In an impressive set of prepublication reviews, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies is called “triumphant” in Publishers Weekly and earns a starred review from Kirkus, which enthuses: “Tender, fierce, proudly black and beautiful, these stories will sneak inside you and take root.” Deesha Philyaw’s book is named one of “24 New and Forthcoming Books That Celebrate Black Lives” in Electric Lit, and the author appears in Pittsburgh City Paper.
Joanna Eleftheriou’s “winning and contemplative” This Way Back also receives a starred review from Kirkus. It’s called “intimate and a touch mournful, most powerfully so when the author writes about her sexuality.”
The Painted Forest is reviewed in Rain Taxi: “Gorgeously written and meticulously researched, it would be perfect for lovers of creative nonfiction—especially those with an affinity for nature writing and ecocriticism.”
USA Today recommends a book from every state, selecting Chuck Kinder’s Last Mountain Dancer—with its “local legends, family stories, [and] regional history”—for West Virginia.
WVU’s Eberly Magazine interviews Rosemary Hathaway about her book Mountaineers Are Always Free.
An excerpt from the new collection Storytelling in Queer Appalachia appears in 100 Days in Appalachia.
The free Pedagogies of Care resource from authors in WVU Press’s Teaching and Learning in Higher Education series receives widespread attention. A piece in Inside Higher Ed connects the open resource to West Virginia’s book series, which it calls “among the best collections of instructional expertise around.” Other appearances include the Chronicle of Higher Education and multiple episodes of the Tea for Teaching podcast.
In other news from our higher education series:
- Jessamyn Neuhaus, author of Geeky Pedagogy, is profiled in Inside Higher Ed.
- In a robust series of appearances, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, the Think UDL podcast, and the This Is Not a Pipe podcast feature Kevin Gannon, author of Radical Hope. The book is reviewed by the Human Restoration Project.
- Cyndi Kernhan appears alongside Gannon in the Chronicle‘s feature on “How to Talk with Students about Racism,” where her book Teaching about Race and Racism in the College Classroom is recommended as a resource.
- The Lecture Breakers podcast talks with Sarah Rose Cavanagh, author of The Spark of Learning.
- Derek Bruff’s Intentional Tech is recommended in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
On the history beat, Walter F. White is called an “excellent, well-researched biography” in an assessment from the North Carolina Historical Review. It concludes: “Zangrando and Lewis masterfully cover a magnificent chronology of a busy African American leader.”
And in the Public Historian, Michael Adamson’s Oil and Urbanization on the Pacific Coast is deemed “a welcome and much needed addition to the topic of California oil.”
While social distancing continues to limit face-to-face interaction, new virtual book events are being added to our calendar. We’re excited to share the news that on July 9 contributors to Storytelling in Queer Appalachia will participate in a launch hosted by Choice Health Network Harm Reduction and Knoxville’s Union Avenue Books. Registration is free.