University of New Mexico Press Books win Awards

PRESS RELEASE
CONTACT: Amanda Sutton
505-272-7190 or 505-400-3898
asutton@unm.edu

UNM PRESS TITLES CHOSEN AS SOUTHWEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR


ALBUQUERQUE—For thirty-one years, the Tucson-Pima County Public Library has presented the “Southwest Books of the Year,” a list of page-turners and must-reads chosen by its panel of distinguished judges. This year, of more than 250 volumes considered, the University of New Mexico Press had a Top Pick with Dagoberto Gilb’s HECHO EN TEJAS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF TEXAS MEXICAN LITERATURE. Rudolfo Anaya and Amy Cordova’s THE FIRST TORTILLA was a children’s Top Book of the Year.


A total of thirty-nine favorites were noted by the panelists. Dagoberto Gilb’s groundbreaking anthology of Texas Mexican writers, HECHO EN TEJAS was a Top Pick by being selected by three of the seven panelists as a top ten best book. Corridos, songs, poetry, prose and photos from the 1500s to the present, HECHO EN TEJAS has been reviewed in all the major Texas media, the publishing trade, and Spanish-language newspapers. It’s contributors toured the state last year, reading at community centers and universities.


“[Gilb’s] selections are educational, interesting, funny, eye opening and stirring,” muses Southwest Books of the Year panelist Margaret Guerrero.


“The 104 selections range from personal to historical, from bleak to humorous, from youthful to retrospective. It is puro Southwest,” said panelist Bill Broyles of HECHO EN TEJAS.


The Mexican folktale, THE FIRST TORTILLA, written by Albuquerque’s Rudolfo Anaya and illustrated by Amy Cordova of Taos, was chosen by children’s librarian Cathy Jacobus as one of ten children’s Top Books of the Year commending the “bold and vivid illustrations [that] beautifully complement this bilingual story.” Anaya’s latest offering is the award-winning story of a young girl who saves her hungry neighbors by harvesting the corn for her village’s first tortillas.


The Southwest Books of the Year “Notable Books” list contains books that are not Top Picks but are recommended reading nonetheless. Eleven UNM Press titles were on the Notable Books list:


BROKEN AND RESET by VB Price
CANTEMOS AL ALBA by Tomas Lozano
DEATH AND DYING IN NEW MEXICO by Martina Will de Chaparro DICTIONARY OF JICARILLA APACHE by Melissa Axelrod THE GREAT HOUSES OF CHACO by John Martin Campbell HIP TO THE TRIP by Peter Dedek LEGEND AND LORE OF THE GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS by WC Jameson THE MOSQUITOES OF NEW MEXICO Lewis T. Nielsen NATIVE AMERICAN LIFE-HISTORY NARRATIVES: COLONIAL AND
POSTCOLONIAL NAVAJO ETHNOGRAPHY by Susan Berry, Brill de Ramírez THE SHAMAN AND THE WATER SERPENT by Jennifer Owings Dewey THE WORLD IN PANCHO’S EYES by JPS Brown


Volunteer panelists for Southwest Books of the Year
include:
*Bill Broyles--Tucson author, naturalist, and retired
teacher
*Bruce Dinges--Arizona Historical Society director of
publications
*Patricia Etter--member of Arizona State University's
Emeritus College
*David Laird--former University of Arizona head of
libraries and owner of Books West
Southwest
*Sharon Gilbert, writer and former librarian at Pima
County Public Library
and her writing partner, Paul Huddy a Solar
Institute scientist
*Margaret Guerrero of Pima County Public Library, ethnic
literature specialist
*Cathy Jacobus, Pima County librarian and children’s book
specialist


Southwest Books of the Year–Best Reading 2007 is published
by the Pima County Public Library in partnership with the
Friends of the Pima County Public Library and the Arizona
Historical Society.


For more information, see the Southwest Books of the Year
website:
http://www.library.pima.gov/books/swboy/index.cfm.
For UNM Press book cover images or author contact info,
please contact Amanda Sutton, publicity, at 505-272-7190
or asutton@unm.edu.

Connie Gotsch www.conniegotsch.com Host Write On Four Corners KSJE FM, Farmington NM www.ksje.com Author two award winning novels Snap Me a Future and A Mouthful of Shell available www.dlsijpress.com