Recent titles, rave reviews, and other news

February was a banner month for the JHU Press. We were invited into Amish homes, celebrated International Polar Bears Day, and launched a video series that stars the “academic verve” of our journal editors (more on that below). Here’s some more of what we’ve been up to in Charm City lately. Let’s hope March is just as exciting!

Journals news

• We’re thrilled to announce the launch of our new program "In Other Words," a video series which aims to translate our community's “academic verve” (there’s that term again!) into dynamic video. Why video? Because this format can showcase a journal’s inherent product personality and represents one of the key ways intelligent people seek, experience, and share knowledge today. The first edition focuses on American Quarterly, but look for upcoming videos on content from The Hopkins Review and Progress in Community Health Partnerships.
• The Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved released its annual Black History Month issue in February by bringing together a large collection of papers relating to race, ethnicity, and health as well as an examination of health policy, programs, and reform as health care reform legislation becomes a reality in the United States.
• The seventh winner of the The Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry is Nest, Nook & Cranny by Susan Blackaby with illustrations by Jamie Hogan. The judges discuss the winning book as well as the state of children's poetry in North America in the most recent issue of the journal.

Recently released books

• Confronting Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer: Identify Your Risk, Understand Your Options, Change Your Destiny If you are concerned that the cancer in your family is hereditary, you face difficult choices. Written by three passionate advocates for the hereditary cancer community who are themselves breast cancer survivors—Sue Friedman, Rebecca Sutphen, and Kathy Steligo—this helpful, informative guide answers your questions as you confront hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.
• Is Graduate School Really for You? The Whos, Whats, Hows, and Whys of Pursuing a Master's or Ph.D. Landing a job in today’s academic job market is no easy feat. Is graduate school the answer? In this informed and candid book, Amanda I. Seligman gives anyone thinking about pursuing an advanced degree—and those who support them—the inside scoop on what to expect in graduate school.
• A Tour of the Senses: How the Brain Interprets the World Ever wonder why some people have difficulty recognizing faces or why food found delicious in one culture is reviled in another? John M. Henshaw (he also wrote Does Measurement Measure Up?) ponders these and other surprising facts in this fascinating and fast-paced tour of the senses.
• Hart Crane's Poetry: "Appollinaire lived in Paris, I live in Cleveland, Ohio" John T. Irwin, long a passionate and brilliant critic of Hart Crane, gives readers the first major interpretation of the poet’s work in decades. Thoughtful, deliberate, and extraordinarily learned, this is the most complete and careful reading of Crane’s poetry available. Hart Crane may have lived in Cleveland, Ohio, but, as Irwin masterfully shows, his poems stand among the greatest written in the English language.
• The Better End: Surviving (and Dying) on Your Own Terms in Today's Modern Medical World While modern Americans strive to control nearly every aspect of our lives, many of us abandon control of life's final passage. Through compelling real-life stories and practical guidance, Dan Morhaim, a practicing physician and Maryland state legislator, helps readers navigate end-of-life care for themselves and their loved ones.
• The Dispossessed State: Narratives of Ownership in Nineteenth-Century Britain and Ireland Sara L. Maurer connects the Victorian novel’s preoccupation with the landed estate to nineteenth-century debates about property, specifically as it played out in the English occupation of Ireland.

Rave reviews

Publishers Weekly recently saluted Ronald P. Formisano’s soon-to-be-published The Tea Party “for providing even-handed perspective on and clarifying misconceptions about America's recent political phenomenon,” while The Huffington Post hailed award-winning author Richard Burgin as “one of our best short story writers.”