Author Features Archive

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“A Letter to America” by David Boren now available on Kindle

By
dbennie
– May 2, 2011Posted in: Author Features, New Books, Political Science/Law

Wise, timely, and constructive views from one of the leading public servants and educators of our time. This book should be read, re-read, and passed along to all who care about our country and its future.—David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of John Adams

Here now is the letter to us all, the one we have been waiting for—and sorely need. It is a message of alarm but also of hope. Our problems as Americans are huge but most are of our own making and thus capable of our own fixing. I say, Amen, David Boren.—Jim Lehrer, Executive Editor, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

David Boren’s unique insights present us with a summons to action. Not all that he suggests will be palatable, but all should be debated. Above all, his letter calls us back from the precipice of narrow self-interest to the solid ground of the public good.—Ruth Simmons, President of Brown University

A powerful, compelling analysis of the major crises facing the United States today. Treating each crisis in a nonpartisan, compassionate way, and believing that ‘we Americans are natural problem solvers,’ Boren suggests excellent solutions for the well-being of our own and future generations of Americans.—Howard R. Lamar, former President of Yale University

David Boren defines our nation’s challenges with clarity, common sense, and courage. Americans concerned about the country their children and grandchildren will find Boren’s diagnosis and prescriptions refreshing, compelling—and inspiring.—Sam Nunn, U.S. Senator from Georgia, 1972–1997

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Contrary Warrior: The Life and Times of Adam Fortunate Eagle

By
dbennie
– November 4, 2010Posted in: Author Events, Author Features, In The News

The film Contrary Warrior: The Life and Times of Adam Fortunate Eagle will be shown Sunday, November 7 at 2:00pm as part of the American Indian Cinema Showcase at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, Oklahoma City, OK 73102

Contrary Warrior is an intimate first-person account of the life and work of Red Lake Reservation Minnesota-born American Indian activist, artist, ceremonial leader, and author Adam Fortunate Eagle. Although best known for orchestrating the American Indian take-over of Alcatraz Island in 1969 that led to significant social reforms for all Native Americans, Fortunate Eagle is an accomplished sculptor, author and ceremonial pipe maker. Often with wit and humor he recalls his life from childhood, his ten years in an Indian Boarding school, becoming an urban Indian, to his present life on the reservation where he is a celebrated artist and author. Director: John Ferry 2010 USA 82min. NR digital HD

In his book Pipestone: My Life in an Indian Boarding School Fortunate Eagle offers an unforgettable memoir of his years as a young student at Pipestone Indian Boarding School in Minnesota. In this rare firsthand account, Fortunate Eagle lives up to his reputation as a “contrary warrior” by disproving the popular view of Indian boarding schools as bleak and prisonlike. Telling this story in the voice of his younger self, the author takes us on a delightful journey into his childhood and the inner world of the boarding school. Along the way, he shares anecdotes of dormitory culture, student pranks, and warrior games. Although Fortunate Eagle recognizes Pipestone’s shortcomings, he describes his time there as nothing less than “a little bit of heaven.”

Adam Fortunate Eagle, an enrolled member of the Ojibwe Nation, is also the author of Heart of the Rock: The Indian Invasion of Alcatraz. He currently resides on the Fallon Indian Reservation in Nevada.

For more information about Oklahoma City Museum of Art contact info@okcmoa.com (405) 236-3100 or (800) 579-9ART

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Day of the Dead—Día de los Muertos

By
dbennie
– November 1, 2010Posted in: Author Features, Excerpts, Literature/Language

Art and photographs by Astrud J. Reed, Enrolled Cherokee Multimedia Artist specializing in Gourd, Indigenous, and Cultural Art

Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) has become one of the biggest holidays in Mexico, and celebrations are becoming more common in areas of the United States with a large Hispanic population. Family and friends gather together to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. Its origins are distinctly Mexican—during the time of the Aztecs, a month long summer celebration was overseen by the goddess Mictecacihuatl, the Lady of the Dead. After the Aztecs were conquered by Spain and Catholicism became the dominant religion, the customs became intertwined with the Christian commemoration of All Saints’ Day on November 1 and All Soul’s Day on November 2.

People go to cemeteries to be with the souls of the departed and build private altars that include sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages as well as photos and memorabilia of the departed. The intent is to encourage visits by the souls, so that the souls will hear the prayers and the comments of the living directed to them. Some families build altars or small shrines in their homes and these usually include the Christian cross, statues or pictures of the Blessed Virgin Mary and pictures of deceased relatives, candles, and offerings.

Rudolfo Anaya, master storyteller and “the godfather of Chicano literature”, draws inspiration from these and other Mexican traditions in his writings including his nonfiction compilation The Essays and in The Man Who Could Fly and other Stories, a collection of short stories.  In the story “Jeronimo’s Journey,” Anaya tells the story of a gardener who returns to his village in Mexico on the Day of the Dead and captures the sights, smells, and sounds of the poor villagers as they prepare for a funeral and for the Day of the Dead celebrations. He conveys the young man’s questions about death and the contrast between his life as a gardener for the rich and the simple traditions that make his home still familiar.

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Male breast cancer survivor shares his thoughts and inspiration for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

By
dbennie
– October 13, 2010Posted in: Author Features, Author Interviews, Biography/Memoir, Guest Blogs, Videos

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of early detection. Screening exams such as mammograms are encouraged and the goal is to find cancers before they start to spread. Breast cancers that are found because they can be felt tend to be larger and are more likely to have spread beyond the breast. The size of a breast cancer and how far it has spread are important factors in predicting the prognosis for this disease.

The following is a guest post by Jack Willis, author of Saving Jack: A Man’s Struggle with Breast Cancer, who discovered that breast cancer is not just a woman’s disease. Here Willis, a retired adjunct journalism professor at the University of Oklahoma, shares his thoughts on inspirational people he has met during his cancer experience and the lessons he has learned along the way.

I’m a retired journalism instructor and a five-year breast cancer survivor. I know. Guys aren’t supposed to get breast cancer, but about one percent do.

You may have read the novel The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. The book made me think of inspirational people I met during my cancer experience and the lessons they taught me.

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Montana Public Radio interviews David Emmons

By
dbennie
– August 23, 2010Posted in: Author Features, Author Interviews, History of the American West

Beyond the American Pale: The Irish in the West, 1845-1910 cover imageOU Press author David M. Emmons recently sat down with Montana Public Radio reporter Edward O’Brien to discuss his new book Beyond the American Pale: The Irish in the West, 1845-1910.

Beyond the American Pale explores America’s love-hate relationship with one of its most prominent immigrant groups. Convention has it that Irish immigrants in the nineteenth century confined themselves mainly to industrial cities of the East and Midwest. The truth is that Irish Catholics went everywhere in America and often had as much of a presence in the West as in the East. In Beyond the American Pale, Emmons examines this multifaceted experience of westering Irish and, in doing so, offers a fresh and discerning account of America’s westward expansion.

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Mark Matthews review and interview on ForeWord Reviews

By
dbennie
– August 10, 2010Posted in: Author Features, Author Interviews

Droppers: America's First Hippie Commune book coverDroppers: America’s First Hippie Commune, Drop City by Mark Matthews, which recounts the rise and fall of this famous 1960s community, was reviewed by ForeWord magazine. They also have an interview with the author.

Sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll. In popular imagination, these words seem to capture the atmosphere of 1960s hippie communes. Yet when the first hippie commune was founded in 1965 outside Trinidad, Colorado, the goal wasn’t one long party but rather a new society that integrated life and art. In Droppers, Mark Matthews chronicles the rise and fall of this utopian community, exploring the goals behind its creation and the factors that eventually led to its dissolution.

In a rollicking, fast-paced style, Matthews vividly describes the early enthusiasm of Drop City’s founders, as Bernofsky and his friends constructed a town in the desert literally using the “detritus of society.” Over time, Drop City suffered from media attention, the distraction of visitors, and the arrival of new residents who didn’t share the founders’ ideals.

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In Praise of Bob Utley, historian of the West

By
dbennie
– August 5, 2010Posted in: Author Features, History of the American West, History of the United States

Bob Utley AuthorOur friend Robert M. Utley has left his mark on western history in ways unmatched by perhaps any other contemporary author. In 1942 at the age of twelve Bob sat mesmerized in a darkened movie theatre watching Errol Flynn channel George Armstrong Custer in They Died with Their Boots On. Thus began a fascination with the West, its legends, and its preservation that has never wavered.

At seventeen his hard-earned savings from after-school work paid for a trip from Indiana to Crow Agency, Montana. Somehow age restrictions were circumvented and, donning the uniform of the National Park Service, he stood on Custer Hill to regale all who came with the story of the iconic 1876 battle. Following college and military service, he joined and quickly moved up the ranks of the National Park Service, where he became chief historian. His work in Washington helped shape the goals of the organization in ways that still resonate. Since his retirement from the NPS in 1980 he has devoted himself to research, writing, consulting and speaking.

As author of eighteen books, four of which are published by the University of Oklahoma Press, and well over a hundred articles, introductions, and the like, he has tackled a wide range of western history, from the military to the fur trade, Sitting Bull to Billy the Kid, Texas Rangers to his forthcoming biography of Geronimo.

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African American Scholar Recalls an Academic Civil War

By
dbennie
– July 29, 2010Posted in: Author Features, Biography/Memoir, Excerpts
Race and the University imageIn 1967, George Henderson, the son of uneducated Alabama sharecroppers, accepted a full-time professorship at the University of Oklahoma, despite his mentor’s warning to avoid the “redneck school in a backward state.”

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