Author Interview

Sheryl James Featured on “Stateside”

by Phillip Witteveen May 20, 2013

Sheryl James was a guest on Michigan Radio’s Stateside to discuss her new book Michigan Legends: Folktales and Lore from the Great Lakes State. James, a former journalist, comprehensively researched Michigan’s folk traditions from archives and storytellers to gain a full understanding of the fact and fiction of the state’s mythology. “There’s a huge range of total fantasy, as well as pretty historical kinds of things,” said James. One famous story is of the Nain Rouge, “this little red, impish creature that has been known to appear right before Detroit’s greatest tragedies.” This character has persisted in the city’s cultural memory, [...]

Andreá Williams talks ‘Dividing Lines’ on News Books in African American Studies

by Phillip Witteveen May 17, 2013

Author Andreá Williams joined host Vershawn Young to talk about her new book Dividing Lines: Class Anxiety and Postbellum Black Fiction on the New Books Network’s New Books in African American Studies. The book examines the beginnings of class anxiety and intraracial class tensions in postbellum black communities as they manifest themselves in the literature of that time period. Williams incorporates the fiction of such authors as Sutton E. Griggs, Charles Chesnutt, and W.E.B. DuBois, as the first generations of freed men and women came to terms with their new social status. Her perspective on this more complex culture was framed by [...]

SUNDAY: Marina Whitman discusses her memoir ‘The Martian’s Daughter’ on BookTV

by Shaun Manning May 10, 2013

This Sunday at 10:30pm EST, Marina von Neumann Whitman will appear on CSPAN’s BookTV to discuss her memoir The Martian’s Daughter, which chronicles her life growing up with the brilliant mathematician John von Neumann for a father through to her own accomplishments, such as becoming a noted academic in her own right and becoming the first woman to serve on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and the highest-ranking female executive in the auto industry in the 1980s, among many others. Check your local listings for CSPAN2. After its air date, the program will be archived at the BookTV site. The [...]

Rolf Peterson on the Environment Report

by Phillip Witteveen May 3, 2013

Rolf Peterson, author of The Wolves of Isle Royale, was a guest contributor on Michigan Radio earlier this month. The Environment Report turned its attention to Isle Royale National Park, which experienced its first year without any new wolf cubs in the 55 years researchers have been studying this ecosystem. There are, in fact, only 8 wolves left on the island. “If it keeps going,” says Peterson, “that’ll be the end of them. It may just be a temporary thing, but the writing is on the wall in terms of genetic viability.” The halt in reproduction is due to the fact [...]

Q&A with Sheryl James, author of ‘Michigan Legends’

by Emily May 1, 2013

Sheryl James is the author of the newly released Michigan Legends: Folktales and Lore from the Great Lakes State. Here, she discusses why Michigan is a particularly rich region for legends to spring up, how she conducted her research for the book, and more. The University of Michigan Press: How did you approach your research for this book, and did your research take you to any interesting places? Sheryl James: My research had to be original, or close to it – in other words, with few exceptions, I was accessing very old books and source material. Older Detroit books I found at [...]

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