U-of-I press releases new book list

University of Iowa press is out with its newest catalogue of books. Marketing manager Megan Scott says the press is more than three decades old. University presses are kind of “a different entity,” she says, because they’re nonprofit and are more focused on disseminating knowledge than making a profit so they publish things like regional history and regional authors. University of Iowa Press has a little over 400 books in print, and publishes 35 to forty new books each year. The fall’s “lead title” is an anthology called “Visiting Walt,” inspired by Walt Whitman. But Scott says another that will interest Iowans is a collection of Mennonite poems titled simply “A Cappella.” The editor, Anne Hofstetler, is a Mennonite herself and noticed there were many poets with that background but also wanted to break misconceptions about Mennonites themselves. Another new volume this year includes beautiful photos of needlework from Iowa, called “Patchwork — Iowa Quilts and Quilters.” Scott says not all the books are local, or even low-key in their subject matter. U-of-I Press published a book titled “King James and the Letters of Homoerotic Desire” about suspicions that the ruler who commissioned the translation of the Bible into English was gay, and thought if any of the press’s books would be controversial, it’d be that one. But the lack of reaction startled the publishers. And some books have made their way into classrooms and lesson plans. They’ve done books on Iowa labor history, and one new this year called “Broken HeartLand,” about the “rural ghetto” and the changes in rural Iowa life with the demise of the family farm. The new list is the fall offering by University of Iowa Press, which comes out with most of its new books in time so readers can order for the holiday season. To order right from the website, surf to www.uiowapress.org