News
Nearly 500 bookstores across the country will be participating in the national literary party that is Independent Bookstore Day tomorrow, April 29! Twenty-three stores will take part in Seattle Independent Bookstore Day (Facebook | Twitter). The Seattle Review of Books, Seattle Times, Stranger, and many others have excellent guides to tomorrow’s special events, limited edition goods, giveaways, and much more. (P.S. Don’t miss the 11 a.m. Book Larder signing with A Year Right Here author Jess Thomson!)
California through Native Eyes by William J. Bauer, Jr. has been awarded Honorable Mention for the 9th Annual Labriola Center American Indian Book Award. “The book made a profound and thought-provoking impact on the judging committee,” wrote chair Dr. David Martinez. Congratulations to the author and all involved!
Asians in Colorado by William Wei is a finalist for the 2017 Colorado Authors’ League Writing Award in General Nonfiction. The winners will be announced at an awards banquet on May 5, 2017 in Arvada, Colorado. Good luck to our author and all finalists!
We remember Eugene N. “Koz” Kozloff (1920 – 2017), who passed away on March 4th in Anacortes, WA. He was the author of books including Plants and Animals of the Pacific Northwest (1976), Seashore Life of the Northern Pacific Coast (1983), and Marine Invertebrates of the Pacific Northwest (1987). Read obituaries in the Anacortes American / Skagit Valley Herald and the San Juan Islander.
Book of the Month Giveaways
Enter to win one of this month’s picks! (Open to US residents only.)
- The Hope of Another Spring by Barbara Johns (Entry form)
- Behind the Curve by Joshua P. Howe (Entry form)
The giveaways will close on Friday, May 5, 2017 at 1:00 p.m. PT. Winners will be notified by Monday, May 8, 2017.
Reviews and Interviews
Various coverage for A Year Right Here by Jess Thomson:
- A review at the New York Times Book Review : “We all know what happens to the list you make at the start of the year. But if everything had gone according to plan, Thomson’s book would be as straightforward as her original list. The twists and turns are what makes it — that and a solid recipe for fried chicken.”—Max Watman
- An interview on KING5 “New Day Northwest”
- An excerpt at SeattleMag.com (from the April 2017 print edition)
- An interview on KATU “AM Northwest”
- An interview on KGW “Portland Today”
- A review at Foreword Reviews (5/5 Hearts): “Reads like a five-course meal for the mind. . . . A Year Right Here is a genuine pleasure to read, as refreshing in its localism and eclecticism as it is in its universal soul-searching and earnest attempt to redefine one’s relationship with home.”—Scott Neuffer
Various coverage for Seattle Walks and Too High and Too Steep by David B. Williams:
- A Facebook Live broadcast by The Nature Conservancy in Washington.
- A review in Seattle Review of Books / Seattle Weekly: “Williams encourages readers to slow down and look at the city through a pedestrian’s eyes. It’s a worthy cause. . . . Williams actually gets you out onto the streets, where the history happened, and that makes everything seem closer and more relevant. . . . Seattle Walks is all about that feeling, of seeing familiar streets through new eyes. All it takes is a good guide, a slowing-down of your pace, and a willingness to stop and look up every once in a while.”—Paul Constant
- A review on the Mercer Island Books / NW Book Lovers blogs
- A Q&A at Blog 4Culture
- An Interview on KING5 “New Day Northwest“
A trio of reviews for I
ce Bear by Michael Engelhard:
- A review in LSE Review of Books: “The visuals set this book apart from most. Rather than simply offering one author’s work, it is more akin to a polar bear museum. Each image tells a powerful story – some of them familiar, others outlandish, but all portraying a real animal of mythical proportions. . . . Limiting yourself to the captions would mean that you fail to embark on Engelhard’s literary and thrillingly human adventure. . . . At the end of this whirlwind tour of the cultural history of the polar bear, I now have a newfound fascination for the species but also for the people, who live with, depict and study them. Michael Engelhard writes confidently of the physical and metaphysical realms as well as our projections of human fears, fantasies and ambitions onto this quintessential Other.”—Lauriane Suyin Chalmin-Pui
- A review in International Bear News: “What has been missing to date has been a thorough review of the cultural associations between humans and polar bears. That gap has now been filled by Michael Engelhard’s detailed treatment of the connection between humans and polar bears in Ice Bear. . . . This book should be in the library of all who share this interest and want to know more about this Arctic icon.”—Marty Obbard
- A short review in the Idaho Press-Tribune: “Ice Bear isn’t just for lovers of polar bears. No, ecologists will enjoy it, too, as will environmentally-minded readers, animal lovers, culture mavens, and watchers of the Arctic. Bonus: lots of pictures!”—Terri Schlichenmeyer (The Bookworm Sez)
The New Yorker interviews Smell Detectives author Melanie Kiechle in an online story about smells and cities.
Process (blog of the Organization of American Historians) features a commentary piece by Making Climate Change History editor and Behind the Curve author Joshua P. Howe on the March for Science as a moment in the public face of American science.
New Books
The Hope of Another Spring: Takuichi Fujii, Artist and Wartime Witness
By Barbara Johns
Foreword by Rogers Daniel
Introduction to the Diary by Sandy Kita
This richly illustrated book reveals the life story and work of Issei artist Takuichi Fujii (1891-1964) and gives a telling alternative view of the wartime ordeal of West Coast Japanese Americans. The centerpiece of Fujii’s large and heretofore unknown collection is his illustrated diary, which historian Roger Daniels calls “the most remarkable document created by a Japanese American prisoner during the wartime incarceration.” The Hope of Another Spring is a significant contribution to Asian American studies, American and regional history, and art history.
Woodland: The Story of the Animals and People of Woodland Park Zoo
By John Bierlein and Staff of HistoryLink
Distributed for HistoryLink / Woodland Park Zoo
Follow the history of Woodland Park Zoo from its nineteenth-century beginnings as a park originally carved from the wilderness north of downtown Seattle to promote a nearby real estate development. As Seattle grew, its zoo engendered civic pride and the animals in its growing collection became local personalities. By the 1970s, the zoo emerged as an international pioneer in zoo design. Lavishly illustrated, Woodland provides a narrative of changing ideas about the relationship between humans and animals, and a fond look at the zoo’s animals and the people who care for them.
Making Climate Change History: Documents from Global Warming’s Past
Edited by Joshua P. Howe
Foreword by Paul S. Sutter
This collection pulls together key documents from the scientific and political history of climate change, including congressional testimony, scientific papers, newspaper editorials, court cases, and international declarations. Far more than just a compendium of source materials, the book uses these documents as a way to think about history, while at the same time using history as a way to approach the politics of climate change from a new perspective.
Queering Contemporary Asian American Art
Edited by Laura Kina and Jan Christian Bernabe
Foreword by Susette Min
Afterword by Kyoo Lee
Taken together, these nine original artist interviews, cutting-edge visual artworks, and seven critical essays explore contemporary currents and experiences within Asian American art, including the multiple axes of race and identity; queer bodies and forms; kinship and affect; and digital identities and performances.
Events
APRIL
April 29 from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Burke Museum, Kathleen Alcalá, The Deepest Roots, with Lynda Mapes and Stokley Towles, Environmental Writing: Inspire, Observe, Inhabit, Seattle, WA ($90 for Burke Members, $100 for general public)
April 29 at 11 a.m., Jess Thomson, A Year Right Here, Book Larder, signing for Independent Bookstore Day, Seattle, WA
April 29 at 2 p.m., William Wei, Asians in Colorado, Colorado Authors’ League Awards Finalists Panel & Booksigning in Adult Nonfiction and Poetry, Tattered Cover, Denver, CO
April 30 at 4 p.m., David B. Williams, Seattle Walks, Eagle Harbor Books, Bainbridge Island, WA
MAY
May 2 at 7:30 p.m., Carolyne Wright, Kathya Alexander, Laura Da’, Jana Harris, and Holly J. Hughes, Raising Lilly Ledbetter (Lost Horse Press), Town Hall Seattle, Seattle, WA (Tickets $5)
May 3, 2017 at 6 p.m., 12th Annual Literary Voices, Kathleen Alcalá, The Deepest Roots; Paula Becker, Looking for Betty MacDonald; Eileen Bjorkman, The Propeller under the Bed; Moon-ho Jung, The Rising Tide of Color; Tom Reese & Eric Wagner, Once and Future River; Jess Thomson, A Year Right Here; Thaisa Way, The Landscape Architecture of Richard Haag; Margaret Willson, Seawomen of Iceland; North Ballroom at the HUB. Tickets: $150 per person; $1,500 per table, register online
May 4 at 7 p.m., Paula Becker, Looking for Betty MacDonald, Walla Walla University, Walla Walla, WA
May 5 at 6 p.m., William Wei, Asians in Colorado, 2017 Colorado Authors’ League Annual Awards Banquet, Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, Arvada, CA, RSVP required (Tickets $50)
May 5 – 6, Kathleen Alcalá, The Deepest Roots, with Dani Cornejo and Nicole Yanes on Opata language and culture revival, “The Living Breath of wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ“ Indigenous Foods and Ecological Knowledge Symposium, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
May 6 at 11 a.m., Eileen Bjorkman, The Propeller under the Bed, Book signing and fly-in at Harvey Field, Snohomish, WA
May 7 at 7 p.m., Kathleen Alcalá, The Deepest Roots, Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, WA
May 8 at 6:30 p.m., Jess Thomson, A Year Right Here, Book Larder, Seattle, WA
May 9 at 7 p.m., David Berger, Razor Clams, Humanities Washington, Toledo Community Library, Toledo, WA
May 11 at 6 p.m., Paula Becker, Looking for Betty MacDonald, Darvill’s Bookstore, Orcas Island, WA
May 12 – 13, Zuo Tradition / Zuozhuan, translated by Stephen Durrant, Wai-Yee Li, and David Schaberg, UCLA International Institute Asia Pacific Center, Taiwan Studies Lectureship Annual Conference, Los Angeles, CA
May 13 from 9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m., John Bierlein and staff of HistoryLink, Woodland, Woodland Park Zoo (Mom & Me; ZooStore booth signing from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.), Seattle, WA
May 13 at 1 p.m., Samuel Ligon, Wonderland (Lost Horse Press), Pie & Whiskey & Mothers, Sandpoint Library, Rude Girls Room, Spokane, WA
May 19 at 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., James Longhurst, Bike Battles, Midwest Active Transportation Conference (welcome keynote), UW La Crosse, La Crosse, WI
May 20, Kathleen Alcalá, The Deepest Roots, BARN Writers, Bainbridge Island, WA
May 21 at 4 p.m., David B. Williams, Seattle Walks, Village Books, Bellingham, WA
May 23 at 7 p.m., Lorraine McConaghy and Judy Bentley, Free Boy, Newport High School orchestra showcase, featuring works by composer Tim Huling, based on Free Boy, Bellevue, WA
May 24 at 7 p.m., John Bierlein, Woodland, Phinney Books, Seattle, WA
May 25 at 7:30 p.m., Paula Becker, Looking for Betty MacDonald, Seattle Pacific University, Ames Library, Pacific Northwest Historians Guild meeting, Seattle, WA
JUNE
June 1 at 3:30 – 6 p.m., Rural China on the Eve of Revolution, Edited by Stevan Harrell and William Lavely (Published with University of Washington Libraries), Lecture, reception, book signing, and Allen Library exhibit viewing, University of Washington, Allen Library, Petersen Room, Seattle, WA
June 1, David Giblin, Flora of the Pacific Northwest, Washington Native Plant Society, Central Puget Sound Chapter (CPS), (pre-publication event; Mountaineers Program Center, Cascade Room), Seattle, WA
June 3 at 10 a.m., William J. Bauer, Jr., California through Native Eyes, Bay Area Book Festival, “Witness and Testimony: The Past and Present of Native America,” Berkeley, CA
June 4 from 10 – 2 p.m., Kathleen Alcalá, The Deepest Roots, Liberty Bay Books, Local Author Sunday, Poulsbo, WA
June 7 at 7 p.m., John Bierlein, Woodland, University Book Store, Seattle, WA
June 10 at 5:30 p.m., Kathleen Alcalá, The Deepest Roots, Time Enough Books, Ilwaco, WA
June 11 at 3 p.m., Kathleen Alcalá, The Deepest Roots, with Iris Graville and Vicki Robin, Eagle Harbor Books, Bainbridge Island, WA
June 12 at 7 p.m., Judy Bentley, Walking Washington’s History, King County Library System – Issaquah, Issaquah, WA
June 15 at 6:30 p.m., James Longhurst, Bike Battles, Whitefish Bay Public Library, Milwaukee, WI
University of Washington Press Blog 