University of California Press Blog» Author Interviews

UC Press Podcast: The Amazing Bud Powell

ssilverman — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:24:39 +0000

In this special edition of the UC Press Podcast, our Music editor Mary Francis introduces author Guy Ramsey, whom she’s worked with for 10 years. Read Mary’s account of the backstory behind the project, then listen to the podcast below.

I’ve worked with Guy Ramsey on some truly fantastic projects, starting with his ground-breaking Race Music: [more...]

Phil Tiemeyer on Plane Queer and the History of Male Flight Attendants

ssilverman — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:41:02 +0000

Phil Tiemeyer, author of Plane Queer: Labor, Sexuality, and AIDS in the History of Male Flight Attendants recently spoke about the history of the profession and how it came to be identified with gay men on the Michelangelo Signorile Show.

Listen now:

Tiemeyer will be at the GLBT History Museum in San Francisco on Thursday, April 11 to [more...]

Fabian Drixler on the Culture of Infanticide in Eighteenth-Century Japan

ssilverman — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 21:23:29 +0000

Fabian Drixler’s Mabiki: Infanticide and Population Growth in Eastern Japan, 1660-1950 tells the story of a society reversing deeply held worldviews. Drixler, a professor of Japanese history at Yale University, describes the book as “a cultural history of infanticide and a demographic history of fertility change wrapped into one.”

This fascinating interview on the historical practice of [more...]

New Orleans Suite Authors Talk Post-Katrina Music with UC Santa Cruz

ssilverman — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:00:48 +0000

UC Santa Cruz recently interviewed Eric Porter, Professor of History and American Studies, and Lewis Watts, professor of Art, about their new book, New Orleans Suite: Music and Culture in Transition. Using both visual evidence and the written word, Watts and Porter pay homage to the city, its region, and its residents, by mapping recent and often contradictory social [more...]

UC Press Podcast: Sabine Heinlein on Life After a Murder Conviction

ssilverman — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 23:13:35 +0000

What is it like for a convicted murderer who has spent decades behind bars to suddenly find himself released into a world he barely recognizes? What is it like to start over from nothing? To answer these questions Sabine Heinlein followed the everyday lives and emotional struggles of Angel Ramos and his friends Bruce and [more...]

Randol Contreras Disarms Myths About Gun Violence

ssilverman — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 02:13:36 +0000

Brian Lehrer recently spoke with Randol Contreras, author of The Stickup Kids, for his show on WNYC. Now a sociology professor at Cal State Fullerton, Contreras came of age in the South Bronx during the 1980s, a time when the community was devastated by cuts in social services, a rise in arson and abandonment, and the rise of [more...]

Robert Duncan Biography Shortlisted for National Book Critics Circle Prize

ssilverman — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 02:18:40 +0000

We’re thrilled to announce that Lisa Jarnot’s book Robert Duncan, The Ambassador from Venus (August 2012) has been shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle prize.

This definitive biography gives a brilliant account of the life and art of Robert Duncan (1919–1988), one of America’s great postwar poets. Jarnot takes us from Duncan’s birth in Oakland, California, through [more...]

UC Press Podcast: Joshua Bloom on the Rise of the Black Panther Party

ssilverman — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 02:18:18 +0000

In the latest episode of the UC Press Podcast, Black Against Empire co-author Joshua Bloom talks about the political and cultural dynamics that gave birth to the Black Panther Party, why Oakland in particular was the perfect setting for a dawning revolutionary movement, and the lasting historical impacts of what the Panthers fought for.

Bloom is [more...]

UC Press Podcast: Suzanne Barston on the Politics of Breastfeeding

ssilverman — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 23:56:51 +0000

Suzanne Barston, subject of the popular web series, “A Parent Is Born,” found that, despite every effort, she couldn’t breastfeed her son, Leo. This difficult encounter with nursing—combined with the overwhelming public attitude that breast is not only best, it is the yardstick by which parenting prowess is measured—drove Barston to explore the silenced, minority [more...]

From Ghost World to Your World: Boom interviews graphic novelist Daniel Clowes

ssilverman — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 23:06:04 +0000

The latest issue of our journal Boom: A Journal of California (visit Boom’s web site), published this week, features an exclusive interview with Oakland artist and graphic novelist Daniel Clowes.

Clowes launched his career with the comic series Lloyd Llewellyn, about the adventures of a private detective, then went on to create the comic series Eightball, [more...]