Name one other banjo player who wears Prada. And I don’t mean Prada overalls. —Natalie Maines The lead singer of the breakout bluegrass trio the Dixie Chicks, Natalie Maines, was […]
Author Berenbaum honored by President
University of Illinois press author and professor of entomology May Berenbaum has been awarded the National Medal of Science. The Medal is the nation’s highest honor for “achievement and leadership […]
$2.99 eBook sale on select music titles
To coincide with this month’s International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass event in Raleigh, North Carolina, we are offering eBook versions of four University of Illinois Press music titles on sale […]
Beyond the White Negro wins Lois P. Rudnick Book Prize
The UIP book Beyond the White Negro: Empathy and Anti-Racist Reading by Kimberly Chabot Davis has won the 2014 Lois P. Rudnick Book Prize, sponsored by the New England American Studies […]
Q&A with Winning the War for Democracy author David Lucander
David Lucander is a professor of history at SUNY Rockland Community College. He recently answered some questions about his UIP book Winning the War for Democracy: The March on Washington Movement, […]
Fannie Barrier Williams wins Letitia Woods Brown Book Award
Fannie Barrier Williams: Crossing the Borders of Region and Race by Wanda A. Hendricks has been selected as one of this year’s winners of the Letitia Woods Brown Book Award […]
Congratulations to Neil Rosenberg
Tonight, the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) will induct folklorist, musician, bluegrass historian, and University of Illinois Press author Neil V. Rosenberg into the International Bluegrass Hall of Fame at […]
Oktoberfest in the Heartland
When Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig tied the knot with Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen in October of 1810 a few kegs were tapped and a new tradition was born. The modern “Oktoberfest” is […]
The Sound of Murder
“Do you make your own breakfast, Mr Neff?” “Well, I squeeze a grapefruit now and again.” Has it really been seventy years since Double Indemnity? The noir touchstone hit theaters […]
Beyond “El Paso”: a story song survey
Story songs had won love from an admiring public since the days when drunken Vikings flung wandering skalds into a nearby volcano. When the wireless came along, story songs filled […]
Happy birthday, Marty Robbins
Country music superstar Marty Robbins was born on September 26, 1925. In three decades as a singer and songwriter Robbins placed a staggering 94 songs on Billboard’s country music charts. […]
For the love of wicked Feleena
There is a possibly apocryphal story about Loretta Lynn’s classic “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” Supposedly, Lynn’s original version of the song included ten (or eight or twelve) verses. Hearing it, her […]