South Carolina’s Edisto Island community and the larger culinary world lost a beloved keeper of historic African American foodways last week as Gullah Geechee elder Emily Meggett passed away at age 90. Carrying the lineage of Gullah Geechee culture, Meggett’s remarkable cooking contributions supported the preservation of the rich food traditions, language, and music of a recognized National Heritage Area. Meggett documented her amazing legacy last year with the publication of Gullah Geechee Home Cooking (Abrams), a New York Times best seller that was just nominated for a James Beard Award. She is survived by eight children and more than 65 grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren. She was a truly special woman and will be dearly missed.
Mark Eisner's Tina Modotti biography sold to Yale University Press
Yale University Press has acquired Mark Eisner’s Art as a Weapon: Tina Modotti and Her Years at the Heart of the Mexican Cultural Renaissance, the biography of a fascinating and influential photographer who in the 1920s collaborated with such artists and activists as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Siqueiros to merge art and politics amid the intellectual ferment following the Mexican Revolution. A renegade and self-made revolutionary artist, Modotti immigrated from Italy to the U.S. in her late teens and became at various times a Hollywood silent film actress; the lover, model, and later protegée of famed photographer Edward Weston; and a communist activist and Soviet spy in Franco’s Spain. Author Mark Eisner is a scholar, editor, translator, and biographer whose Neruda: The Poet’s Calling (Ecco, 2018) was named a finalist for the PEN/Bograd Weld Prize for Biography.
Sarah DiGregorio's Taking Care Available for Preorder
Due out May 2 from HarperCollins, Sarah DiGregorio’s “Taking Care: The Story of Nursing and Its Power to Change Our World” has already been receiving enthusiastic praise and is now available for preordering. This major work documents the history of the vital and beloved profession while examining the state of nursing in a post-pandemic world and weighing its hope for the future. Kirkus declared Taking Care “a warm appreciation of the nursing profession” and “a well-informed consideration of the intimacy of care,” while Publishers Weekly proclaimed it “an enlightening study” that provides “an expert balance between the big picture and intimate portraits of individual caregivers.” Nurse Theresa Brown, the New York Times bestselling author of The Shift, called Taking Care “a revelation,” which “shows that nurses make the world a better place” and Deborah Burger, president of National Nurses United (the largest professional association of registered nurses in the U.S.) lauded it as “an important book.”
Kyle Paoletta Profiles Arthur Jemison for Boston Magazine
Kyle Paoletta’s longform feature on Arthur Jemison entitled “Can This Man Blow up City Development without Destroying Boston?” has been published in the January issue of Boston Magazine. Paoletta’s profile of Jemison — who studied urban planning in graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, tackled housing challenges around the country, and then returned to Boston to head its planning and development agency — offers a deep dive into the city’s ambitious efforts to provide environmentally friendly, affordable housing for a surging population while reforming planning and zoning processes and attending to social equity concerns.
Paoletta’s book American Oasis: How the Cities of the Southwest Forecast Our Sweltering, Multicultural Future will be published by Pantheon in 2024.
CBS Visits Molly Yeh for the Holidays
Molly Yeh welcomed CBS reporter Michelle Miller to East Grand Forks, Minnesota for a visit to her new restaurant, Bernie’s, and a tour of her husband’s 146-year-old family farm. With the segment airing on Christmas Eve and the seventh day of Hanukkah, Yeh introduced Miller to an array of holiday dishes, including halva buckeyes from her New York Times Best Seller Home Is Where the Eggs Are. The segment — which also delved into Molly’s childhood in the Chicago suburbs, her early training to be a professional musician, and her rise to culinary stardom — can be viewed online.
Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida Sells Pair of Books to FSG
Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida has accepted a two-book deal from Farrar, Straus and Giroux for publication of Zion and Luanda, Lisboa, Paradise. Zion is a “triptych” of novellas about the agony and guilt of men who must live with the legacy of slavery, colonialism, and the spoils of the Portuguese empire. Luanda, Lisboa, Paradise, which won the Oceanos Prize, probably the most prestigious in the Lusophone world, is a migration story that offers a vivid portrait of the Angolan community in Portugal.
Molly Yeh Is a NYT Best Seller
Molly Yeh's Home Is Where the Eggs Are has debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list at #3 in the Advice, How-to & Miscellaneous category, entering as the top-selling food book in the country. The Food Network star has launched her latest kitchen companion with appearances on “The Today Show,” “The Rachael Ray Show,” NPR's “All Things Considered,” and Radio Cherry Bombe. She is scheduled to appear on CBS's “The Dish,” “The Drew Barrymore Show,” and “The Kelly Clarkson Show” as she continues on a multi-city tour of the U.S. for the new book, which has been covered in Eater, Saveur, Food & Wine, The New York Times, Parade, and People magazine while earning starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal.
John Keene Wins National Book Award for Poetry
John Keene continues to gather accolades for Punks, which was just named one of five finalists for the National Book Award for poetry. The landmark poetry collection was also longlisted for the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize while winning both the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry and a Lambda Literary Award.
The National Book Award winners will be announced November 16.
Update, November 17, 2022: Punks has won the National Book Award for poetry.
Sean Sherman Profiled in The New Yorker
The New Yorker profiled Sean Sherman in its September 19 edition, running an in-depth, 6,500-word piece by Carolyn Kormann on the Native food movement that featured the Oglala Lakota chef and author. The magazine highlighted the recent opening of Sherman’s new restaurant, Owamni, his early life and his years of work as an advocate for the revival and preservation of Indigenous food systems. His expertise and insight will be on display in Turtle Island: The Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America, co-authored with Native food sovereignty scholar Elizabeth Hoover and food writer Kristin Donnelly, due to be published by Clarkson Potter.
Update, October 25, 2022: Sherman discussed the Native food movement, Owamni, and his own life story on yesterday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Fresh Air.”
Speed Rack Book Sold to Abrams
Speed Rack co-founder and mixologist Lynnette Marrero and co-founder Ivy Mix have reached an agreement with Abrams to write an untitled cocktail book based on her work with the organization, subtitled: Recipes, Wisdom, and General Badassery from the Women Shaking up the Cocktail World. Marrero and Mix launched Speed Rack in 2011 as a high-speed bartending competition designed to highlight up-and-coming women in the cocktail industry and give back to those impacted by breast cancer. Inspired by their incredible journey building Speed Rack into a major charity and a leading voice for women in the cocktail world, the book will offer classic and original recipes organized in a uniquely intuitive way and will profile some of the formidable women to have participated in Speed Rack competitions.
