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Awards & Honors
On the Air
The Life and Thought of Hans Jonas: Jewish Dimensions Christian Wiese "Wiese clearly and persuasively examines how Hans Jonas . . . strove to managethe inevitable tension between his religious, faith-based identity as a GermanJew and a professional philosopher." --Choice
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Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism: Resistance and Accommodation Tova Hartman "[Hartman's] new book presents a radical perspective on being a modern OrthodoxJewish feminist. She confronts every difficult issue for a feminist in Jewishpractice, locates the issues in universal terms informed by the latest feministscholarship as well as by a deep knowledge of Jewish texts, and presentsinnovative perspectives that are important for anyone who wishes to maintain areligious commitment and still be intellectually and spiritually honest. Thisbook is also a powerful reminder that the debates in Halachah (Jewish law)retain their appeal to many because they are intellectually exciting even whenone doesn't accept the Orthodox premises from which they begin." -- Tikkun |
Russians in Hollywood, Hollywood's Russians: Biography of an Image Harlow Robinson "Hollywood has long been a melting pot, drawing talent from around the world inresponse to wider changes in history. This proves a very appropriate startingpoint for Harlow Robinson's "Russians in Hollywood, Hollywood's Russians,"perhaps the most comprehensive work to date on the place of Russian emigres inU.S. and world cinema. It also leads to Robinson's second, and more interesting,focus: how the image of Russia has fluctuated depending on political currentsand allegiances."--Moscow Times
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OFF THE BOOK PAGE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES
John Fry's THE STORY OF MODERN SKIING was mentioned in the January 6 Sunday Style section in 'Oh, My Poor Arthritic Ski Club.'
In the January 15 'Metropolitan Diary' column, a No. 4 downtown train passenger noted a fellow rider with her head buried in a brand-new copy of PEYTON PLACE by Grace Metalious. "The scene transported me back tomy early teens and the forbidden pleasure of reading the book at night with a flashlight under the covers in defiance of my mother's direct orders that I return the book to the library without reading it because of her strong objections to its supposed lurid content. My, what a difference 45 years makes."
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GRACE, FALLEN FROM (Marianne Boruch) was reviewed in PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (January21, 2008). "Few readers will come away unimpressed by the supple care Boruch takes indepicting her everyday scenes."
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THE COLLECTED POEMS OF PHILIP WHALEN was reviewed in THE BOSTON PHOENIX (January14, 2008)."Philip Whalen is a great American poet. Some-too few-readers have known this since the mid 1950s, when his poems first appeared in little magazines and small-press books. In publishing THE COLLECTED POEMS OF PHILIP WHALEN, Wesleyan gives the world at large this incomparable poet, and major literary event....(Y)ou will enjoy Whalen's poems, and you may come to love them."
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THE CENTENARIAN (Balzac, translated by Chatelain and Slusser) was reviewed in the journal NINTEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH STUDIES (Fall-Winter 2007-08). "This first English translation by Chatelain and Slusser of one of Balzac's early novels is significant for several reasons. First, the faithful translation itself highlights the genesis of Balzac's efforts at novel writing. ...The Notes section itself is one of the strengths of this translation, together with the extensive Introduction, Translators' Notes, an introductory essay titled 'Balzac's Centenarian and French Fiction," and the Afterword. ...This excellent and faithful translation, together with its accompanying explanatory and analytical material, will provide food for thought for scholars interested in science fiction, Balzac studies, and in the gothic, sentimental, realist, and historical melding within the novel genre in the early 19th century which converge in this work."
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Reviews
THE COLLECTED POEMS OF PHILIP WHALEN was reviewed in POETRY FLASH (Fall2007/Winter 2008)."Everything you ever wanted to know about modern poetry is contained in thisbook. After a statement like that you might expect Johnny Carson to pop up and say, 'Wrong, iambic pentameter breath!' and go on to cite several specious examples. Be that as it may, THE COLLECTED POEMS OF PHILIP WHALEN contains the quintessence of modern American poetry. ...THE COLLECTED POEMS OF PHILIP WHALEN is a treasure trove of outrageous elegance. Whalen's oeuvre merits the rigorous attention befitting a high point in the landscape of modern poetry."
THE COLLECTED POEMS OF PHILIP WHALEN was reviewed in THE NEW MEXICAN (December21-27, 2007)."At times Whalen's association with the Beats overshadowed his work, but his poetry may yet find more acolytes and readers. This book is an important start."
THE COLLECTED POEMS OF PHILIP WHALEN was reviewed in BEAT STUDIES BOOK REVIEW (Jan/Feb 2008)."...(these) Collected Poems display the startling breadth of his interests and talents. Typically, chronological collected poems are for scholars, and editor Michael Rothenberg has performed those duties splendidly, especially by the inclusion of Whalen's revealing prefaces and essays about his poetic and contemplative practices. In Whalen's works the scholarship possibilities prove rich—encompassing artists of the San Francisco Renaissance and the Beat Generation, the history of West Coast Zen Buddhism and Whalen's uses of the American Song Book, jazz and avant-garde music."
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TRACES OF LIGHT (Ann Cooper Albright) and SENSATIONAL KNOWLEDGE were both reviewed in ATTITUDE: THE DANCER'S MAGAZINE (Winter 2008).On SENSATIONAL KNOWLEDGE:"Tomie Hahn has generated a living document in her body on these pages. She shares the legacy, current accomplishments and continuum of the Tachibana Dance School. In all languages gratitude can be expressed for all person involved in the transmission of this cultural gift. The Tachibana School is one expression of world culture for the human family to cherish."
TRACES OF LIGHT (Ann Cooper Albright) and THE RETURNS OF ALWIN NIKOLAIS (Claudia Gitelman & Randy Martin, Eds.) were reviewed in DANCE MAGAZINE (February 2008).On THE RETURNS OF ALWIN NIKOLAIS:"If one did not have the good fortune of seeing his company, certain of the articles provide a gratifying image of the man and his work. Among these are Gitelman's description of his teaching methods, Marcia B. Siegel's relating o fNikolais to the Bauhaus movement in Germany, Yvonne Hardt's summoning of th eworld of painting, and Bob Gilmore's analysis of Nik's synthesizer scores."
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PHYSICAL EVIDENCE was recommended in an article on Slate.com (January 7, 2008)."Make your brain bigger right now by ordering a copy of PHYSICAL EVIDENCE, his (Kent Jones's) recently published collection of criticism."
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE (Kent Jones) was reviewed on the popular web site POPMATTERS(January 23, 2008). "What's needed today is a new paradigm of readily accessible yet rigorously thoughtful prose combining theoretical analysis with intuitive ideas about cinema and the aesthetic world it creates. Jones is one of the few writers who might actually be able to work out an innovative model along these lines. Start down the road, Kent, and you'll be surprised by how many people will join you on the path."
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LITTLE BOAT was reviewed in the SACRAMENTO NEWS & REVIEW (January 17, 2008)."Jean Valentine's 11th collection contains powerfully elegiac meditations on life's well-lived passages."
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AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION TV (Jan Johnson-Smith) was reviewed in FILM QUARTERLY(Winter 2007-08). "Excepting high-profile shows like Star Trek, The X-Files, and The Twilight Zone, science-fiction television is something of a blind spot in film and television studies. This book is an effort to rectify that: Johnson-Smith turns a scholarly eye toward science-fiction television of the past two decades, focusing not on themes but in particular on how televisuality and new types of technology interact with the older mythology of science fiction. ...AMERICANSCIENCE FICTION TV is accordingly lively as well as a corrective to the neglect in academic circles of serious discussion of science fiction and television."
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THE FLOWERS OF EVIL (Baudelaire/translated by Keith Waldrop) was reviewed in the HARVARD REVIEW (Fall 2007)."Translators, we are told, betray poems, preserving everything except their poetry. One sour French adage teaches that translations are like mistresses, never "both beautiful and faithful." Were that the case, Keith Waldrop's FLOWERSOF EVIL, by virtues of its charms, would be egregiously unfaithful but, in fact,it proves true in its own bold fashion to Baudelaire's great book."
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DYING FOR A LAUGH (Ken Feil) was reviewed in FILM CRITICISM (Fall 2006)."Rather than aiming for an exhaustive study of the genre, complete with a "must-have" list of conventions and genre innovations, Ken Feil takes a more intriguing approach of examining the queer camp value and resistant ironic pleasure these typically heterosexist testosterone-fests hold for particular audience members willing to read between the lines."
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