Alexis Rockman: The Great Lakes Cycle Art Exhibition Debuts in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on January 27, 2018.
The exhibition runs from January 27, 2018 – April 29, 2018.
This multifaceted project was initiated in 2013 when artist Alexis Rockman embarked on a research tour of the Great Lakes region. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a suite of five mural-sized paintings which explore separate themes that emerged during Rockman’s travels. These are accompanied by several large-scale watercolors and field drawings–monochromatic animal and plant studies made from site-sourced organic material such as mud, sand, coal, and leaves.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated, 136 page color catalogue, Alexis Rockman-The Great Lakes Cycle, featuring essays by Dana Friis Hansen, Jeff Alexander, and Thyrza Nichols Goodeve, relating the series to historical and contemporary landscape art and addressing the significance of the Great Lakes ecosystem.

On February 22, 2018 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm: Award-winning environmentalist and author, Jeff Alexander, will speak on “The Great Lakes in the 21st Century: Unprecedented Change, Uncertain Future, in conjunction with the “Alexis Rockman: The Great Lakes Cycle” painting exhibit.
Exhibition Touring Schedule: Following its debut in Grand Rapids, Alexis Rockman: The Great Lakes Cycle will travel to the following venues:
Chicago Cultural Center – June 2 through October 1, 2018
Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland – October 19, 2018 through January 27, 2019
Haggerty Museum of Art of Marquette University, Milwaukee – February 8 to May 19, 2019
Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis – October 5, 2019 through January 5, 2020
Flint Institute of Arts – May 9 to August 16, 2020

Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title honors Eugene G. Wanger’s Fighting the Death Penalty: A Fifty-Year Journey of Argument and Persuasion, published by MSU Press.
Choice Reviews, the American Library Association publishing division, publishes the complete list of winners in the January 2018 issue of CHOICE magazine, Volume 55 No. 5.

Choice Reviews selects its Outstanding Academic Titles each year, chosen from the many titles reviewed during the year. The books are selected for their “excellence in scholarship and presentation, the significance of their contribution to the field, and their value as important — and often first — treatment of their subject.”

Congratulations to Brian D. McInnes, a 38th Annual American Book Awards winner. McInnes is being honored for his book Sounding Thunder: The Stories of Francis Pegahmagabow—a unique synthesis of Ojibwe oral history, historical record, and Pegahmagabow family stories.

Previous winners include Toni Morrison, Edward Said, Isabel Allende, bell hooks, Don DeLillo, Robin D.G. Kelley, Joy Harjo, Miles Davis, Daniel Ellsberg, David Halberstam, Richard Holmes OBE, Laila Lalami, Helen Thomas, and Cornel West.

The Before Columbus Foundation sponsors the annual American Book Awards and views American culture as inclusive and has always considered the term “multicultural” to be not a description of various categories, groups, or “special interests,” but rather as the definition of all of American literature. The Awards are not bestowed by an industry organization, but rather are a writers’ award given by other writers. The awards will be formally recognized on October 22, 2017, in San Francisco, California. This event is open to the public.

John Smolens’ novel Wolf’s Mouth, Winner of a 2017 Michigan Notable Book Award, has been chosen as the book selection for 2017 by the NMU/Marquette County “One Book, One Community” committee. The “One Book, One Community” program encourages the Marquette County and Northern Michigan University community to read the same book and to come together to discuss it in a variety of settings. Although dozens of similar programs have been sponsored nationwide, this is one that brings together a county and a university.

John Smolens has published ten works of fiction, most recently Wolf’s Mouth. His work has appeared in publications such as The North American Review, The Southern Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Columbia Journal of Literature and Art, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. He has taught at Michigan State University, Western Michigan University, and is professor emeritus, Northern Michigan University. In 2010, he was the recipient of the Michigan Author of the Year Award from the Michigan Library Association.

Winterkill, by Todd Davis, Named 2016 INDIES Book of the Year Silver Winner, Poetry
Foreword Reviews announced the winners of its INDIES Book of the Year Awards at the American Library Association’s Annual Conference in Chicago. The awards recognize the best books published in 2016 from small, indie, and university presses, as well as self-published authors. Founded in 1998, Foreword Reviews is the only independent media company completely devoted to independent publishing.

2017 Alan Paton Award for Non-Fiction has been won by Greg Marinovich for Murder at Small Koppie: The Real Story of South Africa’s Marikana Massacre.  In his speech at the June 24 award presentation, Marinovich stressed the importance of remembering that the Marikana massacre miners are at core of the story he told in the book. The award is in honor of Alan Paton, author of Cry, The Beloved Country.

The Alan Paton Award is a South African literary award for non-fiction, sponsored by the Johannesburg weekly the Sunday Times.  The award is given in conjunction with The Sunday Times Fiction Prize. Together the two prizes are jointly called The Sunday Times Literary Awards.

Photo: Marinovich’s award speech on Twitter

 Choice Reviews OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE for 2016 honors Paul Dumouchel’s The Barren Sacrifice: An Essay on Political Violence, published by MSU Press.

Choice Reviews, the American Library Association publishing division, publishes the complete list of winners in the January 2017 issue.
Choice Reviews selects its Outstanding Academic Titles each year, chosen from the many titles reviewed during the year. The books are selected for their “excellence in scholarship and presentation, the significance of their contribution to the field, and their value as important — and often first — treatment of their subject.”

Hundreds of books may be contenders, but only 20 titles made the 2017 Library of Michigan Notable Books list.

MSU Press is proud to have two books on the 2017 Notable Books Awards list: Twelve Twenty-Five: The Life and Times of a Steam Locomotive by Kevin Keefe and Wolf’s Mouth: A Novel by John Smolens. For lovers of lists in Michigan, one of the most rewarding annual arrivals is also the state’s best-known literary honor. Congratulations to authors Kevin Keefe and John Smolens!

• 2017 NOTABLE AUTHOR TOURS: Times TBA.
  John Smolens
  April 5: Big Rapids Community Library, 426 S. Michigan Ave., Big Rapids, (231)-796-5234.
  May 3: Engadine Library, W 13920 Melville Street, Engadine, MI [Upper Peninsula] 49827. (906) 477-631.
  June 27: Mason County Library, 217 E. Ludington Ave. Ludington, MI. (231) 843-8465.
  Kevin Keefe
  June 15: Niles District Library, 620 East Main, Niles, MI. (269) 683-8545
  June 17: Mason County District Library, 217 East Ludington Ave. Ludington, MI. (231) 843-8465

Each year the Michigan Notable Book list features 20 books, published the previous calendar year, which are about or set in Michigan or the Great Lakes region, or are written by a Michigan author. Selections include nonfiction and fiction books. This is a statewide program that began as part of the 1991 Michigan Week celebration, designed to pay tribute and draw attention to the many people, places and things that make Michigan life unique.

Congratulations!
Three translations from MSU Press are included in the Fifth Annual list from World Literature Today’s “75 Notable Translations of 2016.”
From WLT: “[A] notable first: Boubacar Boris Diop’s Doomi Golo: The Hidden Notebooks became the first novel translated from Wolof to English. …”

• Doomi Golo: The Hidden Notebooks by Boubacar Boris Diop; translation by Vera Wülfing-Leckie & El Hadji Moustapha Diop.
• Rumi, Love Is My Savior, translation by Nesreen Akhtarkhavari & Anthony A. Lee.
• Jean Sénac, Citizens of Beauty, translation by Jack Hirschman.