All Announcements

#theageofphillis: Honorée Fanonne Jeffers talks latest book of poetry on Twitter

by  • 

On April 16, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers answered questions, on Twitter, about her new book, The Age of Phillis. Using the hashtag, #theageofphillis, readers tuned in to ask Jeffers about her process, inspiration, and relationship to documentary poetry. Below is a recap of the informative, heartfelt, sometimes humorous Q&A with Honorée.

“Jeffers pulls from historical archives to create more than 150 poems for glimpses of untold eighteenth century history from Wheatley a literary foremother, pioneer of ekphrastic poetics who writes through a diasporic life spanning Africa, Europe, and America. In The Age of Phillis Jeffers sheds imaginative light with poems that  bearing witness.”
—Katherine Ellington, writer for World House Medicine 

Listen to Ellington reading Wheatley’s poem “Imagination”.

         

Announcing “Trad Nation”

by  • 

 

Image result for Tes Slominski beloit college

buy from HFS
use code Q301 at checkout for 30% off

buy from Bookshop.org

“Thoughtful, provocative, rigorous, and timely: Slominski brings a critical, embodied ethnomusicological lens to this study of Irish music, asking vital questions about the past, present, and future of the ‘Tradition’ while expanding conceptions of identity and belonging.” –Aileen Dillane, Irish World Academy, University of Limerick, Ireland

Just how “Irish” is traditional Irish music? In Trad Nation, Tes Slominski combines ethnography, oral history, and archival research to challenge the longstanding practice of using ethnic nationalism as a framework for understanding vernacular music traditions. Drawing on her experience both as longtime fiddler in the Irish vernacular music tradition and as a queer white woman raised in the rural United States South, she argues that ethnic nationalism stands in the way of Irish traditional music’s development in the twenty-first century and creates untenable positions for women, LGBTQ+ musicians, and musicians of color in this transnational and increasingly diverse genre.

Trad Nation begins with discussions of early-twentieth century musicians Bridget Kenny, Mollie Morrissey, May McCarthy, Mary Kilcar, and Treasa ní Ailpín (Teresa Halpin), whose musical lives were shaped by Ireland’s struggles to become a nation. It then follows the career of Julia Clifford, a fiddler who lived much of her life in England, and explores the challenges of writing feminist biography. Finally, Trad Nation examines the lived experiences of women, LGBTQ+ musicians, and musicians of color in the early 21st century as they relate to questions of aesthetics, participation, and identity.

Despite its provocative critique of the relationships between Irish traditional music and Irish ethnicity, Trad Nation also conveys the pleasures of playing this music. Accounts of warmth and welcome, community, and belonging grace these pages, as well as the passion musicians have for Irish traditional music and its scenes.

TES SLOMINSKI is a music and sound scholar and a fiddle player in the Irish tradition. In addition to her scholarly work, Tes is an active performer who specializes in the regional repertoire and style of Sliabh Luachra, an area at the border of counties Kerry and Cork. She founded the still-thriving Blue Ridge Irish Music School in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1999, and taught ethnomusicology at Beloit College from 2012 until 2019. Slominski is a recipient of the American Musicological Society’s Alvin H. Johnson AMS 50 Dissertation Fellowship, an ACLS Recent Doctoral Recipients fellowship, and a Woodrow Wilson Women’s Studies Fellowship.

Order From Your Local Bookstore

by  • 

Quarantining may be giving you a little extra time to catch up on reading, or maybe you have a child or teenager looking for a new book to read? Looking for something to distract you from the news and day-to-day life? Bookstores across the country are offering online ordering and shipping of books, as well as virtual events and even some discounts. We have compiled a list of bookstores that are continuing operations, via curbside pick up and/or direct shipping. We hope this helps some readers find the perfect book to keep them company during social distancing, while support independent sellers.

Many bookstores are also using Bookshop, an online store that partners with independent sellers. There is a map on their website where you can look up specific stores and purchase directly from them, in which case all the profits will be given to the store. Otherwise, money from sales is collected in a pool and then distributed to independent bookstores throughout the country.

Bookstores marked with an asterisk are holding virtual events—such as author readings, story times, and book clubs. Check out their websites for updates.

Feel free to contact us if you would like to be added to our list!

California:

Colorado:

Connecticut:

Georgia:

Idaho:

Illinois:

Iowa:

Kansas:

Massachusetts:

Minnesota:

Missouri:

Montana:

New Hampshire:

New Jersey:

New Mexico:

New York:

Ohio:

Oregon:

Pennsylvania:

South Carolina:

Tennessee:

Texas:

Utah:

Vermont:

Virginia:

Wisconsin

 

A Spicing of Birds

by  • 

A Spicing of Birds is a unique and beautifully illustrated anthology, pairing poems from one of America’s most revered poets with evocative classic ornithological art from sources including Mark Catesby, John James Audubon, Alexander Wilson, Robert Ridgway, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and Cordelia Stanwood. Emily Dickinson is known for her posthumous collection of unconventional work that played with unusual punctuation and capitalization. Her unique voice is known among many, but lesser-known is her great love of birds—in her collected poems, birds are mentioned 222 times, sometimes as the core inspiration of the poem. This book contains thirty-seven of Dickinson’s poems featuring birds common to New England. Many lesser-known poems are brought to light, renewing our appreciation for Dickinson’s work.

Even today, we find Emily Dickinson to be elusive and enigmatic. in 1998, Paris Press published Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson’s Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson, edited by Ellen Louise Hart and Martha Nell Smith, and now available through Wesleyan. The book delves into another underdeveloped facet of Dickinson’s life—her queerness. Including selections of letters from Dickinson’s thirty-six year correspondence with sister-in-law and romantic interest Susan Huntington, Hart and Smith dispel the common depiction of Dickinson as a lonely spinster, revealing letters that Smith calls “pretty sexy.” Smith also pointedly observes the gendered way in which Dickinson is often portrayed as dark and lonely despite this romantic correspondence, saying, “I found myself thinking: If all of this was sent to any man in Dickinson’s life, there wouldn’t be any kind of argument about who was the love of her life.”  The book inspired Wild Nights With Emily, a major motion picture, starring Molly Shannon, that candidly explores Dickinson’s fluid sexuality.

.

Dickinson’s letters continue to be a rich source of access to her intensely private life. In A Spicing of Birds, the editors’ introduction draws extensively from Dickinson’s letters, providing fascinating insights into her relationship with birds. Her fascination with, and inspiration from, birds are given the same amount of importance in this book as her romantic yearnings are in previous publications. The illustrations, by late 18th century to early 20th century artists, are often so apt as to seem to have been created with the poems in mind. The editors also discuss the development and growth of birding in the nineteenth century as well as the evolution of field guides and early conservation efforts. Brief biographies of the artists are included in an appendix. A Spicing of Birds is an eloquent tribute to the special place held by birds in our lives and imaginations, adding to the continuing collaborative biography of one of the most important American poets.

 

“1177”

A prompt—executive Bird is the Jay—
Bold as a Bailiff’s Hymn—
Brittle and Brief in quality—
Warrant in every line—
Sitting a Bough like a Brigadier
Confident and straight—
Much is the mien of him in March
As a Magistrate—

 

Announcing “Moving Bodies, Navigating Conflicts”

by  • 

Image result for ahalya satkunaratnam

buy from HFS

buy from IndieBound

“Meticulously researched and thoughtfully argued, Moving Bodies makes a case for understanding dance as central to ethnic conflict while also describing dance as a vehicle for resistance.”
—Nandini Sikand, author of Languid Bodies, Grounded Stances: The Curving Pathway of Neoclassical Odissi Dance 

This book provides a fascinating account of a dance form as a mapping tool of the politics of identity that interrogates the limits and possibility of thinking about citizenship.”
—Rachmi Diyah Larasati, author of The Dance That Makes You Vanish: Cultural Reconstruction in Post-Genocide Indonesia

How can dance be sustained by its practitioners in the unstable political and geographical landscape of war? This question lies at the heart of Moving Bodies, Navigating Conflict: Practicing Bharata Natyam in Colombo, Sri Lanka , a groundbreaking ethnographic examination of dance practice in Colombo, Sri Lanka, during the civil war (1983–2009), which claimed more than 100,000 lives. It is the first book of scholarship on bharata natyam (a classical dance originating in India) in Sri Lanka, and the first on the role of dance in the country’s war, between the Sinhalese-Buddhist–led government and the separatists, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which had fought for an independent state for the Tamil minority.

Focusing on women bharata natyam dancers, Ahalya Satkunaratnam shows how they navigated conditions of conflict and a neoliberal, global economy, resisted nationalism and militarism, and advocated for peace. Her interdisciplinary methodology combines historical analysis, methods of dance studies, and dance ethnography. With the war, dance was given a desired symbolic value that hid undesired bodies and was simultaneously a means of ascribing bodies value—materially, rhetorically, and visually. Satkunaratnam examines the relationships between aesthetics, embodied forms, and political work, the intersections of gender and sexuality with cultural practice and ethnic identity, and the experience of war and militarism in Sri Lanka. War charges dance with additional value, as cultural representations are desired by forces of nationalism and conflict. Yet, argues Satkunaratnam, dance practice can also become a vehicle for the individual to resist such claims.

AHALYA SATKUNARATNAM is professor of arts and humanities at Quest University Canada located in the unceded territories of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) peoples. A dancer and choreographer, she has performed across the United States, Canada, India, and Sri Lanka. Her creative work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council.

Announcing “New and Concise History of Rock and R&B”

by  • 

“This is an immensely useable book, smartly concise. It offers a bird’s eye view that also reveals the divergences, gray areas, and overlaps so critical to understanding the history of rock. ” —Benjamin Harbert, associate professor of music, Georgetown University

Ethnomusicologist Eric Charry’s innovative and road-tested textbook is an introduction to Rock and R&B suitable for general education courses in music and also accessible for general readers interested in a novel approach to understanding of these genres. The book is organized around a series of timelines, tables, and figures created by the author, and provides fresh perspectives that bring readers into the heart of the social and cultural import of the music.

Charry lays out key theoretical issues, covers the technical foundations of the music industry, and provides a capsule history of who did what when, with particular emphasis on the rapid emergence of distinct genres in the music industry. The book’s figures distill the history and provide new insight into understanding trends in music. Over 1000 artists, albums, and songs are included here, such as Muddy Waters, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, The Velvet Underground, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Madonna, Talking Heads, and Public Enemy. A New and Concise History of Rock and R&B provides a foundation for understanding how music, the music industry, and American culture intersect.

ERIC CHARRY is a professor of music at Wesleyan University. His other books include Mande Music and Hip Hop Africa.

 

Announcing “BodyStories,” “Body and Earth,” and “The Place of Dance”

by  • 

“Olsen finds her fresh edge with a holistic vision with which to dance, make dances and move through life.”
—Desirée Dunbar, Dance International Magazine

Wesleyan University Press is excited about keeping her trilogy of practical work books in print, for dancers, choreographers, and other movement artists. Or for anybody who wishes to explore movement in a creative way.

For an introduction to Andrea Olsen’s work, visit her Body and Earth website, where you will find seven movement explorations  developed with her colleague Caryn McHose.

Originally published by the University Press of New England in 1998, BodyStories: A Guide to Experiential Anatomy is a book that engages our interest in human anatomy. Thirty-one days of learning sessions heighten awareness about each bone and body system and provide self-guided studies. The book draws on Ms. Olsen’s thirty years as a dancer and teacher of anatomy to show how our attitudes and approaches to our body affect us day to day. Amusing and insightful personal stories enliven the text and provide ways of working with the body for efficiency and for healing. BodyStories is used as a primary text in college dance departments, massage schools, and yoga training programs internationally. Now, you can use the book to guide you in your home studies.

Olsen’s second book, Body and Earth: An Experiential Guide was also published by the University Press of New England, in 2002. The book is not only a lesson plan, it is also an investigation. Arranged as a 31-day program, the book offer a wealth of scientific information and exercises for exploring the body and connecting with place. Illustrations and other art illuminate each chapter’s themes, and Olsen’s meditations and reflections connect the topics to her personal history and experience. Olsen insists that neither body nor landscape are separate from our fundamental selves, but in a culture which views the body as a mechanism to be trained and the landscape as a resource to be exploited, we need to learn again to see their fundamental wholeness and interconnection. Through hard data, reflection, exercises, and inspiration, Body and Earth offers a guide to responsible stewardship of both our bodies and the planet.

The Place of Dance: A Somatic Guide to Dancing and Dance Making, first published by Wesleyan University Press in 2014, reminds us that dancing is in our nature, available to all as well as refined for the stage. This workbook integrates experiential anatomy with the process of moving and dancing, with a particular focus on the creative journey involved in choreographing, improvising, and performing for others. Each of the chapters, or “days,” introduces a particular theme and features a dance photograph, information on the topic, movement and writing investigations, personal anecdotes, and studio notes from professional artists and educators for further insight. It is well suited for dancers, or anyone interested in engaging embodied intelligence and living more consciously.

These three books are excellent teaching tools and will help each reader to understand his/her dancing body through somatic work, create a dance, and to create a full journal clarifying aesthetic views on his or her practice. Wesleyan University Press is now keeping all three of Olsen’s volumes in print.

ANDREA OLSEN is professor of dance and faculty member in the Environmental Studies Program at Middlebury College. She is a certified Holden QiGong and Embodyoga instructor, teaching classes and workshops worldwide. She also performs frequently, with current accolades in her piece “Awakening Grace: Six Somatic Tools.” In addition to writing, teaching, and performing, she is also working on a continuing film project with Scotty Hardwig and Caryn McHose entitled Body and Earth: Seven Web-Based Somatic Excursions. 

Caryn McHose is Olsen’s frequent writing collaborator. She has a private practice in somatic movement therapy in Holderness, New Hampshire, and has taught creative movement internationally for more than forty years. She is coauthor, with Kevin Frank, of How Life Moves: Explorations in Meaning and Body Awareness.

 

Aldon Nielsen reads Lorenzo Thomas for Distāntia Reading Series

by  • 

 

In a time of social distancing, virtual connection has become more important than ever. Off Topic Poetics, a non-profit Youtube channel, has taken full advantage of the moment by starting the Distāntia Reading Series. The online video project is described as “an experimentation with intimate social distancing through remote access to poetry.” The channel accepts recordings from poets reading their work in quarantine and posts them to a playlist titled “Distāntia.” The original work, coupled with a video of the poet reading, creates an intimate viewing experience that can help people who feel isolated from human interaction during COVID-19 distancing.

           

“Sprucing Spring up on Larkin Street,” a poem from The Collected Poems of Lorenzo Thomas, was recited by editor Aldon Lynn Nielsen and submitted to the project earlier this week. Lorenzo Thomas (1944−2005) was the youngest member of the Society of Umbra, predecessor of the Black Arts Movement. The Collected Poems of Lorenzo Thomas is the first volume to encompass his entire writing life. His poetry synthesizes New York School and Black Arts aesthetics, heavily influenced by blues and jazz. In a career that spanned decades, Thomas constantly experimented with form and subject, while still writing poetry deeply rooted in the traditions of African American aesthetics. Whether drawing from his experiences during the war in Vietnam, exploring his life in the urban north and the southwest, or recalling his beloved ancestors, Thomas was a lyric innovator. His experimentation is perfect for our current moment of social improvisation in the face of the unknown, reminding us that we can always find new ways to navigate the world around us.

Subscribe to Off Topic Poetics on Youtube to stay updated on the Distāntia Reading Series, and check out The Collected Poems of Lorenzo Thomas to read more like “Sprucing Spring up on Larkin Street” to keep you company during social distancing.

 

 

 

 

Get outside in CT…Walk, fish, bird, and fly!

by  • 

Walk, fish, bird, or fly? Connecticut has it all. The weather is warming, we’ve been cooped up by social distancing, and Governor Ned Lamont has opened inland trout fishing season early to ease the crowding typical on normal opening day.

As stated on Connecticut’s DEEP website, “Governor Lamont is urging all Connecticut residents to ‘Stay Safe, Stay Home’ to help minimize community spread of COVID-19. The trails and grounds of Connecticut State Parks and Forests are open for solitary outdoor enjoyment. If you plan on visiting a park, it should be for solitary recreation, not group activities. Please plan ahead as many amenities and indoor facilities are closed, and visitors are encouraged to follow these guidelines to enhance social distancing.”

Read about steps to enhance “social distancing” when enjoying the outdoors here.

Wesleyan University Press has a few books to help guide you in your outdoor adventures. Wesleyan published the 20th edition of Connecticut Forest and Park Association’s Connecticut Walk Book. We also offer Birding in Connecticut, your definitive guide on where and when to find your favorite birds. And, if you’ve been meaning to pick up that fly fishing rod, now is your chance. Let Kevin Murphy guide you through Fly Fishing in Connecticut. 

We are offering a 40% discount when you order through our distributor, Hopkins Fulfillment Services (HFS). Enter code QAWP20 when you check out at their site. Our warehouse is open and books are shipping. The code is also good for eBook purchases of Wesleyan titles through HFS.

 

Lace up your boots and experience some of the best hiking in New England! The 20th edition of the Connecticut Walk Book is a comprehensive guide to over 825 miles of Blue-Blazed Trails in Connecticut, maintained by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association (CFPA).  It includes detailed, full color maps, mileage/destination tables, and a lay flat design for ease of use. The Connecticut Walk Book also offers descriptions of the hikes with maps and trip-planning essentials.

“The Connecticut Walk Book is the one essential guide for hikers. Great maps and concise, clear, accurate text give you everything you need to explore the state’s wonderful network of major trails… It is truly a must-have.”
—Steven Grant, Hartford Courant nature columnist

“Whether you aim to hike, walk, amble, jog, meander, scamper or scramble, the Connecticut Walk Book will help you set your feet on the right path…”
—Judy Benson, Staff writer and health-environment reporter at The Day (New London, CT)

 

 

Birding in Connecticut is the definitive guide to where, when, and how to find birds in the state. It’s packed with information valuable to birders of all skill levels, including species accounts and a first-of-a kind list of rare bird sightings. With a host of tips and tricks to finding and identifying birds, it is the first such guide to offer QR code links to continually updated online information on the occurrence and abundance of birds at each location. Beautifully illustrated with color photographs and maps, Birding in Connecticut is the perfect companion for experts and novices alike.

 “This book is absolutely packed with useful details about all of Connecticut’s best birding locations, as well as the most complete and up-to-date info on the status of Connecticut’s birds, and will be an essential reference for any birder in the state.”
—David Sibley, author of The David Sibley Guide to Birds

“Frank Gallo’s book brims with insight and overflows with Gallo’s trademark exuberance for his favorite subject. No northeastern birder’s library is complete without this comprehensive guide.”
—Pete Dunne, NJ Audubon’s Ambassador for Birding

 

 

In Fly Fishing in Connecticut, long-time Connecticut resident and devoted fly fisherman, Kevin Murphy, teaches novice anglers about the state’s trout hatcheries and stocking programs, the differences between brook, brown, and rainbow trout, and offers easy-to-follow instructions on the basics of fly fishing. In this concise text, the reader finds the essentials in fly fishing gear, stream tactics, casting, and a host of related topics. In addition, would-be anglers gain a useful glimpse into the history of fishing in the state, plus important tips on stream conservation, fly fishing etiquette, regulations, and safety. Most importantly, anglers will find a veritable road map to Connecticut’s best trout streams and rivers. The book even offers excellent suggestions for comfortable lodging in prime fly fishing locations and—once the day’s fishing is done—a few mouth-watering recipes for cooking one’s catch. Whether you’re in the market for that first pair of waders, thinking of tuning up your casting technique, or just want to know where the fish are biting, this is the book to read.

“Anyone fly fishing in Connecticut will profit by reading this book. It lists, in incredible detail, known and little known fishing places. Better still, there is a schedule of when to fish or avoid fishing certain streams and lakes. Murphy gives practical information about tackle and tactics. It’s a complete job.”
—Lefty Kreh, fly fishing guide, author, and America’s best-loved casting instructor

“I’ve often waded into the ancient streams of Connecticut on a pristine summer or autumn day and thought, ‘This is trout heaven with a New England accent.’ Fly Fishing in Connecticut is the next best thing to landing a tiny mayfly on a promising riffle on one of the many promising streams of the Nutmeg State.”
—Tom Brokaw, journalist