Tag Archives: View from Up Here

October 2016 News, Reviews, and Events

News

The Washington Center for the Book at The Seattle Public Library announces the finalists in eight categories for the 2016 Washington State Book Awards for outstanding books published by Washington authors in 2015. Congratulations to our finalists Ana Maria Spagna (Reclaimers; Biography/Memoir) and Ruth Kirk (Ozette; History/General Nonfiction). The winners in each category will be announced at the awards ceremony on October 8, 2016. Emcee for the evening is Frances McCue, twice a UW Press finalist for a WSBA (in 2011 for The Car That Brought You Here Still Runs and in 2015 for Mary Randlett Portraits). The awards celebration is free and open to the public.

University of Washington Press shares in the remembrance of Sarah Reichard, who died suddenly in her sleep on August 29, 2016. Dr. Reichard directed the University of Washington Botanic Gardens, was coeditor of Invasive Species of the Pacific Northwest, and advised UW Press on other projects. Read obituaries and details on the October 13th memorial celebration in the Seattle Times and Offshoots (blog of the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences).

Reviews and Interviews

Michael Upchurch reviews Looking for Betty MacDonald by Paula Becker in the Seattle Times: “The Egg and I, The Plague and I and Anybody Can Do Anything practically cavort off the page. How did [Betty MacDonald] do it? Seattle author Paula Becker has some answers in her compact, finely crafted biography.”

Lory Widmer Hess reviews the biography on her Emerald City Book Review blog: “I was delighted to explore MacDonald’s life and work through Paula Becker’s thoughtful, painstakingly researched biography, and even more thrilled to see that University of Washington Press is going to be reprinting three hard-to-find later works by the bestselling author of The Egg and I: Anybody Can Do Anything, The Plague and I, and Onions in the Stew. . . . If you’re not a MacDonald enthusiast, you will be soon. . . . We can be grateful that Becker has preserved it for us in words, and has given us valuable insights into her world, her books, her family, and the writer herself.”

Barbara McMichael reviews in the Kitsap Sun: “The pages zing with unexpected detail and nuggets of lacerating wit. . . If you’re Looking for Betty MacDonald, you need look no further.” Paula’s other book (The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition) and the MacDonald reissues (The Plague and I, Anybody Can Do Anything, and Onions in the Stew) also get mentions.

Steve Donoghue reviews the books at Open Letters Monthly: “A smart and immensely readable portrait, taking readers through MacDonald’s life. . . . Becker has combed every interview and profile, and her book veritably glows with MacDonald’s recaptured wit. . . . Thanks to Paula Becker’s exhaustive research and the compassionate, standard-setting book she’s shaped out of it, 21st century readers can meet a much fuller and more fascinating version of that complex, challenging, laughing woman. Readers of her books will still want to thank her, but thanks to Looking for Betty MacDonald, they’ll know her much better.” The Plague and I (“improbably funny. . . equally remarkable”) and Anybody Can Do Anything (“again improbably funny”) also get mentions.

Bainbridge Community Broadcasting’s “What’s Up Bainbridge” host Wendy Wallace speaks with Paula Becker about the biography and reissues.
Continue reading →

Exhibitions on View: ‘View From Up Here’

This spring, the University of Washington Press is proud to co-publish the corresponding catalog in conjunction with a key international art exhibition at the Anchorage Museum, “View From Up Here.”

We hope you will be able to see this powerful exhibition in person in Anchorage and as its installations travel to additional venues, and that the armchair art lovers among you will find much to appreciate in the accompanying book:

Up Here: The North at the Center of the World
Edited by Julie Decker and Kirsten J. Anderson

The North is a complex place that is beautiful, moody, and anything but untouched. The Arctic, part of the international North that is pivotal to the world because of climate change, is no longer a frontier of the past. The same interest in the North that preoccupied artists and explorers of the Romantic era has returned greater than ever, but rather than merely depicting its grandeur, today’s artists, scientists, and explorers question the future of the landscape.

Up Here connects art, science, and environment at a time when unprecedented climate change requires unprecedented innovation. The contributors explore the ideas of “wilderness” and “remoteness,” the lessons to be learned from cold places and indigenous knowledge, and how the Arctic is a signal for global change.

The Anchorage Museum is also celebrating with a number of related programs and special events–check out more on their site, and use and follow the hashtags #anchoragemuseum and #thisispolarlab on social media.

Participating artists include: Nicholas Galanin (Alaska), Anna Hoover (Alaska/Washington), Jeroen Toirkens (Holland), Derek Coté (Michigan), Marek Ranis (North Carolina), Christoph Kapeller (California), Paul Walde (Canada), John Grade (Washington), Magali Daniaux and Cedric Pigot (France), Mary Mattingly (New York), Annesofie Norn (Denmark), Bryndis Snæbjörnsdóttir and Mark Wilson (Iceland/England).

Exhibition Tour

Anchorage Museum, AK / May 6, 2016 – October 2, 2016

After the exhibition closes at the Anchorage Museum this fall, installations from “View From Up Here” will travel to Canada and additional venues, with public programs occurring in New York, Iceland, and Norway.

Anchorage Museum Director Julie Decker talks about the museum’s Polar Lab that works with artists, scientists, and you to share a more complex view of the North:

Here Decker speaks about the museum’s role in critically examining the past, present, and future of the North:

Click through for a sampling of stunning photos of and from the exhibition:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.