LITERARY NONFICTION Susan McNicoll The Opening Act: Canadian Theatre History 1945-1953 978-1-55380-113-9, $24.95, paper, 280 pp. RONSDALE PRESS 2011
Literary Nonfiction. Canadian Theater History. The conventional opinion is that professional Canadian theater began in 1953 with the founding of the Stratford Festival. But Susan McNicoll asks how this could be, when the majority of those taking the stage at Stratford were professional Canadian actors. To answer this question, McNicoll delves into the period to show how in fact the unbroken chain of Canadian professional theater began just after World War Two, when a host of theater people decided that Canada needed its own professional theater groups. Drawing on personal interviews with many of the actors and directors active in the period after the war, McNicoll explores the role of such companies as Everyman in Vancouver, New Play Society in Toronto, Canadian Repertory Theatre in Ottawa, Théâtre du Nouveau Monde in Montreal, and many more. In 1953 the Stratford Shakespeare Festival ultimately showed the world that Canada was ready for center stage, but the real birth of professional theater happened in the years leading up to that moment. The volume includes over 50 photos of scenes from plays of the time and selections from McNicoll’s interviews with such luminaries as Christopher Plummer, Joy Coghill, Amelia Hall, and Herbert Wittaker.
Victor Perera Rites: A Guatemalan Boyhood 978-1-56279-065-3, $12.95, paper, 208 pp. MERCURY HOUSE 1994
Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. Latino/Latina Studies. Jewish Studies. RITES is Perera’s powerful portrait of growing up as a Jewish boy in the exotic and violent world of Guatamala in the forties. “Victor Perera is one of those rare writers who need never suffer the uncertainties of translation, for besides his fluency in both English and Spanish, he has both a Latin American and a North American sensibility. RITES is another fine example of how affectingly he can cross from one to the other, bringing all his insights with him”—Alastair Reid. Tom Pickard More Pricks Than Prizes 978-0-9824100-9-7, $12, paper, 148 pp. PRESSED WAFER 2010
Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. MORE PRICKS THAN PRIZES is a memoir that takes Pickard from Newcastle in 1968 to London’s Old Bailey in 1976, with side trips to Poland. The poet Basil Bunting makes an appearance. As does Paul McCartney. This is a true crime story with a happy ending. “I am an old admirer of Tom Pickard’s poetry and believe as does Basil Bunting that he is one of the most live and true poetic voices in Great Britain” —Allen Ginsberg.
Judy Molyneux California Gold 978-1-60052-044-0, $60, paper, 282 pp.
Harry Polkinhorn and Alfredo Velasco, Editors Caló: A Dictionary of Spanish Barrio and Border Slang 978-1-881523-21-5, $21, paper, 146 pp.
PRE PRESS 2011
JUNCTION PRESS 2011
Art. California Studies. “I am amazed by what I see: the storms, the surf, the surging power of the freeways, the multitudinous patterns of light and color that make up our reality. All of this creates a dance that is separate from my inner shadows and petty concerns, and yet to paint it, transform it, allows me entry if only for an instant. Doing homage to the outside world, I do homage to myself. To paint something is to touch something, is to give it structure and meaning and respect. But beyond all that, I feel there is a fundamental need in all of us to be in the presence of, completely open to, and able to love unconditionally, who we are and where we are. Painting our reality is a way of translating that well of ongoing life force. At best, it’s an act of worship”—Judy Molyneux.
Nonfiction. Reference. Latino/Latina Studies. “Polkinhorn and Velasco have busted the borders of linguistic analysis and Chicano talk assumptions. I hear the voices of my uncle Beto from El Paso in the 30s, the new multi-vocalities of the ‘¡Orale!’ generations of Latin America and the ever swashbuckling cross-cultural speakers and singers of the world. This is the unchained rap of the people! Tune into its poetic-love, communityrenaissance and heart-rhythm dance. A twenty-first century ring-tone. ¡De aquellas! Right on!” —Juan Felipe Herrera.
Kate Tarlow Morgan Circles and Boundaries 978-1-60001-004-0, $48, cloth, 221 pp. 978-1-60001-003-3, $18, paper, 221 pp.
CITY LIGHTS PUBLISHERS 2011
FACTORY SCHOOL 2011
Literary Nonfiction. Cultural Studies. “Although the prevailing winds of thought continually warn and admonish us about the unreliability of narratives and narrators and the need to distrust them, all of the texts collected here are stories, in one form or another. But, very importantly, they are also stories about stories that never give up this very basic and ancient rite of passage, in which any story is, at the very least, also a commentary about itself. What had been a very deep conflict (‘if the poetry comes out in a variety of forms, there is always certain punishment for the betrayal of one form by another,’ as Morgan once wrote) finds resolution in the range and variety of the writing gathered here: stories, fable-like pieces, fieldwork, anthropological investigation, literary criticism, scholarly research, reportage, and poetry”—from the afterword by Ammiel Alcalay.
Will Potter Green Is the New Red: In Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege 978-0-87286-538-9, $16.95, paper, 256 pp. Nonfiction. Political Science. Environmentalism. At a time when everyone is going green, most people are unaware that the FBI is using anti-terrorism resources to target environmentalists. Here is a guided tour into an underground world of radical activism and an introduction to the shadowy figures behind the headlines. But here also is the story of how everyday people are prevented from speaking up for what they believe in. Like the Red Scare, this “Green Scare” is about fear and intimidation, and Will Potter outlines the political, legal, and public relations strategies that threaten even acts of nonviolent civil disobedience with the label of “eco-terrorism.”
SMALL PRESS DISTRIBUTION · order@spdbooks.org · edi orders via pubnet.org (san #106-6617) · 800-869-7553 · Fall 2011
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