Thu 27 Sep 2007
Four University of Illinois Press authors will participate in the Southern Festival of Books October 12-14 in Nashville.
Roni Stoneman and Ellen Wright will discuss their book Pressing On: The Roni Stoneman Story at 12:00 P.M. on October 12th, Diane Diekman will present Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story at 1:00 P.M. on October 13th, and Craig Havighurst showcases Air Castle of the South: WSM and the Making of Music City at 3:30 P.M. on August 14th.
Wed 26 Sep 2007
Jeff Biggers has worked as a writer, radio correspondent, and educator across the United States, Europe, Mexico, and India. The paperback edition of his latest book In the Sierra Madre was published September 2007.
I drove across the Blue Ridge at dawn recently, a harvest moon illuminating my way over the ridges. And there, tucked into the valleys like overburdened fence posts, were rows of corn. The stalks leaned with their abundance. A combine, its light flashing from above, would soon trundle down the narrow row to collect the harvest.
Did you know, an anthropologist had just written me, that Cherokee corn has been traced to corn from the Raramuri or Tarahumara natives in Mexico’s Copper Canyon? I had been discussing Charles Frazier’s novel, 13 Moons, which deals with the Cherokee in the 19th century.
Corn, of course, which gave birth to my European ancestors’ new culture in America, has crossed our imaginary borders for centuries. Its origins have been traced back thousands of years to the Sierra Madre, when the first teosinte grasses were broken and cultivated. It went on define our new nation; it still defines the Midwest where I live now. And it has always defined native Americans like the Raramuri, who live deep into the canyons of Mexico.
Mon 24 Sep 2007
Andrew O’Toole is a freelance writer and the author of several books on sports, including Smiling Irish Eyes: Art Rooney and the Pittsburgh Steelers. His new book Sweet William: The Life of Billy Conn will be published in January 2008 by the University of Illinois Press.
The genesis of Sweet William came while I was sitting on a couch in Tim Conn’s home. I was interviewing Tim about his godfather, Art Rooney. (I was researching the life of Rooney for a biography, which would become Smiling Irish Eyes.) In addition to owning the Pittsburgh Steelers, Rooney was a boxing promoter in town who had developed a close friendship with Conn. I was visiting Tim hoping for a few stories about Art. I got what I went for and much more. I saw the family scrapbooks, photos, and, across the room from me, hanging framed on the wall was Billy’s light-heavyweight championship belt. I was mesmerized by it.
