University of California Press Blog

They Called Me Mayer July Wins the Samuel and Rose Cohen Memorial Award!

Congratulations to Mayer Kirshenblatt and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, authors of They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust, for winning the Samuel and Rose Cohen Memorial Award in Biography/Memoir from the Canadian Jewish Book Award jury at the Koffler Centre for the Arts. The Canadian Jewish Book Awards celebrates exceptional Canadian writing that touches upon Jewish culture, where this year marks the 20th Anniversary of the prestigious awards. The award-winning book showcases Kirshenblatt's paintings, and along with his daughter Barbara, provides commentary on his childhood memories of pre-World War II Poland. To learn more about the authors and the book, you can read the book's blog here.

My Bombay Kitchen Wins James Beard Award!

Congratulations to Niloufer Ichaporia King, whose book My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking has won a James Beard Award in the Asian Cooking category! The James Beard Awards are the most prestigious culinary honors in the United States, praising the greatest achievements in all corners of the culinary world. In the award-winning book, King inspires kitchens everywhere with Parsi flavors and personal experience, turning each recipe into a story spiked with flavors like ginger, garlic, and turmeric. The awards were announced at a June 8 ceremony in New York City. Read more about the James Beard Awards and this year's winners here.

Recipe from My Bombay Kitchen:

"Banana Raita / Kera Nu Raitu

This was my mother's favorite. The combination of bananas and mustard sounds odd, but it really works. This is a small-spoon raita for pulalos and biryanis. Serves 4 to 6.

1 to 2 teaspoons Colman's dry mustard

1 cup plain yogurt

1 to 2 firm ripe bananas (no green on the skin)

Salt to taste (optional)

Starting with 1 teaspoon, whisk Colman's powdered mustard into the yogurt until you get that wasabi feeling in the back of your head. The yogurt will taste a bit bitter. Don't worry; just let it sit for 2 hours or so. Close to serving time, slice the bananas into the yogurt-mustard mixture. Taste. You might want to add a tiny bit of salt."

Robin Blaser and Ko Un Win Griffin Poetry Prizes!

The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry honored Robin Blaser and Ko Un with awards at a June 3 ceremony. Blaser's The Holy Forest is the Canadian winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize for the best first-edition, single-volume poetry book in the world. Judges selected the book from over 500 entries, and Blaser will share the $100,000 prize with one other winner. Distinguished Korean poet Ko Un, author of many works including The Three Way Tavern: Selected Poems, received the trust's third annual Lifetime Recognition Award. (Blaser won the first Lifetime Recognition Award in 2006). Robert Hass, an editor of the UC Press New California Poetry series, presented Un with the prize. 

Fanny Howe wins Academy Award in Literature

Congratulations to author Fanny Howe, who has won a 2008 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Literature. Howe is the author of more than twenty books, including the UC Press titles The Wedding Dress: Meditations on Word and Life, Gone: Poems, and Selected Poems. Howe also crafted the introduction to Henia and Ilona Karmel's A Wall of Two. The Academy honors the year's most outstanding achievements in architecture, art, literature and music, and to win is a significant achievement. The work of all the 2008 Academy Award recipients is on display through June 15 at the Academy's galleries in New York.  

The Atlas of Religion on NYLA's Best of Reference List

We are happy to announce that the New York Library Association has named The Atlas of Religion to its Best of Reference list for 2008. A panel of librarians compiles the list each year, selecting the top print and electronic library resources. Atlas authors Joanne O'Brien and Martin Palmer explore the intricate origins, beliefs, and challenges of the most popular religions across the globe, providing a color-coded, all-inclusive map of the interconnections between these complex spiritual, political, economic, and cultural systems.

Click here to see the entire 2008 Best of Reference list.

Robert Hass wins Pulitzer Prize in Poetry

Congratulations to Robert Hass, whose book Time and Materials (Ecco/Harper Collins) has won a Pulitzer Prize in poetry. Hass expands the poetry frontier as an an editor of our acclaimed New California Poetry series, and his exceptional career includes many awards and a stint as the poet laureate of the United States. Time and Materials also won the National Book Award in 2007. Click here to read more about Robert Hass and the other Pulitzer Prize winners.

IACP Awards Update: Food is the Winner!

 

Congratulations to editor Paul Freedman, whose book Food: A History of Taste won the 2008 IACP Award in the Food Reference/Technical category. The awards were announced on Friday evening, at the IACP Awards ceremony in New Orleans. Food is also up for a James Beard Foundation Award—check back after June 8 for the results.

To see more of our books about gourmet cuisine and wine, download our Food & Wine brochure.

 

Food: A History of Taste Nominated for IACP Cookbook Award

Food: A History of Taste, edited by Paul Freedman, is a finalist for an International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Cookbook Award, in the Food Reference/Technical category. The IACP's list of award nominees is a sumptuous spectacle of gourmet masterpieces, and includes some of the most recognized names in the culinary world. Categories range from best overall cookbook to food photography and food writing, and the judges select from hundreds of entries from all over the globe. Food explores the evolution of cuisine across distant lands and over the centuries, and details the gastronomic delights of foodies of yore. It has also been nominated for a 2008 James Beard Foundation award.

Another UC Press book, Thomas Pinney's A History of Wine in America, took home the IACP Wine/Spirits award in 2006.

The IACP will announce the results tonight at a ceremony in New Orleans. View the entire nominee list here.

Mark P. Leone's "The Architecture of Liberty in an American Capital" Receives the 2008 James Deetz Book Award of the Society for Historical Archaeology

Mark Leone's The Archaeology of Liberty in an American Capital: Excavations in Annapolis has been awarded the James Deetz Book Award of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In a review of the book, the American Journal of Archaeology called it: "One of the most innovative and successful long-term research projects in the country." The prize will be formally awarded at the 2008 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Awards, Awards, Awards!!!

Two UC Press titles have been nominated for the Northern California Book Award:

Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond by Peter Selz

The Three Way Tavern: Selected Poems by Ko Un

UC Press was previously nominated in 2006 for The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906: How San Francisco Nearly Destroyed Itself by Philip L. Fradkin, in 2005 for American Scream: Allen Ginsberg's Howl and the Making of the Beat Generation by Jonah Raskin, and in 2001 for Pearl's Secret: A Black Man's Search for His White Family by Neil Henry.

This year’s Northern California Book Awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, April 15 at 1 pm in the San Francisco Main Library (admission is free). A book signing and reception will follow the ceremony. For additional information regarding the event, go to Northern California Book Awards Website.

A complete list of awards won by UC Press is available at http://www.ucpress.edu/press/awards/award2007.html.