Duke University Press Log

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of Cultural Politics

Cultural Politics seeks papers for issue on Affective Landscapes

About the special issue:

Issue editors Christine Berberich, Neil Campbell, and Robert Hudson seek exciting disciplinary and transdisciplinary proposals from scholars working in fields such as cultural studies, literary studies, cultural politics/history, creative writing, film and media studies, area studies, photography, and fine art who are interested in examining the different ways in which human beings respond and relate to, as well as debate and interact with, landscape.

Please submit essays of around 6,000 words or creative pieces combining images and words of around 2,000 words by November 16, 2012.

About Cultural Politics

Moving beyond the boundaries of race, gender, and class, the journal examines the political ramifications of global cultural productions across artistic and academic disciplines. The journal explores precisely what is cultural about politics and what is political about culture by bringing together text and visual art that offer diverse modes of engagement with theory, cultural production, and politics.

To submit a manuscript, please contact Neil Campbell at n.campbell@derby.ac.uk. 
For a list of indexers, visit dukeupress.edu/culturalpolitics.
For a style guide and instructions for authors, please visit dukeupress.edu/culturalpolitics.

Walt Whitman, Bureaucrat

Poet Walt Whitman has been in the news this week, when the National Archives announced that scholar Kenneth M. Price has found a trove of thousands of documents Whitman worked on when he was a government clerk. What's perhaps most surprising about the documents is that Whitman appeared to take his work seriously and even enjoy it. As Chronicle of Higher Education reporter Jennifer Howard puts it, "Government workers, take heart: One of America's most influential literary figures found his federal work engaging and thought well of many of his fellow bureaucrats, according to Mr. Price." Previous accounts of Whitman have described Whitman as a slacker at his government job, putting in a few hours a day for a much-needed paycheck. This is also the justification scholars give for his writing of the temperance novel, Franklin Evans, or The Inebriate. Whitman himself described the novel as "rot," but perhaps in light of this new, more earnest Whitman the editors will need to reconsider? Regardless, the discovery of the government documents and the novel both add to our understanding of the complexity of one of America's greatest poets.

Duke Professor and Author Reynolds Price Dies

The Duke community is mourning the death of Reynolds Price, Professor of English for over fifty years and beloved author of more than three dozen books. The New York Times called him "one of the most important voices in modern Southern fiction" in their obituary. At Duke he is remembered also as a beloved teacher whose rich, deep voice was instantly recognizable on campus. Duke President Richard Brodhead told the News and Observer, "Reynolds was a part of the soul of Duke; he loved this university and always wanted to make it better. We can scarcely imagine Duke without Reynolds Price." At Duke Press we were proud to publish Price's notebooks in 1998, in the form of the book Learning a Trade: A Craftsman’s Notebooks: 1955-1997. Critics praised the book for giving readers a look into the workings of the mind of an author. "Learning a Trade is a rare contemporary example of [a published working journal], giving us an almost full documentary of the mind of this author," wrote Alexander Theroux in the Wall Street Journal. Duke University Press Books Marketing Mangaer Emily Young sums up our experience working with Price: "It was an honor to be able to work with him on this project and to share in his unending generosity and enthusiasm for the craft of writing and teaching others about writing. And his deep appreciation for the role of publishing was felt in every email and conversation. He wrote in an email to me, after a meeting to discuss how to market his book, 'delighted to know the staff are hopeful—thanks again for all the good feeling.' And now we say thank you, Reynolds Price, for all the good feeling you brought to our world at here Duke Press. You will be missed."

Praise for Bring on the Books for Everybody

Some great praise today for Jim Collins's Bring on the Books for Everybody: How Literary Culture Became Popular Culture. Collins's book is a hopeful assesment of the culture of reading and books that considers film, e-books, Oprah, and the rise of the chain bookstore. Writing in the Times Higher Education Supplement, Tara Brabazon says the book is "the "killer app" for popular cultural studies." She exhorts readers to "Buy it. Borrow it. Download it. Now. It is a book that we will remember where we were when we we first read it. This is a game-changer for popular cultural studies, media studies and the new humanities." The Chicago Tribune thinks the book is one of five that writers should read right now. So what are you waiting for? Get reading!

Janell Watson discusses the minnesota review

Janell Watson, editor of the minnesota review (new to Duke University Press in 2011), recently sat down to discuss the journal with us.  In the video below she recounts her first encounter with the journal at the MLA, considers the journal's future under her editorship, and lets us in on what the minnesota review looks for in new submissions.

 

Ariel Dorfman in Johannesburg

Ariel Dorfman is in Johannesburg this week, hosting readings, screenings and talks in advance giving the 8th Annual Nelson Mandela Lecture tomorrow. The prestigious lecture has previously been given by Nobel Peace Laureates Professor Muhammad Yunus, Professor Wangari Maathai, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Kofi Anan, former presidents Bill Clinton and Thabo Mbeki, and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Dorfman is the author of many books and plays, including Some Write to the Future (1991), In Case of Fire in a Foreign Land (2002), and The Empire's Old Clothes (2010). We also published the first monograph about Dorfman this year, Sophia McClennen's Ariel Dorfman: An Aesthetics of Hope. Congratulations to Dorfman on this great honor!

Ariel Dorfman to deliver the Eighth Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture

World-acclaimed Chilean-American author, human rights activist and distinguished professor of Literature and Latin-American Studies at Duke University, Ariel Dorfman, will present the Eighth Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture at Johannesburg’s Linder Auditorium on July 31, 2010.
        The author of many novels, plays, poems, essays and films will speak on the theme “Memory and Justice” at the 2010 Annual Lecture. Dorfman's books with Duke University Press are: The Empire's Old Clothes, In Case of Fire in a Foreign Land, and Some Write to the Future.
    “We are thrilled to have a speaker of the stature of Ariel Dorfman,” says Achmat Dangor, Chief Executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. “His life and work speaks to what we at the Nelson Mandela Foundation are doing through our Centre of Memory and Dialogue.”
    Previous Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture speakers are: Nobel Peace Laureates Professor Muhammad Yunus, Professor Wangari Maathai, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Kofi Anan, former presidents Bill Clinton and Thabo Mbeki, and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

Ariel Dorfman’s biography is available as a downloadable PDF.

Roundup of Weekend Coverage

Some diverse media coverage of Duke Press books this weekend. First up, a very nice profile of Thomas Glave, editor of Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles, in FootNotes. D. Kevin McNeir says, "In one word, Glave is—brilliant." McNeir writes, "Our Caribbean is a unique analysis of how same-gender loving and longing intersects with religion, family, race and class all within the Caribbean context and how ostracism and alienation become the common factor and obstacle that stands in the way of true equality and freedom for far too many men and women."

Meanwhile, in California, Arnold J. Bauer did a reading at the Colusa Business and Visitors Center, and the Colusa Sun-Herald reported on the event. They quote an area librarian praising Bauer's new book The Search for the Codex Cardona. "Catherine Bernard, president of the Friends of the Colusa County Library, said she was fascinated by Bauer's book, which is a mystery that touches on the curious — and often illegal — workings of the rare books and manuscripts trade. 'I wasn't really interested in Mexican history,' Bernard said. 'I'm very Euro-centric. But the book had me booking my flight to Mexico City.'"

And over at the literary blog Beatrice, there's a nice excerpt from Fred Moten's new book of poetry, B Jenkins. Ron Hogan posts Moten's poem "Njeeri Wa Thiong’o."

San Francisco Bay Guardian Reviews Slaves to Fashion, Glave in Out 100

Two nice bits of news today. First, Monica Miller's Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity is reviewed in the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Reviewer D. Scott Miller says he will now "direct all queries" regarding black dandies to Miller's book, which demonstrates "uncanny feats of scholarship that illustrate ways in which the figure of the black dandy has been an elephant-in-the-room — albeit a particualrly well-dressed one."

We were also pleased to learn that Thomas Glave, editor of Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles, and quite a sharp-dressed man himself, was named one of Out Magazine's Out 100. Glave is praised for his short story collection, The Torturer's Wife, but it should be noted that he won his Lambda Literary Award for Our Caribbean!

Thomas Glave Interviewed by Examiner.com

Thomas Chin, the San Francisco GLBT Literary editor for the Examiner.com, interviews Thomas Glave this week. Glave, editor of Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles, talks about writing, activism, and one of his other loves, watching ballet. Glave offers this advice to new writers: "I would say read as much as possible, as widely as possible -- and read books, not only periodicals. It is in fact ridiculous, and even arrogant, to expect to become a writer of any real merit if you don’t read. And if you don’t read, why would you expect people to read your work?"