This post is published as part of the Association of University Press’s University Press Week blog tour. #ReadUP. Mindy Greiling was a state legislator for twenty years. She helped found the nation’s first state mental health caucus, and has served on state and national boards of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Greiling’s son, … More #ReadUP: Reckoning with mental illness.
BY MINDY GREILING Mental health advocate and former state legislator Describing my personal feelings was the hardest part of writing my memoir. My writing group nurtured my fledgling attempts to capture the story of son Jim’s mental illness and my legislative work, but after offering encouraging compliments, they would invariably ask things like, “But, Mindy, … More On writing—and processing, and editing—difficult matters in a memoir.
BY MINDY GREILING Many people are seeking mental health support during the sheltering-in-place COVID-19 siege. Social media is fraught with posts about the anxiety and depression it can cause, and the National Institute of Mental Health is researching how stressors related to the virus affect mental health. Our son Jim, who has a mental illness, … More On caring for a loved one with mental illness during Covid-19.
Dear friends, In this time of distancing, I’ve been nostalgic for those most ordinary communal experiences from the old world. Lunch with a friend, an evening at the theatre or cinema, a stroll through the museum: how easy it was to take these things for granted. Bookstore haunting is one of my very favorite pastimes. … More It’s our time to rally around local independent booksellers.
Dear U of MN Press community, friends, authors, scholars, and readers: To call these times unprecedented in our country and our world does not do justice to the level of disruption, difficulty, and genuine peril at our doorsteps. As with most of you, the emergency arrived swiftly at the Press. First, highly anticipated travel and … More The Stories Still Need to Be Told: A Message for Our University of Minnesota Press Community
This is the second part in a series by Doug Hoverson featuring breweriana that complement the book The Drink That Made Wisconsin Famous. This Valentine’s Day edition comes with some difficulty because beer has not been the traditional drink of romance in poetry, story, or song. While breweries have celebrated Christmas, Easter, St. Patrick’s … More The Things That Made the Drink Famous: Valentine’s Day Edition
With Tara Sweeney and Nate Christopherson We are a mother-and-son creative team. A to Zåäö: Playing with History at the American Swedish Institute is our debut picture book. It’s taken nearly four years to complete it. Our individual artistic styles are polar opposites: I use vivid watercolor to create convincing illusions of the observable world; … More Behind the Book: A to Zåäö
BY JAY WEINER Until the work began on what would become Professor Berman: The Last Lecture of Minnesota’s Greatest Public Historian, I didn’t know Hy Berman very well. For nearly 30 years, I was a reporter for the Star Tribune and Hy was a prominent University of Minnesota professor and political pundit. But a search … More His words, his story, his magnetism: Capturing the voice of Hy Berman, Minnesota’s beloved public historian
BY JACK EL-HAI Early in my writing of The Lost Brothers I considered an ethical question: In telling the story of the 68-year-old case of three young brothers who went missing in Minneapolis and have never been seen since, should I reveal the names of suspects who were never charged with a crime? There were … More When to Name Names
The University of Minnesota Press is delighted to welcome its new humanities editor, Leah Pennywark, to the fold this month. She was selected from more than one hundred applicants to the position. As editorial director Jason Weidemann stated in our recent press release, “Leah has a deep understanding and appreciation for what we do at … More Meet Leah Pennywark, our new humanities editor!
