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Behind the White House Curtain: A Senior Journalist's Story of Covering the President--And Why It Matters A Senior Journalist's Story of Covering the President--And Why It Matters

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Behind the White House Curtain: An interview with author Steve Herman Steven Herman’s long career in journalism includes covering the White House for Voice of America (VOA) during the Trump administration and the first eight months of the Biden administration. Curren…

Congrats to @newsguy.bsky.social, whose book “Behind the White House Curtain” is now available in a paperback edition with new material reflecting unfolding events at Voice of America. Find this “vivid” book (Columbus Dispatch) wherever you shop, and revisit our author interview on the blog.

I think I’m going to take a trip down to Pittsburgh within the next couple weeks to get this.

I could easily just order online, but I think it’s way more appropriate to visit the subject of this book.

Should still be copies (possibly signed) at White Whale in Bloomfield!

So proud of my former @usatodaysports.usatoday.com colleague and fellow Northwestern Wildcat Nina Mandell on the publication of her wonderful and important new book: A Fraction of a Point. I was honored to blurb it. @medillschool.bsky.social

“Where a lesser essayist might go on to ruminate about mortality and burial rites, LeMay’s focus stays with the stand of trees awhile, a spot that ‘looks very much alive.'” @rebeccamoonruark.bsky.social on the work of Eric LeMay.

pghrev.com/finding-love...

Spending time with this offering from @ksupress.bsky.social. #truecrime

What America Can Learn From Pittsburgh This long-depressed city has overcome some of its most serious problems. Maybe others can accomplish the same thing.

Attention for @chrisbriem.bsky.social's book "Beyond Steel" continues to build, now with a substantive writeup in Governing Magazine. "Pittsburgh has reinvented itself into a high-tech, knowledge-economy success. If Pittsburgh can do it, can other places?"

An Ohio high school is on one of the greatest winning streaks in sports. What’s the secret? An Ohio high school gymnastics dynasty seeks a 23rd straight state title on Saturday. Inside the program behind one of the most remarkable streaks in all of sports

Congrats to KSUP author Nina Mandell, who’s in @theguardian.com today with a piece drawn from her new book “A Fraction of a Point.” We’re so pleased that this sensitive portrait of Ohio high school athletics is getting wide attention.

Finding Love Between the Lines of Loss in Eric LeMay’s “The First 649 Days” - Pittsburgh Review of Books While addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and cancer, Eric LeMay’s fifth book, The First 649 Days: Essays and Other Acts of Love is a bighearted love letter, an

@ksupress.bsky.social

Calling the essay-curious: You're going to love Eric LeMay's super inventive fifth book, The First 649 Days: Essays and Other Acts of Love, out from Kent State University Press in April. (Get your pre-order on.) My review:
pghrev.com/finding-love...

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-...