ShelfLife@Texas

Oscar Casares’ novel, “Amigoland,” (2009, Little, Brown) is the ninth annual official selection of the Mayor’s Book Club. The selection was announced at a press conference held by Mayor Lee Leffingwell on Wednesday, Dec. 9, at City Hall in downtown Austin.

Casares was in attendance during the announcement. His novel, set on the South Texas-Mexico border, is the story of estranged brothers Don Fidencio Rosales, nearly 92 years old, and Don Celestino, 20 years his junior. Celestino finds himself involved with…

Marc Musick, associate professor of sociology and College of Liberal Arts associate dean for student affairs, won the Best Book Award for “Volunteers: A Social Profile” (Indiana University Press, 2007) from the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organization and Voluntary Action.

Musick and John Wilson, co-author of the book and professor of sociology at Duke University, accepted the award on Nov. 19 at the organization’s national conference.

In “Volunteers: A Social Profile,” Musick and Wilson cover a broad range of topics, including volunteer…

Jim Crace

Anthony Giardina

Visiting professors of the Michener Center for Writers‘ (MCW) this fall, Jim Crace and Anthony Giardina, will give a reading at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 3, 2009 at the Avaya Auditorium, ACES building 2.302, on campus.

English novelist Crace, whose archive the Harry Ransom Center acquired this past year, has been twice shortlisted for the distinguished Man Booker Prize in Fiction, for his novels “Quarantine” and “Being Dead.”  His other novels include “The Pesthouse,” “Arcadia,” “Continent,” “The Gift of Stones” and “Archipelago,” forthcoming in…

Norman German, author of "A Savage Wisdom"

“A Savage Wisdom” is inspired by the life, crimes and legends of Annie Beatrice McQuiston, aka Toni Jo Henry, the only woman executed in Louisiana’s electric chair. ShelfLife@Texas asked author and University of Texas at Austin graduate alumnus (English ’79) Norman German about his new book.

How did you first become familiar with McQuiston’s story?
Toni Jo’s story has intrigued me since childhood, when I would read about her in special features in the Lake Charles…

Roger Reeves, left, and Malachi Black, Lilly Fellows

For the second year running, a student in the Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in Writing program of the Michener Center for Writers has received a Ruth Lilly Fellowship, among the most distinguished awards for aspiring poets who have yet to publish a book.  The fellowships are given by the Poetry Foundation, one of the largest literary foundations in the world and publisher of Poetry magazine.

Roger Reeves was one of the five Lilly fellows chosen in…

This week, “The Handbook of Family Communication,” edited by Anita Vangelisti, the Jesse H. Jones Centennial Professor in Communication, will receive the distinguished book award from Family Communication Division of the National Communication Association (NCA) at its annual conference in Chicago.

“In the Handbook of Family Communication,” researchers examine communication across the life of families, including marital communication. Scholars from different educational specialties, including communication, psychology and sociology, explore topics such as the influence of characteristics of family relationships on specific…

Microsoft founder Bill Gates praised Distinguished Teaching Professor of History David Oshinsky’s book “Polio: An American Story” (Oxford University Press, 2005) during a speech titled “Why We are Impatient Optimists” last month in Wash. D.C.

Highlighting Oshinsky’s historical account of the polio epidemic in America, Gates addressed the need for improvements in global health care and medical technologies. Watch the video segment.

Learn more about Oshinsky’s book in the feature “More Than a March of Dimes.”

University of Texas at Austin faculty and alumni authors will share their expertise on topics ranging from the fate of Savannah during the Civil War, to mapping a career path, to the culture of Texas barbecue at the 2009 Texas Book Festival Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at the Texas Capitol and surrounding areas.

More than 200 writers will showcase their books, including a host of authors from our university. Some of the presenters include:

Author: Jeffrey Abramson, professor of law and government
Book: “Minerva’s Owl:…

Thomas McGarity and Wendy Wagner won the $10,000 grand prize at the Hamilton Book Awards for their book, “Bending Science: How Special Interests Corrupt Public Health Research” on Oct. 28 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin.

McGarity is the Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair in Administrative Law, and Wagner, is the Joe A. Worsham Centennial Professor in Law at The University of Texas at Austin. Their book was published by Harvard University Press.

The awards are the highest honor…

Could today’s youth be the ultimate experts in the digital evolution?

Craig Watkins, associate professor of Radio-Television-Film, answers this question and takes us into the world of new media in his latest project, “The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future” (Beacon 2009). “The Young and the Digital” explores highs and lows of digital media and how it affects lives of today’s youth from tweens, to teens, to…