Authors and Artists

Winter 2017

Books

Florida Soul

John Capouya ’79, associate professor of journalism and writing at the University of Tampa, published Florida Soul: From Ray Charles to KC and the Sunshine Band (University Press of Florida, Sept. 2017). When recalling the roots of soul music, most people are likely to name Memphis, Detroit, New Orleans, Muscle Shoals, or Macon. But Florida also has a rich soul music history — an important cultural legacy that has often gone unrecognized. Capouya draws on extensive interviews with surviving musicians to re-create the excitement and honor the achievements of soul’s golden age, establishing Florida as one of the great soul music capitals of the United States.

From Underdog to Winner

John Pfitsch (1919–2012), coach at Grinnell College for 50 years, and Barbara Waite, former chair of the Sport Psychology Program at the University of Iowa, square off to scrutinize theories and philosophies behind “100 percent performance,” Pfitsch’s term for the best his athletes had to offer. Using Pfitsch’s typewritten manuscript from the 1980s, hours of recorded interviews, and a little imagination, Waite crafted a conversation between herself and Pfitsch to reveal more than just how to win athletic contests. Pfitsch’s ideas, developed throughout his career at University of Kansas, Midland College, and Grinnell College, come alive through his extraordinary stories and lively conversation in From Underdog to Winner: In Pursuit of 100% Performance.

Made for Love

Alissa Nutting, assistant professor of English and writer-in-residence, published Made for Love (Ecco/HarperCollins, July 2017) to rave reviews. The novel tells the story of Hazel, who has just run out on her marriage to Byron Gogol, CEO and founder of Gogol Industries, a monolithic corporation hellbent on making its products and technologies indispensable in daily life. For more than a decade, Hazel put up with being veritably quarantined by Byron in the family compound, her every movement and vital sign tracked. But when he demands to wirelessly connect the two of them via brain chips in a first-ever human “mind-meld,” Hazel decides what was once merely irritating has become unbearable. As she tries to carve out a new life for herself in this uncharted territory, Byron is using the most sophisticated tools at his disposal to find her and bring her home. 

My Own Words

Mary Hartnett ’80 and Wendy Williams co-wrote an authorized biography/autobiography of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. My Own Words (Simon and Schuster, 2016) is Ginsburg’s first book since becoming a Supreme Court associate justice in 1993. 

Pep Talks for Writers

Grant Faulkner ’87, executive director of National Novel Writing Month, has written Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo (Chronicle Books, October 2017). In July he served as the Aspen Institute’s writer-in-residence. 

Rescued by My Breath

Natazha Raine O’Connor ’84 attended Grinnell College as Bunny Connors. Her book Rescued by My Breath depicts a “real-life respiratory fairy tale” illustrating that how we relate to our breathing can either kill us or fulfill us. 

Silver medal winner

Dennis Maulsby ’64’s book of short stories, Free Fire Zone (2016, Prolific Press), received the silver medal award in the science fiction category at the 2017 Military Writers Society of America annual meeting in San Antonio in September. He has two haiku in the Fall 2017 issue of Mused: The BellaOnline Literary Review. bit.ly/2z4oSws

Staging Creolization

Emily Sahakian ’02, assistant professor of theatre and French at the University of Georgia, published Staging Creolization: Women’s Theater and Performance from the French Caribbean (University of Virginia Press, June 2017). In her book, Sahakian examines seven late-20th-century plays by French Caribbean women writers and theorizes Creolization as a performance-based process.

Art

IowaStock Music and Arts Festival

Randye Jones, Burling media room supervisor, sang a program of all-American composers during the inaugural IowaStock Music and Arts Festival in St. Charles, Iowa. She took the stage Sept. 3 before Simon Estes, renowned opera singer and Iowa native.

Saving Brinton

Filmmaker Andrew Sherburne ’01’s latest documentary feature, Saving Brinton, premiered at the American Film Institute’s prestigious AFI DOCS film festival in June 2017. The film then debuted in September at the World’s Oldest Movie Theatre in Washington, Iowa, followed by nine screenings throughout Iowa and the heartland. Saving Brinton is the story of an eccentric Iowa collector who uncovered five hours of film from the early 1900s that once belonged to Frank Brinton, one of America’s most successful barnstorming, moving-picture exhibitors. In October the film premiered in Arkansas at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. Sherburne produced and co-directed the film. Watch the trailer.