial composition of the region.

The next selection from the press highlights a different aspect of Arkansas – its governors. Defining Moments: Historic Decisions by Arkansas Governors from McMath through Huckabee by Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Robert Brown examines 10 Arkansas governors at pivotal moments in history, some heroic, some less so. The governors and situations covered include Sid McMath’s bout with the Dixiecrats; Francis Cherry’s ploy to label his opponent a Communist; Orval Faubus’s decision to block integration at Little Rock Central High School; Winthrop Rockefeller’s tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. on the State Capitol steps; Dale Bumpers’ battle against political corruption; David Pryor’s veto of the U.S. Corps of Engineers’s Bell Foley Dam; Frank White’s endorsement of creationism; Bill Clinton’s decision to test public school teachers; Jim Guy Tucker’s solution for the Medicaid program and his resignation; and Mike Huckabee’s quest to consolidate the state’s high school districts.

The next book also concerns Arkansas, but again in a different light. A Place Apart: A Photographic History of Hot Springs, Arkansas by Ray Hanley offers readers a history in words and historic photographs of a unique locale in the state of Arkansas. The book provides a fascinating history of pioneers, wealthy barons, scoundrels, gamblers, politicians and hundreds of thousands of people who came to the spa city in hope of regaining their fleeting health.

After covering the history of a city, the next book covers the history of a building. A History of Arkansas’s Old State House: Celebrating 175 Years by Mary L. Kwas traces the history of the architecture and purposes of this historic building. Kwas examines the building from its construction and expansion to its deterioration, leading to the subsequent fight for the building’s preservation and its use today as a museum of Arkansas history and culture. This lavishly illustrated book is filled with over 200 color and black and white photographs.

Another Arkansas history book looks at the perspective of African American students, faculty and staff who have studied and worked at the University of Arkansas, the state’s flagship institution. Remembrances in Black: Personal Perspectives of the African American Experience at the University of Arkansas, 1940s-2000s is edited by Charles Robinson II, vice provost for diversity at the University of Arkansas, and Lonnie R. Williams, former assistant vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Arkansas and associate vice chancellor for student affairs at Arkansas State University. The book is a collection of dozens of oral histories that gather together the personal stories of these African Americans over the past 60 years. They illustrate the anguish, struggle and triumph of individuals whose lives were marked by their experiences.

The press has six new paperback books in the current catalog, including The Oxford American Book of Great Music Writing, edited by Marc Smirnoff; Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object by Kathleen Rooney; Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad, translated by Sholeh Wolpé; Breaking Through: John B. McLendon, Basketball Legend and Civil Rights Pioneer, by Milton S. Katz; Guide to Missouri Confederate Units, 1861-65 by James E. McGhee; and Getting Used to Being Shot At: The Spence Family Civil War Letters by Mark Christ.

The University of Arkansas Press also features publications from four presses that it distributes, including the Ozark Society Foundation, which features The Battle for the Buffalo River: The History of America’s First National River by Neil Compton with a foreword by Kenneth L. Smith. Books by Moon City Press include Confederate Girlhoods: A Women’s History of Early Springfield, Missouri, edited by Craig A. Meyer with Casey D. White, Adam C. Veile, and Amber V. Luce; and Moon City Review 2010: An Annual of Poetry, Story, Art, and Criticism, edited by Lanette Cadle and Marcus Cafagña. This issue focuses on utopian science fiction and fantasy literature and criticism.

Butler Center for Arkansas Studies has The Broken Vase: A Novel Based on the Life of Penina Krupitsky, a Holocaust Survivor, by Phillip H. McMath and Emily Matson Lewis and From Carnegie to Cyberspace: 100 Years at the Central Arkansas Library System by Shirley Schuette and Nathania Sawyer. Finally, Phoenix International is reissuing Native Ground, a novel by Phillip H. McMath.

To help celebrate the 30^th anniversary, the University of Arkansas Press will be having another huge warehouse sale in early November. Be on the lookout for additional information about dates and times to be announced later this year.