October 30, 2013

A&S Book Cover Awards

The following books were awarded a 2013 Arts & Sciences Book Cover Award:

Chekhov for the 21st Century, co-edited by Carol Apollonio and Angela Brintlinger (Slavica Publishers, 2013)

One hundred fifty years after his birth, Anton Chekhov remains the most beloved Russian playwright in his own country, and in the English-speaking world he is second only to Shakespeare. His stories, deceptively simple, continue to serve as models for writers in many languages. In this volume, Carol Apollonio and Angela Brintlinger have brought together leading scholars from Russia and the West for a wide-ranging conversation about Chekhov’s work and legacy. Considering issues as broad as space and time and as tightly focused as the word, these are twenty-one exciting new essays for the twenty-first century.

Picture of "Lives in Transit" book cover

Lives in Transit: Contemporary Russian Women's Writing, edited by Helena Goscilo (Ardis Publishers, 2013)

After the fall of the Soviet empire, feminine roles in Russia shifted radically, resulting in a rich new body of women's literature. Featuring twenty-five diverse writers from this turbulent era, Lives in Transit is a collection of stories and poems that strive to make sense of the female experience. Sexual awakening, romantic love, parenthood, politics, family structures, abortion, rape, and the struggle to integrate domestic and professional responsibilities are deftly handled here in stunningly vibrant verse and prose.

Lives in Transit not only gives voice to a generation of talented Russian women authors, but also provides readers with a glimpse into a unique time and place. Within its pages are found a cobbler with an undying love, an immigrant family living in France, an elderly woman intrigued by a younger man, and other memorable characters, while several remarkable poems round out this collection.

Baba Yaga: The Wild Witch of the East in Russian Fairy Tales, by Sibelan Forrester (Translator), Helena Goscilo (Contribution by), Martin Skoro (Contribution by), Jack Zipes (Foreword by) (University Press of Mississippi, 2013)

Baba Yaga is an ambiguous and fascinating figure. She appears in traditional Russian folktales as a monstrous and hungry cannibal, or as a canny inquisitor of the adolescent hero or heroine of the tale. In new translations and with an introduction by Sibelan Forrester, Baba Yaga: The Wild Witch of the East in Russian Fairy Tales is a selection of tales that draws from the famous collection of Aleksandr Afanas'ev, but also includes some tales from the lesser-known nineteenth-century collection of Ivan Khudiakov. This new collection includes beloved classics such as "Vasilisa the Beautiful" and "The Frog Princess," as well as a version of the tale that is the basis for the ballet "The Firebird."

The preface and introduction place these tales in their traditional context with reference to Baba Yaga's continuing presence in today's culture--the witch appears iconically on tennis shoes, tee shirts, even tattoos. The stories are enriched with many wonderful illustrations of Baba Yaga, some old (traditional "lubok" woodcuts), some classical (the marvelous images from Victor Vasnetsov or Ivan Bilibin), and some quite recent or solicited specifically for this collection.

Memory, Language, and Bilingualism: Theoretical and Applied Approaches, co-edited by Jeanette Altarriba and Ludmila Isurin (Cambridge University Press, 2012)

The relationship between memory and language and the topic of bilingualism are important areas of research in both psychology and linguistics and are grounded in cognitive and linguistic paradigms, theories and experimentation. This volume provides an integrated theoretical/real-world approach to second language learning, use and processing from a cognitive perspective.This is a strong yet balanced combination of theoretical/overview contributions and accounts of novel, original, empirical studies which will educate readers on the relationship between theory, cognitive experimentation and data and their role in understanding language learning and practice.

Strings Attached: The Living Tradition of Czech Puppets, by Joseph Brandesky, Beth Kattelman, and Nina Malikova (Columbus Museum of Art, 2013)

Strings Attached is a lavishly illustrated book containing four (4) essays by noted experts that trace the tradition of Czech puppetry and discuss its relationship to America puppetry. Included are essays discussing the National Museum, Prague, and puppet theaters, museums, collections, organizations, and publications in the Czech Republic.