Now available
|
|
Fall/Winter
2009 catalog
In print or as a digital, interactive version
|
|
Want more of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition?
|
|
Join Nicolette Bromberg, author of Picturing the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, and Paula Becker and Alan Stein, authors of Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, along with local author Joan Hockaday, for an AYPE Extravaganza!
Sunday, December 13, at 2 p.m. at Elliott Bay Book Compoany
|
Coming up in January
|
|
In December, we're happy to publish two books, one by a UW faculty member, and the other by a UW alum
International Architecture in Interwar Japan
by Ken Tadashi Oshima (UW associate professor of architecture)
and
The Sichuan Frontier and Tibet
by Yingcong Dai
(graduate of the UW's History Department who currently teaches at William Paterson University of New Jersey).
|
Join our electronic mailing list?
|
|
In early December we'll be mailing our 2009 issue of Excerpts, a newsletter for Friends of the Press.
If you're interested in receiving a digital, interactive edition of this newsletter, please let Rachael Levay know at remann@u.washington.edu and we'll gladly send you a notification when the issue is available.
|
|
Join our list
|
 |
|
|
Greetings!
Don't forget our Share the Love web sale this holiday season -- now through December 31, you can receive 20% off all purchases made on our website by using the code W209 in your checkout. This discount applies to all our titles, from classics to brand-new, hot off the press, books. Details on the sale can be found on our site and, as always, if you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch! Also, University of Washington Press is now on Facebook! Look for us there -- we'd love to see you as Fans!
 All the best,
Rachael
remann@u.washington.edu
|
Cliff Mass
|
|
 The Weather of the Pacific Northwest
Check out Seattle Weekly's current issue with a cover story on
Cliff Mass!
In The Weather of the Pacific Northwest, University of Washington
atmospheric scientist and popular radio commentator Cliff Mass unravels
the intricacies of Northwest weather, from the mundane to the
mystifying. By examining our legendary floods, snowstorms, and
windstorms, and a wide variety of local weather features, Mass answers
such interesting questions as:
o Why does the Northwest have localized rain shadows?
o What is the origin of the hurricane force winds that often buffet the region?
o Why does the Northwest have so few thunderstorms?
o What is the origin of the Pineapple Express?
o Why do ferryboats sometimes seem to float above the water's surface?
o Why is it so hard to predict Northwest weather?
Mass
brings together eyewitness accounts, historical records, and
meteorological science to explain Pacific Northwest weather. He also
considers possible local effects of global warming. The final chapters
guide readers in interpreting the Northwest sky and in securing weather
information on their own.
Cliff Mass, professor of atmospheric
sciences at the University of Washington and weekly guest on KUOW
radio, is the preeminent authority on Northwest weather.
Join Cliff on
Wednesday, December 2, at noon at Elliott Bay Book Company
Thursday, December 17, at 7 p.m. at Third Place Books
|
Monika Zagar
|
|
 Knut Hamsun: The Dark Side of Literary Brilliance
"A superb academic study." -Matthew Shaer, Los Angeles Times
Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920, Knut Hamsun (1859-1952)
was a towering figure of Norwegian letters. He was also a Nazi
sympathizer and supporter of the German occupation of Norway during the
Second World War. In 1943, Hamsun sent his Nobel medal to Third-Reich
propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as a token of his admiration and
authored a reverential obituary for Hitler in May 1945. For decades,
scholars have wrestled with the dichotomy between Hamsun's merits as a
writer and his infamous ties to Nazism.
Monika Zagar refuses to separate his political and cultural
ideas from an analysis of his highly regarded writing. Her analysis
reveals the ways in which messages of racism and sexism appear in
plays, fiction, and none-too-subtle nonfiction produced by a prolific
author over the course of his long career. In the process, Zagar
illuminates Norway's changing social relations and long history of
interaction with other peoples.
Monika Zagar is associate professor of Scandinavian studies at the University of Minnesota.
Join Monika on
Wednesday, December 2, at 4 p.m. at the University of Minnesota Bookstore
|
Canyon Sam
|
|
 Sky Train: Tibetan Women on the Edge of History
Publishers Weekly called Sky Train a "remarkable book. . . . Visceral and
deeply felt, this narrative deserves a read from anyone interested in
human rights and the untold stories of oppressed women everywhere."
The San Francisco Chronicle says, "As a woman talking to women, Sam uncovers a much more intimate Tibet, which survives stubbornly in a tattered land. The passage of time between the interviews
gives their testimonies both richness and preciousness . . . . captures the heart-rending complexities of Tibet and China and how close to home they can be."
Through a lyrical narrative of her journey to Tibet in 2007, activist
Canyon Sam contemplates modern history from the perspective of Tibetan
women. Traveling on China's new "Sky Train," she celebrates Tibetan New
Year with the Lhasa family whom she'd befriended decades earlier and
concludes an oral-history project with women elders. As she uncovers stories of Tibetan women's courage, resourcefulness, and
spiritual strength in the face of loss and hardship since the Chinese
occupation of Tibet in 1950, and observes the changes wrought by the
controversial new rail line in the futuristic "new Lhasa," Sam comes to
embrace her own capacity for letting go, for faith, and for acceptance.
Join Canyon on
Thursday, December 3, at 7 p.m. at Books Inc., Berkeley, CA
Saturday, December 5, at 3 p.m. at Fort Mason, San Francisco, for Tibet Day. $10 admission charge
|
|
|
| David Biespiel |
|
 The Book of Men and Women: Poems
David Biespiel's energetic language, so varied and musical and precise,
is quite unmatched by that of other contemporary poets. The Book of Men and Women is his second collection in the Pacific Northwest Poetry
Series, and as always he is the master of the long line, his words
strung across its reach as tightly as beads. But new poems in this book
explore the intimacies of the shorter line as well and display
Biespiel's formal inventiveness and emotional range. The
book concludes with a series of autobiographical poems that confront
the frailties of love and desire with unflinching intimacy and
gratitude. These last poems, composed during an intense three-month
period of writing, as well as the other poems in this remarkable
volume, showcase Biespiel at the very top of his form.
David
Biespiel is the author of Shattering Air and Wild Civility. He divides
his teaching time among Oregon State University; the Pacific Lutheran
University M.F.A. Program in Tacoma, Washington; Wake Forest University
in North Carolina; and at The Attic Writers' Workshop in Portland,
Oregon, where he is director and writer-in-residence.
Join David on
Thursday, December 3, at 7 p.m. at Rilassi Coffee House and Tea, Portland, OR
|
Tony Angell
|
|
 Puget Sound Through an Artist's Eye
"If you've lived here for any length of time, you've seen an Angell sculpture: in a public place, an art gallery or a private home. Puget Sound Through an Artist's Eye chronicles 40 years of the Seattle-area artist's sculptures and paintings of the birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and undersea life of our region. It's a summing up to date of Angell's career and a testament to the tenacity and inventiveness he draws on to pursue his quarry. And it's a cri de coeur for a halt to the degradation of one of the most beautiful and fecund places on Earth. As with the best coffee-table books, you can read the narrative straight through, or stop and linger over Angell's marvelous way with marble and chlorite, limestone and serpentine. This is a keepsake book-a testament to an artist's passion for his work and for Puget Sound, his home and his muse." -Seattle Times
Puget Sound's rich abundance of life -- from mammals to birds -- can be
attributed to the fact that the region is far more than just a body of
water. Edged by an extraordinary range of habitats, this region is
visited and occupied year-round by species that are finely tuned to
exploit the resources here that are necessary for their survival. Birds
are among the most obvious occupants of these communities, and
witnessing their dynamic lives has been a source of inspiration for
artist and naturalist Tony Angell. Angell explains the methods he uses in his art. The shapes,
movements, patterns, and even temperatures and smells that he
experiences in the field are all brought to bear on his work. His
drawings bring clarity to his visual and emotional memories, and his
sculptures allow him to approach a memory from many directions and
retain that memory in his hands. In all of his work, he lets the
passion and excitement of his discoveries drive his artistic expression.
Tony Angell is an illustrator, sculptor, and author.
Join Tony on
Saturday, December 5, at 2 p.m. at Foster/White Gallery, Pioneer Square, Seattle. Foster/White is also celebrating Tony's work in the gallery from Dec. 3-24, with sculptures on display.
|
Charles LeWarne
|
|
 The Love Israel Family:
Urban Commune, Rural Commune
In 1968, a time of turbulence and countercultural movements, a one-time
television salesman named Paul Erdmann changed his name to Love Israel
and started a controversial religious commune in Seattle's middle-class
Queen Anne Hill neighborhood. He quickly gathered a following and they
too adopted the Israel surname, along with biblical or virtuous first
names such as Honesty, Courage, and Strength. The burgeoning Love
Israel Family lived a communal lifestyle centered on meditation and the
philosophy that all persons were one and life was eternal. They
flourished for more than a decade, owning houses and operating
businesses on the Hill, although rumors of drug use, control of
members, and unconventional sexual arrangements dogged them.
By
1984, perceptions among many followers that some Family members -
especially Love Israel himself - had become more equal than others led
to a bitter breakup in which two-thirds of the members defected. The
remaining faithful, about a hundred strong, resettled on a ranch the
Family retained near the town of Arlington, Washington, north of
Seattle. There they recouped and adapted, with apparent social and
economic success, for two more decades.
In The Love Israel Family, Charles LeWarne tells the compelling story of this group of
idealistic seekers whose quest for a communal life grounded in love,
service, and obedience to a charismatic leader foundered when that
leader's power distanced him from his followers.
Charles P. LeWarne
is the author of Utopias on Puget Sound, 1885-1915 and Washington State, a text used in many regional school districts.
Join Chuck on
Tuesday, December 8, at 7 p.m. at the Edmonds Bookshop
|
|
Alvin Ziontz
|
|
 A Lawyer in Indian Country:
A Memoir
In his memoir, Alvin Ziontz reflects on his more than thirty years
representing Indian tribes, from a time when Indian law was little
known through landmark battles that upheld tribal sovereignty. He
discusses the growth and maturation of tribal government and the
underlying tensions between Indian society and the non-Indian world. A Lawyer in Indian Country presents vignettes of reservation life and
recounts some of the memorable legal cases that illustrate the
challenges faced by individual Indians and tribes. As the senior
attorney arguing U.S. v. Washington, Ziontz was a party to the historic
1974 Boldt decision that affirmed the Pacific Northwest tribes' treaty
fishing rights, with ramifications for tribal rights nationwide. His
work took him to reservations in Montana, Wyoming, and Minnesota, as
well as Washington and Alaska, and he describes not only the work of a
tribal attorney but also his personal entry into the life of Indian
country.
|
Lorraine McConaghy
|
|
 Warship under Sail: The USS Decatur in the Pacific West
Ordered to join the Pacific Squadron in 1854, the sloop of war Decatur
sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, through the Strait of Magellan to
Valparaiso, Honolulu, and Puget Sound, then on to San Francisco,
Panama, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, while serving in the Pacific until
1859, the eve of the Civil War.
One of only five ships in the squadron, the Decatur
participated in numerous imperial adventures in the Far West, enforcing
treaties, fighting Indians, suppressing vigilantes, and protecting
commerce. With its graceful lines and towering white canvas sails, the
ship patrolled the sandy border between ocean and land.
Warship
under Sail focuses on four episodes in the Decatur's Pacific Squadron
mission: the harrowing journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean
through the Strait of Magellan; a Seattle war story that contested
American treaties and settlements; participation with other squadron
ships on a U.S. State Department mission to Nicaragua; and more than a
year spent anchored off Panama as a hospital ship. In a period of five
years, more than 300 men lived aboard ship, leaving a rich record of
logbooks, medical and punishment records, correspondence, personal
journals, and drawings. Lorraine McConaghy has mined these records to
offer a compelling social history of a warship under sail.
Lorraine McConaghy is the historian at the Museum of History & Industry in Seattle.
Join Lorraine on
Friday, December 11, at 7 p.m. at Park Place Books, Kirkland
Tuesday, December 14, at 7 p.m. at Elliott Bay Book Company
|
|
|
