Kent State University Press

The 10 Best New Books Of March From Rebecca Serle’s new novel to Judy Blume’s biography.

Congrats to Nina Mandell, whose book "A Fraction of a Point: A Gymnastics Dynasty on the Line" (coming 3/10 from KSUP) is named one of "The 10 Best New Books of March" by Bustle. "If there’s an Olympics-sized hole in your heart, 'A Fraction of a Point' is not one to be missed."

402 – All About Soul by The Prancing Pony Podcast

Stunned by the kind words re my book, "Pity, Power, and Tolkien's Ring: To Rule the Fate of Many," by @jtauber.com and Alan from @prancingponypod.bsky.social on this week's episode (#402). Beyond stunned they compared it to Verlyn Flieger's work. megaphone.link/GLSS8237391111
@ksupress.bsky.social

New book review:
Sanders on Megelsh, Michael J.: _Adelbert Ames, the Civil War, and the Creation of Modern America_. Kent State University Press, 2024. Published by H-War.
Read here: networks.h-net.org/node/20142975

Five rows of colorful books on a conference table, face up.

KSUP is pleased to welcome the @aupresses.bsky.social Book, Jacket, & Journal Show! Congrats to all of our colleagues on the publication of beautiful books that push design in innovative directions. Not pictured: all the books that KSUP staff have swiped and moved to the top of their TBR lists . . .

Happy Birthday Toni Morrison!
Save the date for August 5, as we honor this literary titan.

Missed the book launch? Mark your calendars. This is for next month Downtown at the HYP Club on Thursday, March 26th @6pm. Free and open to the public, but registration may be retired.

AHYP History Series: Beyond Steel - Pittsburgh's Reluctant Reinvention
www.eventbrite.com/e/ahyp-histo...?

February news and reviews Christopher Briem’s Beyond Steel is reviewed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where it’s hailed as “an excellent history of the region’s defeats and resurrections.”

Another big month for KSUP authors, including @chrisbriem.bsky.social, Nina Mandell, Martin Bush, and others. See all the latest news and reviews in our February roundup.

SCENE SUPPORT US ARTS & CULTURE Local Sports Writer's New Book Chronicles Brecksville Gymnastic Team's Remarkable Legacy Kent State University Press will publish the book in March

Thanks to @clevelandscene.bsky.social for previewing Nina Mandell's book “A Fraction of a Point,” coming in March:

www.clevescene.com/arts/local-s...

Author Talk and Signing Beyond Steel: Pittsburgh and the Economics of Transformation Friendship Perk and Brew 300 S. Pacific Ave. Friday February 27th Noon to 1:30pm

For local peeps who couldn't make the book launch. No Brian O and likely a smaller event, but a week from Friday (see below). Menu includes fish, so knock out your fish fry for the day.

Currently reading 👇

The book "Beyond Steel" face out in a bookstore window.

Love seeing our author’s book in the window of a great indie! If you missed @chrisbriem.bsky.social's launch event for “Beyond Steel” and still want a signed copy, head over to White Whale in Pittsburgh.

Magazine on a yellow background with text: n+1 NUMBER FIFTY-TWO WINTER 2026 SPACE: STILL THE PLACE? THE PASSION OF ERIC ADAMS CHINA EX MACHINA MY DATE WITH PASOLINI NEW TRENDS IN NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY PLUS DAYNA TORTORICI ON FASCIST FEMINISTS

Opening spread of magazine with an ad on the verso. Text: Coming soon in 2026 Ptace Envy ESSAYS IN SEARCH OF ORIENTATION Ohio State University Press • February 2026 "In this quiet and elegant collection, novelist and short story writer Lowenthal uses the essay as a means of excavation, uncovering the tensions between his queer and Jewish identities and the desire to belong fully to both....A lucid, searching meditation on belonging and self-invention." -Kirkus Reviews The First 649 Days Essays and Other Acts of Love Eric LeMay Kent State University Press • April 2026 "A tender, devastating series of reports from the early years of a cancer diagnosis, a global pandemic, and parenthood... A largehearted exploration of love's capacities as well as an experiment in documenting the now." -Caryl Pagel, author of Out of Nowhere Into Nothing New from Columbia University Press CLIMATE JUSTICE NOW CROSSING DIFCIPLINES TO COMBAT OUR PLANETARY CRISIS "An urgent, essential volume that unites voices from the sciences, humanities, and social sciences. This groundbreaking book bridges knowledge silos to confront climate injustice both within and beyond academia." - Jennifer Hadden, author of Networks in Contention: The Divisive Politics of Climate Change Signs from the Future A Philosophy of Warnings SANTIAGO ZABALA "With Signs from the Future, Santiago Zabala has issued his own clarion call to address the underlying cause of the hydra-headed crises facing the world today-by reviving the dying art of thinking." -LA Review of Books cup.columbia.edu • cupblog.org ISSUE 52 n+1

Excited to highlight Eric LeMay’s forthcoming book “The First 649 Days” (with praise from Caryl Pagel) in the new issue of n+1. Watch for LeMay’s “largehearted exploration of love’s capacities,” coming in April (and thanks to our friends at Vesto PR for space in the ad).

The paperback edition of 'Behind the White House Curtain' will be released early next month with new material about the destruction of the Voice of America. You can pre-order today at your favorite bookstore or online. bookshop.org/p/books/behi...

YouTube video by The Aaron Renn Show America's Most Extreme Rust Belt Collapse | Chris Briem

Big thanks to @aaronrenn.skystack.xyz for talking with @chrisbriem.bsky.social about his book "Beyond Steel," new from Kent State.

Backlist spotlight: Celebrating Black History Month with “American Abolitionism and Antislavery” February is Black History Month, and to mark the occasion we’re pleased to spotlight our book series American Abolitionism and Antislavery, edited by John David Smith. The series presents the…

February is Black History Month, and to mark the occasion we’re pleased to highlight our book series American Abolitionism and Antislavery, which presents the best scholarship on antislavery activism and abolitionism in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century United States.

Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize | Wick Poetry Center | Kent State University 2026 STAN AND TOM WICK POETRY PRIZE$2,500 for a First Book of PoemsThis prize is offered annually to a poet who has not previously published a full-length collection of poems. The prize awards the win...

From the Wick Poetry Center: "Finish the polishing touches on your manuscripts because the 2026 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, judged by Camille Dungy, is open for submissions! Visit our website for full eligibility and submission guidelines." www.kent.edu/wick/stan-an...

A new book rethinks Pittsburgh's steel legacy An economist argues Pittsburgh's economy shifted long before steel collapsed.

Axios/Pittsburgh: New book explains how Pittsburgh moved "Beyond Steel"
www.axios.com/local/pittsb...

Pittsburgh’s Permanent (and Incomplete) Transformation Review: Beyond Steel: Pittsburgh and the Economics of Transformation by Christopher P. Briem (The Kent State University Press, 2026, 320 pp.) On May 28, 2009, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs

So I’m not sure if I want you to read this extensive review of my book lest you then feel there is no reason to buy your own copy.

Bateman/Real Clear Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh’s Permanent (and Incomplete) Transformation www.realclearpennsylvania.com/articles/202...

The White Whale Bookstore at night, with bookshelves visible through the window, and a stack of the book Beyond Steel.

Thanks to everyone who came to White Whale Bookstore for the launch of @chrisbriem.bsky.social's “Beyond Steel”! Missed the event? There’s a new Q&A with the author in the @pghreviewofbooks.bsky.social: pghrev.com/christopher-...

Christopher Briem on a Pittsburgh Beyond Steel - Pittsburgh Review of Books To the outside world, Pittsburgh is invoked as a symbol of American industrial might, of catastrophic decline, of improbable reinvention. The storyline is

"In BEYOND STEEL: PITTSBURGH AND THE ECONOMICS OF TRANSFORMATION, Briem argues that Pittsburgh’s transformation was neither sudden nor inevitable—and that the city’s most persistent problem may be its refusal to let go of steel as destiny." — Aakanksha Agarwal.

pghrev.com/christopher-...

Thank you @ksupress.bsky.social! A wonderful box of treasure awaited me when I came home from work today. I don’t quite know where to begin!

A photo of the book "Beyond Steel," with text: "An excellent history of the region's defeats and resurrections." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A big review for @chrisbriem.bsky.social's "Beyond Steel"! If you have access to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, be sure to read the full rave at the link below. And don't miss the author at Pittsburgh indie White Whale Books on Tuesday.

www.post-gazette.com/ae/books/202...

January news and reviews Cleveland Scene wraps up 2025 with the list “10 Cleveland Novels the Book Lover in Your Life Actually Would Like For Christmas”—including KSU Press’s edition of The Coming of Fabr…

Kent State’s books and authors kicked off the new year with attention in Cleveland Scene, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, New Books Network, and more. See all the latest in our January roundup.

Two people at chairs on a stage discussing a book (a copy of which is on the table between them).

The author at a podium with "Bard Graduate Center" logo. A slide projection is behind her, and an audience member observes.

Thanks to everyone who helped celebrate the publication of Rebecca Jumper Matheson‘s “Artisans and Designers”—new in our series with the Costume Society of America—at author talks this fall and winter. Pictured here: events at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Bard Graduate Center.

We're kicking off a yearlong statewide celebration of Toni Morrison on February 18, 2026!

Spread the word, sign up for our newsletter, and join in the celebration.
ohiocelebratestonimorrison.org

Christopher Briem: Why steel isn't coming back to Pittsburgh CHRISTOPHER BRIEM Insight JAN 18, 2026 4:30 AM 0 If asked, almost anyone in the United States, and large parts of the world, knows that “the Steel City” refers only and always to the city and region of Pittsburgh. The indelible link between Pittsburgh and the singular industry is the result of southwestern Pennsylvania’s extraordinary concentration of raw steel production that extended across a full century beginning in the late 19th century. Steel was everything. But what does steel mean to southwestern Pennsylvania today? Unfortunately, that past is not prologue.

New in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: @chrisbriem.bsky.social, author of Kent State's upcoming book "Beyond Steel," on why steel isn't coming back to Pittsburgh:

www.post-gazette.com/opinion/insi...

Articles The Donaldsonville March of 1870: A Case Study in Black Militias’ Use of Force to Combat Insurrectionists in the Reconstruction South J. Jacob Calhoun pp. 9-34 restricted access HTML icon View The Donaldsonville March of 1870: A Case Study in Black Militias’ Use of Force to Combat Insurrectionists in the Reconstruction South PDF icon Download The Donaldsonville March of 1870: A Case Study in Black Militias’ Use of Force to Combat Insurrectionists in the Reconstruction South Save The Donaldsonville March of 1870: A Case Study in Black Militias’ Use of Force to Combat Insurrectionists in the Reconstruction South Get Access to The Donaldsonville March of 1870: A Case Study in Black Militias’ Use of Force to Combat Insurrectionists in the Reconstruction South Greater Reconstruction and the Limitations to Federal Power in the US–Mexico Borderlands William S. Kiser pp. 35-58 restricted access HTML icon View Greater Reconstruction and the Limitations to Federal Power in the US–Mexico Borderlands PDF icon Download Greater Reconstruction and the Limitations to Federal Power in the US–Mexico Borderlands Save Greater Reconstruction and the Limitations to Federal Power in the US–Mexico Borderlands Get Access to Greater Reconstruction and the Limitations to Federal Power in the US–Mexico Borderlands Cracks in the Granite: Contested Civil War Memories in the American West John R. Legg, Niels Eichhorn pp. 59-89

Pleased to share the news that the latest issue of our journal "Civil War History"—edited by @jimdowns.bsky.social, and featuring articles by @legg.bsky.social, @nielseichhorn.bsky.social, and others—is now available at @projectmuse.bsky.social:

muse.jhu.edu/issue/56267

Behind the White House Curtain Check out this great listen on Audible.com. Steven L Herman, chief national correspondent for the nonpartisan, government-funded Voice of America (VOA), weaves together memoir and history to pull back...

The audiobook version of “Behind the White House Curtain” is now available. www.audible.com/pd/Behind-th...

Last chance... almost full. Where else do you want to be on a Tuesday evening in Pittsburgh?

Did the Wolf Finally Leave? - Pittsburgh Review of Books In early 2014, colleagues in the media relations department at the University of Pittsburgh forwarded to me a voicemail they said was from an independent

“Future prospects for greater Pittsburgh are decoupled from the prospects of the steel industry, a reality... difficult to accept for a region identified for so long with the once monolithic industry.”

From BEYOND STEEL by @chrisbriem.bsky.social (@ksupress.bsky.social). pghrev.com/did-the-wolf...