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James Chichetto

Geoffrey Green

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Author readings

KQED Interview

The Dream of Norumbega, An Epic Poem on the United States of American, Book III (Saybrook Publications, 2008) is a 12 thousand line epic poem entitled, which includes the deeds of several American historical characters, including Captain John Smith and George Washington. To date, two volumes of the work (to be issued incrementally) have been published. Robert Peters, poet and critic who has reviewed Chichetto's earlier works, called "The Dream" a contemporary masterpiece. "He has taken the 'voice portrait genre' [created by Peters] to new directions."

Voices in a Mask - Based on images of disguise in literature, theater, and opera, this short-story cycle explores themes of identity and subterfuge in a fictional fugue that ranges from comic to poignant. Into the librettos of Don Giovanni, Tosca, Rigoletto, and other operas, Green weaves the authentic biographies of their singers and composers, modern-day settings, and his own imaginative twists. Throughout Voices in a Mask, characters obscure and reveal themselves as art mimics life and life, art. Ultimately the very acts of masking and projecting reveal a truth about the power of art and its inherent deceptions.
          "This is a wonderful book... The combination of artistic skill and critical acumen involved is astonishing, and the historical research involved is seriously done and superbly deployed in a creative manner." --Robert Scholes, Brown University
           Geoffrey Green's Voices in a Mask is an operatic tour de force of a 'novel' involving (among other things) grand opera--a subject on which the author is impressively and entertainingly knowledgeable."--John Barth

Gloria K. Fiero

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Fiero has completed the revisions for the second edition of her one-volume humanities textbook, LANDMARKS in Humanities (McGraw-Hill). LANDMARKS is currently in production and should be available by December 2008 with a larger package of teaching ancillaries.
           The book is enjoying success in one-semester humanities courses at universities and junior colleges.
LANDMARKS in Humanities survey of global culture is designed for students of humanities, cultural history, and history of the arts. In chronological sequence, LANDMARKS highlights the most notable monuments of the human imagination--those works of art and architecture, literature, philosophy, and music that have been foremost in shaping the world's cultures.

Adeline Johns-Putra

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The History of Epic (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2006) is a narrative history of the development of the genre from antiquity into the present day. The volume parallels the development of the epic with wider historical and cultural developments, providing detailed readings of key texts, and, while structured chronologically, tracing a series of themes through the development of the genre.
Innovative Humanities Courses
Illinois State Announces Humanities Project
Fall semester at Illinois State University will see some new courses, all uniquely concerned with culture war topics such as faith versus reason, class antagonisms and the relations of East and West, grouped together in the Humanities Project. The project leaders, Kim Pereira and Curtis White, hope to take the courses outside of the University in the future.
          The courses will be offered first to Honors students and then to anyone with a 3.0 grade point average. Faculty teaching the courses will come from across the University, with the long-range goal of taking the courses outside of Illinois State to places like area labor halls, prisons, high schools and businesses.
           "In recent decades the humanities have become increasingly isolated within disciplines and focused narrowly on contemporary political and social issues," said Distinguished Professor Curtis White, director of the project. "These courses will restore some of the historical breadth and interdisciplinary richness of the humanistic tradition."
           Professor Kim Pereira, director of the Honors Program, said: "The courses will be unique because they will be interdisciplinary, trans-historical and engaged with primary texts from Eastern and Western history of ideas."

Samuele F.S. Pardini
Editor

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The Devil Gets His Due: The Uncollected Essays of Leslie Fiedler (Berkeley: Counterpoint Press), was published in March. Pardini edited and wrote an extended introduction to the collection.
          This collection of essays from National Book Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement Award winner Leslie Fiedler reveals a powerful mind critiquing whole aspects of culture and uncovering lessons therein that remain timely today.
           “No other student of the American novel has such fascinating and on the whole right things to say.” —Washington Post

Member Websites

Doré Ripley - www.RipleyOnline.com

Ona Russell - www.onarussell.com

For inclusion submit your website address to: d_ripley@netvista.net.

Ona Russell

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Russell recently published The Natural Selection (Sunstone Press), the second in her Sarah Kaufman historical mystery series. Set against the backdrop of what was deemed the "Trial of the Century," this socially and politically relevant blend of fact and fiction includes actual courtroom excerpts and vividly portrays the Scopes trial's central figures: John Scopes, William Jennings Bryan, Clarence Darrow, and especially H. L. Mencken.
          "Russell crafts a vinegar divide between science and fundamentalism, reason and racism, change and convention, and intelligence and insecurity. This book is the more fascinating, indeed distressing, by its relevance to today’s social and political climate....fast flowing, elegantly written, and keeps one hooked until the end."—Philadelphia Stories

          For further information please visit: www.onarussell.com and/or Sunstonepress.com.

Members in Print (Cont'd)

Robert K. Wallace

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Wallace's newest book Thirteen Women Strong chronicles the 2006-07 season of the Northern Kentucky University women's basketball team. A year after NKU powered their way to an outstanding 28-5 record, expectations were sky-high for the team as they welcomed back all five starting players. Led by a core of upperclassmen and revered head coach Nancy Winstel, the NKU Norse expected a run to glory, much like their NCAA Division-II title in 2000.
          "This fluid, eloquent tribute to the joys and sorrow often associated with the learning process offers a variety of life lessons for everyone, especially young adults searching for identity and purpose, through the grace and powers of thirteen student-athletes who grow physically, emotionally, and intellectually on nearly every page."--Ron Ellis, editor of Of Woods & Waters: A Kentucky Outdoors Reader

Douglas P. Sjoquist

Mii-Dera: The Intersection of Buddhism and Culture in Japan

The thousands of Buddhist temples scattered throughout Japan are a beloved feature of the Japanese landscape and can be found in virtually every community. Foreigners visiting these temples fall in love with many of them without knowing much about their historical significance or why the Japanese consider them national treasures. Such is the case with Miidera, a Buddhist temple located in the city of Otsu in Shiga Prefecture.
          Douglas P. Sjoquist's Mii-dera: The Intersection of Buddhism and Culture in Japan provides readers a concise history of Mii-dera and an educational tour of its principal buildings and national treasures while illustrating Miidera's relevance to Japanese culture by using the visual arts and literature.
Wallace's Emily Bronte and Beethoven: Classical Equilibrium in Fiction and Music (University of Georgia Press, 1986) will be available in paperback in December 2008.

John A. Williams

Associate Professor of History

Bradley University

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Berlin Since the Wall's End: Shaping Society and Memory in the German Metropolis Since 1989 (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008) recounts the nearly nineteen years since the destruction of the Wall that divided East from West Berlin, Germans have struggled with the challenges of reunification. The task has been daunting—unifying two countries with a common language but mutually hostile political and economic systems. Contrary to the optimistic predictions of 1989/1990, reunification has aggravated many of Germany’s problems within the larger context of globalization.