Every week, our wonderful publicity team tracks the cross-platform media coverage our authors and their books receive. We’re proud to share our latest and greatest highlights below with links to where you can read more about these great titles!
We had a great week in the media for a wide span of subjects ranging from some of our newest titles in Middle Eastern Studies to our vast History backlist. You’re in for a treat, enjoy!
Middle Eastern Studies
Aram Mrjoian, editor of We Are All Armenian, wrote a piece for the Chicago Review of Books on his experience edition the collection, titled “On Editorial Imposter Syndrome.” The Chicago Review of Books also published a separate interview with Mrjoian about the collection; introducing the interview, Michael Welch writes, “Every essay from this compelling group of featured authors brings a unique and powerful perspective on what it means to search for one’s authentic identity when disconnected from homeland, language, and heritage. Textured and emotionally resonant, these entries ask the question What does it mean to be ‘Armenian enough’? Together, the anthology honors the history of the lives lost and forever changed by the Armenian Genocide and resulting diaspora and charts a course forward through the power of telling and retelling important stories. It’s both a stunning achievement and a welcome addition to our literary record.” Mrjoian was also interviewed at TriQuarterly, where Kathryn O’Day describes the book as being, “Part party and part opera—both delightful and wrenching, altogether joyful,” going on, “Each essay builds on the last, deepening the reader’s understanding of the multi-generational impact of genocide on families and prompting contemplation on notions of ethnicity. The essays do not flinch in the face of sometimes harrowing events, but every one also offers sweetness, grace, and resolve to face these truths and to move forward with hope and compassion. It’s an exquisite collection of essays.” Additionally, an upcoming event for the book was highlighted in The Armenian Mirror-Spectator.
Lightning through the Clouds was reviewed in Contemporary Levant. Sarah Irving writes, “This biography of [‘Izz al-Din] al-Qassam places him not only in the context of his social and political settings, but also allows us to see him within a wider movement in which his charisma and community connections made him not a single, dominating figure, but first amongst equals.” Irving goes on, “Sanagan has thus succeeded in writing a rare book, one that combines the compelling narrative thrust of a biography with a breadth of view that tells the reader something genuinely new about the development of Palestine and Levantine anti-colonial politics over the first third of the twentieth century.”
Music
Francesca Royster, author of Black Country Music, was featured in a conversation about her book on Vienna Live. The Austin Chronicle also wrote up Royster’s SXSW conversation with Taylor Crumpton, calling it, “A wide-ranging, incisive conversation.”
Margo Price’s keynote conversation at SXSW about Maybe We’ll Make It was previewed in the Austin Chronicle’s “Five Essential Events Still to Come at SXSW Music,” and celebrated the next day in the Chronicle’s “SXSW Music 2023: The Best Things We Saw on Friday.” The book was also mentioned in a review of Margo’s recent showed at the Ryman at the Nashville Scene.
Speaking of the Nashville Scene, this week they also republished Chapter 16’s review of I’ve Had to Think Up a Way to Survive.
Latin American Studies
Claudia Brittenham, author of Unseen Art, was interviewed about her book in the New Books in Archeology channel of the New Books Network.
Choreographing Mexico received a first review, in the Journal of Latin American Studies. Ana Martínez writes, “Choreographing Mexico is a long-overdue critical study of Mexican traditional and regional dance known today as folklórico.” Martínez calls the book, “[A] fascinating and well-researched volume,” going on, “Cuellar proves that Mexican regional dance is a social embodiment that at times reproduces nationalistic tropes and at others critiques them. Choreographing Mexico is a rich exploration of how bodies in motion create and recreate the idea of a nation.” Martínez concludes, “Choreographing Mexico offers a welcome and new interdisciplinary look at folklórico dance as essential to Mexican cultural formations. The volume will be important for Mexicanists and scholars of dance and performance. Accessible to multiple audiences, Choreographing Mexico is for anyone interested in Mexican culture and anything Mexican.”
Making It at Any Cost was reviewed in Social Forces. Claudio Benzecry writes, “[Making It at Any Cost] is an important contribution to the role local economic practices play in organizing commitments, subjectivities, and personal trajectories, and marries European and US economic sociology with Latin American studies of urban and labor informality, aiming to expand some of its lessons beyond the site-specific characteristics of La Salada.” Benzecry goes on, “The book calls our attention to the creativity, and resilience of subaltern agents in the global economy,” concluding, “This is an excellent book that uses creatively the case of La Salada to elegantly fill gaps in the US and European economic sociology scholarship, expending current understandings of morality in illegal and contested markets. As such, it would be a great addition to courses on informal markets, studies of morality, global chains, and Latin American urban studies.”
Latinx & Chicanx Studies
Conjured Bodies is reviewed in the forthcoming May ’23 issue of CHOICE. L.H. Moreno writes, “Conjured Bodies expands the understanding of the politics of race and sexuality within Latinidad—the notion of a shared Latin American identity—by introducing readers to the concepts of Latinx ambiguity and queer racialization.” Moreno goes on, “Conjured Bodies is a vital addition to mainstream media research within Latinx studies, media studies, queer studies, and critical ethnic studies…Highly recommended.”
Film, Media, and Popular Culture
Making The Best Years of Our Lives was reviewed in the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. Livia Lozoya calls it, “[An] insightful new book,” going on, “Macor provides detailed context and explanations of how various world events influenced the Best Picture Oscar winner’s creation, background stories of some of the film’s key contributors, and its legacy over the last seventy-five years.” Lozoya concludes, “Making The Best Years of Our Lives is an informative, enjoyable, and passion-filled book that will satisfy any reader who is interested in film, Hollywood, World War II, the side effects of war, the importance of perseverance, and what it is to be human…Macor’s book expertly advocates for Best Years’ relevance through her evident adoration for the film and consistent focus on human resilience displayed both in front of and behind the camera.”
History
Reverberations of Racial Violence was reviewed in the Journal of Borderlands Studies. Elaine Peña calls the book, “A model for rigorous and thoughtful public-facing and public-engaging historical reflection,” going on, “Volume contributions compellingly demonstrate how the project of unsettling and recovering border history produces its best work when it is collective, multi-modal, and multi-sited…Reverberations is a great teaching resource for undergraduates and graduates alike. It is also a must read for border historians (North American and otherwise) because it respects the multiformity of evidence and readily confronts the challenges of making history count outside of academic circles.”
Borderlands Curanderos was reviewed in Isis. Laura M. Shelton writes, “Seman has produced an important work that offers a complex understanding of curanderismo at the turn of the twentieth century in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands. She explains the power of curanderismo as a meaningful social practice with indigenous roots and significant global influences, and, in doing so, she demonstrates how healing practices in a periphery can shape the history of modern scientific medicine and redefine our ideas about the origins of knowledge production.”
A Thirsty Land was reviewed in Great Plains Research. Paula Anca Farca writes, “McGraw skillfully weaves his memorable conversations with everyday Texans into detailed research on water history and laws. The result is a highly readable and engaging book full of lively characters.” Farca goes on, “McGraw argues cogently that Texas needs a rigorous statewide water plan based on natural boundaries of aquifers and the knowledge that thirsty land regions and water-abundant regions are interconnected.”
Texas
Big Wonderful Thing was highlighted in a “What Marybeth Stevens is reading” column at El Paso Inc. Stevens writes, “[Harrigan] provides a comprehensive history lesson by telling a story of interwoven people, places, and events in such a way that you forget how much you are learning.”
The Killeen Daily Herald published a piece on an upcoming lecture by Ron Tyler, author of Texas Lithographs.
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That’s all for this week, folks! See y’all soon with more news and highlights. Until then, hope y’all have a great week.
