All Announcements

Announcing “The Listeners” by Roy R. Manstan

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An untold story of scientists and engineers who changed the course of the Great War

“Mr. Manstan has captured a critical part of our nation’s history and role in preserving world peace by telling the story of those in the background whose toils and untold stories made it possible for a war-torn world to survive.”—Dr. Peter “Skip” Scheifele, University of Cincinnati

Roy R. Manstan’s new book, The Listeners: U-boat Hunters During the Great War, details the struggle to find a solution to the unanticipated efficiency of the German U-boat as an undersea predator during World War I. Success or failure was in the hands and minds of the scientists and naval personnel at the Naval Experimental Station in New London, Connecticut. Through the use of archival materials, personal papers, and memoirs, The Listeners takes readers into the world of the civilian scientists, engineers and naval personnel who were directly involved with the development and use of submarine detection technology during the war.

Roy R. Manstan is the co-author of Turtle: David Bushnell’s Revolutionary Vessel and author of Cold Warriors: The Navy’s Engineering and Diving Support Unit. He lives in East Haddam, CT.

 

September

340 pp., 75 illus., 7 1/4 x 9 1/4”

Jacketed Cloth, $34.95

978-0-8195-7835-8

 

Ebook, $23.99

978-0-8195-7837-2

History / Military

 

      

Announcing “Citizen Azmari” from Ilana Webster-Kogen

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An examination of popular Ethiopian music styles in Tel Aviv

“Weaving together ethnographic and theoretical narratives, the author gives voice to her subjects and to their music creators and territories where sound and silence speak—often more loudly than words.”
— Dr. Denis-Constant Martin, Centre Les Afriques dans le monde (LAM), Sciences-Po Bordeaux, France

In the thirty years since their immigration from Ethiopia to the State of Israel, Ethiopian-Israelis have put music at the center of communal and public life, using it simultaneously as a mechanism of protest and as appeal for integration. Ethiopian music develops in quiet corners of urban Israel as the most prominent advocate for equality, and the Israeli-born generation is creating new musical styles that negotiate the terms of blackness outside of Africa. For the first time, this book examines in detail those new genres of Ethiopian-Israeli music, including Ethiopian-Israeli hip-hop, Ethio-soul performed across Europe, and eskesta dance projects at the center of national festivals. This book argues that in a climate where Ethiopian-Israelis fight for recognition of their contribution to society, musical style often takes the place of political speech, and musicians take on outsize roles as cultural critics. From their perch in Tel Aviv, Ethiopian-Israeli musicians use musical style to critique a social hierarchy that affects life for everyone in Israel/ Palestine.

Ilana Webster-Kogen is the Joe Loss Lecturer (assistant professor) in Jewish Music at SOAS, University of London. Her work has appeared in Ethnomusicology Forum, African and Black Diaspora, and the Journal of African Cultural Studies.

 

September

248 pp., 12 illus., 2 tables, 6 x 9”

Unjacketed Cloth, $80.00

978-0-8195-7832-7

 

Paper, $26.95

978-0-8195-7833-4

 

Ebook, $21.99

978-0-8195-7834-1

Announcing “American Poets in the 21st Century” edited by Michael Dowdy and Claudia Rankine

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Showcases the most innovative and politically engaged poets working in the U.S.

“These poets help us think about the society we have, the way that identities form within and against it, the attitudes we can examine if we want to know how to stand up, or see more clearly, or fight back.”
—Stephanie Burt, Harvard University

American Poets in the 21st Century: Poetics of Social Engagement emphasizes the ways in which innovative American poets have blended art and social awareness, focusing on aesthetic experiments
and investigations of ethnic, racial, gender, and class subjectivities. Rather than consider poetry as a thing apart, or as a tool for asserting identity, this volume’s poets create sites, forms, and modes for entering the public sphere, contesting injustices, and reimagining the contemporary. Like the earlier anthologies in this series, this volume includes generous selections of poetry as well as illuminating poetics statements and incisive essays. This unique organization makes these books invaluable teaching tools. A companion web site will present audio of each poet’s work.

Michael Dowdy is the author of Broken Souths: Latina/o Poetic Responses to Neoliberalism and Globalization and Urbilly. He is associate professor of English at the University of South Carolina.

Award-winning poet, critic and activist Claudia Rankine is the author of five collections of poetry, including Citizen: An American Lyric, and she edits the American Poets in the Twenty-First Century series. She is the Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University.

 

September

416 pp., 2 illus., 6 x 9”

Unjacketed Cloth, $80.00

978-0-8195-7289-7

 

Paper, $29.95

978-0-8195-7830-3

 

Ebook, $23.99

978-0-8195-7831-0

Announcing “bury it” by sam sax

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“bury it is lit with imagery and purpose that surprises and jolts at every turn. Exuberant, wild, tightly knotted mesmerisms of discovery inhabit each poem in this seethe of hunger and sacred toll of toil. A vitalizing and necessary book of poems that dig hard and lift luminously.”
—Tyehimba Jess, judge of 2017 Laughlin Award

sam sax’s bury it, winner of the 2017 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, writes from the root of experience with poems written in response to coming of age, young gay suicide, desire, and generational weight. What follows are raw and expertly crafted mediations on death, rituals of passage, translation, desire, diaspora, and personhood. What’s at stake is survival itself and the archiving of a lived and lyric history. In this phenomenal second collection of poems, sam sax invites the reader to join him in his interrogation of the bridges we cross, the bridges we burn, and bridges we must leap from.

sam sax is a queer Jewish writer and educator currently living in Brooklyn. He’s the author of Madness, winner of the National Poetry Series, and the two-time Bay Area Grand Slam Champion.

 

Publication of this book is funded by the
National Education Association.

 

September

88 pp., 6 x 9”

Paper, $14.95

978-0-8195-7731-3

 

eBook, $11.99

978-0-8195-7732-0 Poetry

Announcing “The Long Journeys Home” by Nick Bellantoni

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The moving stories of two Indigenous men and their repatriations

In The Long Journeys Home, Nick Bellantoni tells the tale of two men who, in death, found their way back home.

Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia (ca.1792–1818) and Itankusun Wanbli (ca.1879–1900) lived almost a century apart and came from different indigenous nations—Hawaiian and Lakota. Yet the tragic circumstances that led them to leave their homelands and to come to Connecticut, where they both died and were buried, have striking similarities.

In 1992 and 2008, descendant women had dreams which told them that their ancestors wished to “come home.” Both families started the repatriation process. Then Connecticut State Archaeologist, Nick Bellantoni oversaw the archaeological disinterment and forensic identifications in returning these men to their families and communities. The Long Journeys Home chronicles these intergenerational stories, both examples of the wide-reaching and long-lasting impacts of colonialism.

Nicholas F. Bellantoni is an associate adjunct professor in the anthropology department at the University of Connecticut and Emeritus Connecticut State Archaeologist at the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History.

September
260 pp., 15 illus., 3 maps, 6 x 9”
Cloth, $28.95
978-0-8195-7684-2
ebook, $24.99 Y,
978-0-8195-7685-9 History / Biography

The Driftless Connecticut Series is funded by the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund
at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

    

sam sax is recipient of a 2018 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship

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For Immediate Release—August 29, 2018

Wesleyan author sam sax is recipient of a 2018 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship

from The Poetry Foundation:

The Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine announce the winners of the 2018 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships: Safia Elhillo, Hieu Minh Nguyen, sam sax, Natalie Scenters-Zapico, and Paul Tran. The $25,800 fellowship is among the largest and most prestigious awards available for young poets in the United States.

The fellows will make their first joint appearance at the Dodge Poetry Festival in October, and the December 2018 issue of Poetry will feature a sampling of their work.

“Our 2018 fellows created their own trails and important beautiful markers for those who will follow them into the future,” said Poetry editor, Don Share. “Each of these fellows energetically speaks to and contributes to the ever-increasing interest in contemporary poetry, especially among young people.”

Established by Ruth Lilly in 1989 for one student recipient nominated by a university writing program, the fellowship program expanded to two spots in 1996, then five in in 2008. After a generous gift from the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Fund in 2013, it became the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships. Now open to any U.S. poets between the ages of 21 and 31, regardless of whether or not they are affiliated with academic institutions, the fellowship’s expanded inclusivity created space for more young poets to flourish and develop their craft.

This year’s cohort includes a founding member of Slam NYU, a Warren Wilson College MFA candidate, a National Poetry Series winner, a PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry winner, and a “Discovery”/Boston Review Poetry Prize winner.

# # #

sam sax is the author of bury it, winner of the 2017 James Laughlin Award given by the Academy of American Poets. bury it will be published by Wesleyan University Press in September 2018.

Contact:
Stephanie Prieto (Elliott), Publicist & Web Manager

Wesleyan University Pres
215 Long Lane, Middletown, CT 06459
WEB: ​www.wesleyan.edu/wespress
EMAIL: selliott@wesleyan.edu
PHONE: 860-685-7723

Wesleyan University Press Partners with HFS

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Hopkins Fulfillment Services (HFS), a print and e-book distributor for university presses and non-profit institutions, will begin providing distribution services for Wesleyan University Press in January 2019.

“We’ve long been impressed with Wesleyan University Press’s reputation and award-winning work in the arts and humanities,” says Davida Breier, HFS Manager. “As a publisher and distributor, as well as a member of the university press community, we use our unique perspective to tailor our services for academic publishers. We don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach and we work with each of our clients to help develop and grow their publishing programs. We’re delighted to work with Wesleyan and look forward to lending our support to their illustrious publishing program.”

Publishing in its current form since 1957, Wesleyan University Press has an editorial program that focuses on poetry, music, dance, science fiction studies, film-TV, and Connecticut history and culture. Its internationally renowned poetry series has collected five Pulitzer Prizes, a Bollingen, and two National Book Awards. “Wesleyan welcomes HFS’s expertise in academic publishing. We look forward to working with their team to further strengthen our publishing program,” said Suzanna Tamminen, Director and Editor in Chief, at Wesleyan University Press.

About Wesleyan University Press: The mission of Wesleyan University Press is to develop and maintain a sound and vigorous publishing program that serves the academic ends and intellectual life of the University.

About HFS: Since 1977 HFS has provided distribution services for a distinguished list of university presses and nonprofit institutions. HFS represents Catholic University of America Press, Family Development Press (1/19), Georgetown University Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, Maryland Historical Society, University of Massachusetts Press, University of New Orleans Press, University of South Carolina Press (11/18), University of Washington Press, University Press of Kentucky, and Wesleyan University Press (1/19). HFS is a division of Johns Hopkins University Press.

Contacts: 
Stephanie Elliott Prieto, Publicist, Wesleyan University Press,
selliott@wesleyan.edu, 860-685-7723

Davida G. Breier, Manager, HFS, dgb@press.jhu.edu, 410-516-6961

 

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#NationalWaffleDay

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Happy National Waffle Day! While the United States differs from other countries celebrating this day, National Waffle Day here can be just as scrumptious, if not more with a few toppings.


Recipe for Quick Maple Fudge, found on page 172 of Maple Sugaring.

Fortunately for readers, Maple Sugaring: Keeping It Real in New England by David K. Leff (Wesleyan, 2015) can provide a bit of inspiration for the most popular waffle topping: maple fudge.

An essayist, poet, and former deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, David K. Leff is an expert on what makes waffles in New England so great: the syrup on top.

The book trailer can be found below:

Announcing “BAX 2018” with guest editor Myung Mi Kim

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An anthology of dynamic, forward-thinking writing

“Whenever a newspaper succumbs to the clickbait of fake news; whenever a search engine becomes a surrealist troubadour by chance; whenever a witless chat-bot strives to rickroll you—these experimental writers ensure that you show up for the future of literature on time.”
—Christian Bok, author of The Xenotext

Best American Experimental Writing 2018, guest-edited by Myung Mi Kim, is the fifth edition of the critically acclaimed anthology series compiling an exciting
 mix of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and genre-defying work. Featuring a diverse roster of writers and artists culled from both established authors—like Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Don Mee Choi, Mónica de la Torre, Layli Long Soldier, and Simone White—as well as new and unexpected voices, including Clickhole.com, BAX 2018 presents an expansive view of today’s experimental and high-energy writing practices. A perfect gift for discerning readers as well as an important classroom tool, Best American Experimental Writing 2018 is a vital addition to the American literary landscape.

Myung Mi Kim is the author of Under Flag, The Bounty, DURA, Commons, River Antes, and Penury and is the James H. McNulty Chair of English at SUNY Buffalo.

Seth Abramson is the author of six poetry collections and is an assistant professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at the University of New Hampshire.

Jesse Damiani is a former Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing fellow and current Editor-at-Large of VRScout.

 

August
360 pp., 29 illus., 6 x 9”
Paper, $19.95
978-0-8195-7818-1
Unjacketed cloth, $40.00
978-0-8195-7817-4
Ebook, $15.99
978-0-8195-7819-8

Announcing “Counter-Desecration” edited by Linda Russo and Marthe Reed

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New vocabulary for a world on the brink

“Affirming the imagination’s importance in effecting change, with marvelous invention this poets’ glossary of terms responsive to the Anthropocene illuminates losses and violations, offers resources, inspires hope.”
—Lynn Keller, author of Recomposing Ecopoetics

Counter-Desecration collects 135 original terms
and definitions articulated by a diverse, international community of poets, including Brenda Hillman, Eileen Tabios, and Christopher Cokinos. The Anthropocene is a term proposed for our present geological epoch during which the role of humanity in the transformation of earth’s environment globally is increasingly perceptible. The terms in this glossary map new perspectives that provide a way to approach the interlinked social, economic, and environmental forces that shape our lives and the world around us.

Linda Russo is the author of three books of poetry, including Participant (Lost Roads Press), winner of
 the Bessmilr Brigham Poets Prize, and To Think of her Writing Awash in Light (Subito Press), a collection of lyrical essays. Her scholarly essays have appeared in Among Friends: Engendering the Social Site of Poetry (University of Iowa Press) and other edited collections. She teaches creative writing and literature at Washington State University.

Marthe Reed was the author of five books, including Nights Reading, (em)bodied bliss, and the collaborative Pleth with j hastain. She was co-publisher and managing editor for Black Radish Books, and her poems have appeared in Jacket2, Tarpaulin Sky, and New American Writing, among other publications.

 

August

144 pp., 5 1⁄2 x 8 1⁄2 ”

Unjacketed cloth, $30.00

978-0-8195-7845-7

 

Paperback, $16.99

978-0-8195-7846-4

 

eBook, $13.99

978-0-8195-7847