LSU Press Blog

New Danny Heitman video

Danny Heitman and his book, A Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House, were featured on a news story last night on WAFB Channel 9 (Baton Rouge).  Click here to watch the video.  Great job, Danny!

Danny Heitman interview (video)

Danny Heitman, author of A Summer of Birds:John James Audubon at Oakley House, was interviewed on 2une In (WBRZ, Baton Rouge) this morning.  Watch him give an overview of the book as well as discuss his reason for writing it:  Danny Heitman on 2une In (3:05)

Heitman's bird book garners a lot of attention

Danny Heitman’s A Summer of Birds is garnering a lot of attention. Read the recent reviews in Living Bird magazine and the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Also be sure to catch Danny on Channel 2 / WBRZ’s 2uneIn this Friday morning.

LSU Press author Larry Powell elected as SAH Fellow

Congratulations to LSU Press author Lawrence N. Powell, who was recently elected as a Fellow of the Society of American Historians.  Fellows are chosen in recognition of the literary and scholarly distinction of their historical writing.   LSU Press recently published The New Orleans of George Washington Cable: The 1887 Census Office Report, edited with an introduction by Mr. Powell.   

The News & Observer spotlights Yellow Shoe Fiction

The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) recently ran a great feature on LSU Press and its Yellow Shoe Fiction series.  Click here to read the full article.

Why Poetry Matters

Just in time for April’s observance of National Poetry Month, LSU Press author Danny Heitman has published an op-ed in The Christian Science Monitor arguing for the continued importance of poetry. “While I’m not a poet myself, I’ve really deepened my appreciation for poetry over the years by reading the exceptional, Pulitzer Prize-winning line of poetry published by LSU Press, and that, in no small part, is why I try to promote poetry through national commentaries such as this one,” Heitman said of the op-ed. Readers can check out the piece here.

Although Heitman isn’t a poet, his new LSU Press title, A Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House, has been hailed for its poetic sensibility. Nationally renowned historian Neil Baldwin praised the book as “satisfying and artful: local history as poetic metaphor.”

Heitman in Kansas City Star

The Kansas City Star includes Danny Heitman's A Summer of Birds in its list of recommended titles from "the kind of presses who get it all done with perhaps a dozen people instead of hundreds." Read the article here.

Active Hurricane Season Forecast

The Cincinnati Post put it best when it said,

Some time not too far off, a date toward the end of May could replace Groundhog Day as a critical augury on our national weather calendar. . . .it is the end of May when the National Weather Service makes its forecast for the June 1 to Nov. 30 season.

With hurricane season at hand, the Center for Public Integrity Investigation of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans, City Adrift, responds to the questions, How could all of this have happened in twenty-first-century America? And could it all happen again?

On a more intimate level, New Orleans photographer David Spielman's Katrinaville Chronicles details through poignant photographs and personal e-mails, the challenges and hardships he endured while staying in New Orleans during and after Katrina. Southern Living declares “[Spielman] uses incredible images and candidly written words to reveal the everyday struggles of survivors in a city turned upside down. He touches the true human side of an event that affected so many.”

Remembering Mike the Tiger

The LSU Press staff was saddened to learn that the LSU tiger mascot, Mike V, passed away at 2:23 a.m. on May 18. Mike V was born October 19, 1989, and has been at LSU since he was four months old. He was 17 years old at the time of his passing.

Mike V made his first game appearance during an LSU-Alabama basketball game in 1990. He was the third-longest serving mascot in school history. Read about Mike and the history of LSU’s tiger mascots in Mike the Tiger: The Roar of LSU by Dr. David G. Baker and W. Sheldon Bivin. The younger set can learn more about tigers in Tales of Mike the Tiger: Facts and Fun for Everyone by Dr. David G. Baker and Margaret Taylor Stewart.

LSU Press Books Inspire Two Exhibits

From now until May 13, the traveling exhibit "Vanishing Wetlands: Two Views," showcasing images from the book Marsh Mission: Capturing the Vanishing Wetlands, by photographer C C Lockwood and artist Rhea Gary, will be housed at the Conservatory of the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C.  The purpose of this exhibit is to bring the subject of coastal restoration to the forefront of political discussions and educate the public on the value of Louisiana's coastline.  For more information on the garden or the exhibit, click here for the U.S. Botanic Garden website.

 

Locally, LSU's Hill Memorial Library is hosting the exhibit "An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature," based on the book An Unnatural Metropolis by LSU's Carl O. Sauer Professor of Geography Craig E. Colten.  The exhibition is open now until June 2, and features images and excerpts from his book relating the challenges of New Orleans' extreme environmental limitations, including the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  For more information, click here to visit LSU's Speical Collections website.