Spring '08 Book Announcements

W.W. Norton & Co announces the release the much anticipated: Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, & Beyond,

Edited by Tina Chang, Nathalie Handal and Ravi Shankar
Foreword by Carolyn Forché.

Come celebrate with us on Friday, April 25th, 2008, 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm
at The Rubin Museum, New York City

Rubin Museum of Art · 150 West 17th Street, New York, NY 10011 · 212.620.5000
http://www.rmanyc.org/index.xml?context=/

Look out for readings nationally and internationally…
www.nathaliehandal.com

A landmark anthology, providing the most ambitious, far-reaching collection of contemporary Asian and Middle Easter poetry available.

“This extraordinary, library-in-one-volume: what a resource! Those to whom poetry is essential as the supreme use of language will find the work of many poets they have never before come to, and those readers who have limited themselves to prose have the opportunity to discover how the poet outreaches everything prose can illuminate in who and what we are, no matter where, on the map. Nine thematic groupings of the work bring us wonderfully, almost perilously close to ultimate experience in childhood, love, war, exile, the inextricable relations between politics and the personal, the tragic and the ironic, the wisdom in sorrow and humor, that only the most intense imagination can plumb. That of the poet. The realm of imagination is one. This anthology gives entry to its vast expression in the Middle East and Asia, including the changing sensibilities of poets in the ever-growing world of immigration. Assembled here not the Tower of Babel, but the astonishment and subtlety inherent in many languages and their experimental modes to expand the power of words. The introductions to each section offer perceptions engagingly, against which to place one's own readings. The editors have boldly envisaged and compiled a beautiful achievement for world literature.”
—Nobel Laureate, Nadine Gordimer

“Language for a New Century is a symphonic sweep of beckoning cries, praises, prayers, curses, ruminations and revelations. An ensemble rich with diverse voices, here the old and the new converge, and something wholly human and futuristic emerges—something that possesses a robust lyricism—shining its light, its illuminated certainty into the twenty-first century. This marvelous anthology assembles a multitude of voices intent on a purposeful, deep singing.”
—Pulitzer Prize Winner, Yusef Komunyakaa

“This rich collection of poetry from Asia, the Middle East, and other parts of the world, fills a huge gap in our cultural heritage. It is a formidable achievement, and an important contribution to our education.”
—Howard Zinn, People’s History of the United States

“Read Language for a New Century as you would a field guide to the human condition in our time, a poetic survival manual. . . . If, as Milosz wrote, “posterity will read us in an attempt to comprehend what the twentieth century was like,” then this collection will be read to know the beginning of the twenty-first.”
—Carolyn Forché

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Language for a New Century celebrates the artistic and cultural forces flourishing today in the East, bringing together an unprecedented selection of works by South Asian, East Asian, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian poets as well as poets living in the Diaspora. Some poets, such as Mahmoud Darwish and Bei Dao, are acclaimed worldwide, but many more will be new to the reader. The collection includes 400 unique voices from 55 countries writing in 40 different languages—political and apolitical, monastic and erotic—that represent a wider artistic movement that challenges thousand-year-old traditions, broadening our notion of contemporary literature.

Each section of the anthology—organized by theme rather than national affiliation—is preceded by a personal essay from the editors that introduces the poetry and invokes the readers to examine their own identities in light of these powerful poems. In an age of violence and terrorism—often predicated by cultural ignorance—this anthology is a bold declaration of shared humanness and devotion to the transformative power of art.


Harlem Crossroads:Black Writers and the Photograph in the Twentieth Century

Sara Blair

"[A] remarkable accomplishment...Worthwhile for these illustrations alone, the snapshots from the now distant past preserved forgotten Harlem tableaus...And when you factor in the ingenious fashion in which Sara Blair matches these pictures with the works of African-American literary giants, Harlem Crossroads adds up to a masterpiece making a noteworthy cultural contribution."

--Kam Williams, African American Literature Book Club

"Sara Blair's Harlem Crossroads is an important addition to the body of literature that currently exists about Harlem. It brilliantly illuminates the complex relationship between photographic representation and race, and adds new insight into the ways in which this one black community has figured in both the critical and public imaginations. Harlem Crossroads is a tour de force."

--Dawoud Bey, Columbia College Chicago

Read the Introduction online, click here:http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8510.html

Julie Haenisch
Senior Text Promotion Manager
Princeton University Press
41 William Street
Princeton, NJ, 08540-5237
www.press.princeton.edu http://www.press.princeton.edu/
T 609.258.6856
F 609.258.1335
julie_haenisch@press.princeton.edu



Heroes, Lovers, and Others The Story of Latinos in Hollywood

Clara E. Rodríguez

"Rodriguez's cultural and ethnic history traces the work of Latino actors in American film from the silent era to today. Although the Fordham University professor's specialty is sociology and her research is compiled from clip files and an assortment of secondary sources, her smooth writing and passion for the topic make this a worthy introduction to Latino film studies."
—Publishers Weekly

Heroes, Lovers, and Others tells the fascinating history of Latino actors in American film from the silent era to today. Rodriguez examines such Latino legends as Desi Arnaz, Dolores del Rio, Rita Hayworth, Raquel Welch, Anthony Quinn, Selma Hayek, and Antonio Banderas. More than just a collection of celebrity stories, this book explores the attitudes, cultural conditions, and assumptions that have influenced the portrayal of Latinos in film as well as their reception by the public.

Heroes, Lovers, and Others is a comprehensive volume packed with carefully researched information and analysis for both students and cinema enthusiasts alike.

2008 paper 272 pp.; 57 halftones 978-0-19-533513-2 $19.95

Clara E. Rodríguez is Professor of Sociology, Fordham University. She is currently at work on an update of the classic Coser, Kadushin and Powell text, Books: The Culture and Commerce of Publishing, which will be published by Stanford University Press. She has also been a consultant to a number of television shows and documentaries, most recently, "Dora, the Explorer" and "Sesame Street."

Order from your favorite online retailer: bn.com, amazon.com, powells.com

Please contact Allison Finkel at Oxford University Press with any questions:
Direct: 212.726.6018
Email: allison.finkel@oup.com