Book News

MCLA Commencement to Feature Musician, Author McBride

iberkshires.com
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Author, composer and screenwriter James McBride will deliver the keynote address at this year's commencement exercises at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

Graduation will be held Sunday, May 16, at 11 a.m. in the Amsler Campus Center gymnasium.

McBride will receive an honorary doctoral degree from the college along with local educator and 9/11 foundation founder Sarah "Sally" Goodrich and alumnus Brian K. Fitzgerald, executive director of the Business-Higher Education Forum. In recognition of their awards, the honorary degree recipients will have books placed in MCLA's Freel Library in their names.

McBride's landmark memoir "The Color of Water" is considered an American classic and is read in schools and universities across the United States. More than two million copies of the book have sold worldwide. In 2008, his debut novel, "Miracle at St. Anna," was translated into a major motion picture, which was directed by American film icon Spike Lee.His latest novel, "Song Yet Sung," was released in paperback in January 2009. MORE

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A Word For Writers

Plenary Publishing Seeks Emerging African-American Literary Talent
Prlog.org

Plenary Publishing is currently seeking manuscripts of African-American interest. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a sales and distribution office in Charleston, South Carolina, the company will publish fiction and non-fiction books of African-American interest.

Plenary’s mission is to develop and to publish stories that depict the depth and beauty of the African-American community. In doing so, the company seeks to enhance the depiction of African-Americans, inspire its target audience to actively improve their lifestyles and create new opportunities for authors of color.
Plenary will publish books in several fiction genres, including: contemporary fiction, children and juvenile literature, Christian/inspirational fiction, romance and mystery/thriller/suspense. Non-fiction areas of interest are business/career/finance, family and relationships, health and wellness, gender-specific issues, political and social issues, crime and justice and Christian/inspirational topics. More

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Book News

'Go, Tell Michelle': Wisdom For The Future First Lady
npr.com
In churches or beauty shops or anyplace where groups of women gather — especially black women — it is not uncommon for them to talk about the advice they would like to pass on to the incoming first lady.
A group of women in upstate New York went one step further and decided to publish their words of wisdom for Michelle Obama in a book called Go, Tell Michelle: African American Women Write to the New First Lady.
The poems and letters were compiled by two education specialists, Barbara Seals Nevergold and Peggy Brooks-Bertram, who are co-founders of the Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research and Education on Women at the University at Buffalo in New York. More

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Book News

Author Sheds Light On Little- Known History Of Maroon Communities
beaufortgazette.com

Similar to the critically acclaimed 1991 film "Daughters of the Dust," which was shot on St. Helena Island and shed light on the history and significance of Gullah culture, the 1993 movie "Sankofa" exposed viewers to the legacy of maroons -- runaway slaves who existed in large numbers in the mountains of Jamaica and the jungles and swamps of South America, often not far from plantations.
While enslaved Africans escaping to the North via the Underground Railroad has been well-documented in American history, documentation of maroon communities in North America has been harder to come by, but these communities existed extensively throughout Beaufort County and the Lowcountry. More

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Book News

The African American Woman Golfer: Her Legacy by M. Mikell Johnson

africanamericanwomangolfer.com

All of the good and positive scores, in golf, are in terms of birds -- Double Eagle, Eagle, and Birdie. The Double Eagle is the rarest score to obtain in golf. This is the term to express the presence of the rare African American Woman Golfer. As a rarity among the rare, she is the most unknown and silent athlete in the arena of this sport. The African American woman is really an omission in the annals of the history of golf in America. The African American Woman Golfer is HERSTORY. More

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Book News: Black Wings

Black Wings
Courageous Stories of African Americans in Aviation and Space History

Harpercollins.com

Colin Powell once observed that "a dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work." This sentiment is mirrored dramatically in the story of African Americans in aerospace history.
The invention of the airplane in the first decade of the twentieth century sparked a revolution in modern technology. Aviation in the popular mind became associated with adventure and heroism. For African Americans, however, this new realm of human flight remained off-limits, a consequence of racial discrimination. Many African Americans displayed a keen interest in the new air age, but found themselves routinely barred from gaining training as pilots or mechanics. Beginning in the 1920s, a small and widely scattered group of black air enthusiasts challenged this prevailing pattern of racial discrimination. With no small amount of effort—and against formidable odds—they gained their pilot licenses and acquired the technical skills to become aircraft mechanics.
Over the course of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, African Americans have expanded their participation in both military and civilian aviation and space flight, from the early pioneers and barnstormers through the Tuskegee airmen to Shuttle astronauts.
Featuring approximately two hundred historic and contemporary photographs and a lively narrative that spans eight decades of U.S. history, Black Wings offers a compelling overview of this extraordinary and inspiring saga. More

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Book News

Book by ex-MLB pitcher 'Mudcat' Grant chronicles careers of fellow African-American 20-game winners

Dnj.com

In 1965 while pitching for the Minnesota Twins, Jim "Mudcat" Grant became the first African-American pitcher to win 20 games in the American League. During a 14-year span that started in 1958, the Florida native became one of the game's best pitchers, helping the Twins win the 1965 American League Pennant and winning 145 games. He was twice named an American League All-Star and was The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year for the American League in 1965.After legendary Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947, the careers of those blacks who immediately followed in his footsteps have been sparsely documented. More

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