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Kent State University Press

@ksupress.bsky.social

Publisher of books and journals based at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. Learn more at kentstatebooks.wordpress.com and www.kentstateuniversitypress.com.

209 Posts4595 Follower 1158 Folgt

Kent State University Press @ksupress.bsky.social · 2d ago

Proud to see @chrisbriem.bsky.social, author of KSUP's book "Beyond Steel," in this documentary from Korea—further evidence of the global reach of university-press authors.

Chris Briem, in baseball cap, gestures to Pittsburgh skyline.

Chris Briem (www.briem.com)@chrisbriem.bsky.social · 2d ago

So this is different. Lots of Pittsburgh in this news documentary from Korea. Ron comes across much better than me. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCTg...

Kent State University Press @ksupress.bsky.social · last wk.

Congrats to Carolyn Williams-Noren (@creakyvoice.bsky.social), who appears on Minnesota Public Radio to talk about her path to book publication—with both "Oil Courses" (new from Kent State) and her zine "This Is Good."

Tale of two books: Carolyn Williams-Noren's two paths to publishing her work

Seeking a way to be creative on her own terms as she waited to hear from publishers about her poetry manuscript, Carolyn Williams-Noren began creating comics.

mprnews.org

Kent State University Press @ksupress.bsky.social · last wk.

Happy pub day to Carolyn V. Platt and Bob Downing, whose new edition of “Cuyahoga Valley National Park Handbook: A Photographic Tour” is now available! www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/2026/cuyahog...

A book with a wooded scene on its cover, being held against a wooded background. Text: Cuyahoga
Valley
National
Park
Handbook
A Photographic Tour
Third Edition

Kent State University Press @ksupress.bsky.social · 2w ago

We’re saddened by the news of Charlie Thomas’s death, and proud to help celebrate his work with the book “Meet Me at Ray’s,” a tribute to Thomas’s beloved bar and restaurant in Kent.

Charlie Thomas, owner of Ray’s Place in Kent, dies at age 81

Businessman transformed Kent bar into a beloved institution. He also owned Mr. Bilbo’s in Akron, Ray’s of Fairlawn and the River Merchant in Kent.

yahoo.com

Kent State University Press @ksupress.bsky.social · 2w ago

A big thanks to newspapers, magazines, and other media outlets across the Rust Belt for their help amplifying books from Kent State—including Pittsburgh Quarterly, which includes an excerpt from @chrisbriem.bsky.social's "Beyond Steel" in the fall issue, on newsstands now.

Magazine spread showing the cover of Pittsburgh Quarterly (with a cartoon of the skyline and the point) on the verso and the book cover for "Beyond Steel" on the recto.

Clara Totten @tottencs.bsky.social · 3w ago

There’s a brief break in the crowd here at Inkubator, so I can talk about A FRACTION OF A POINT! It’s nail biting, exquisitely written, and a thrilling story. The Bees won the gymnastics state championship 19 times in a row- do they have a 20th win in them? #CleInk26 @ksupress.bsky.social

Clara Totten @tottencs.bsky.social · 3w ago

Day 2 of @ksupress.bsky.social at Inkubator by @literarycleveland.bsky.social! It’s been a busy morning talking books- NEO’s literary community is vibrant, welcoming, and doing great things 💛📚 #CleInk26

Part of a display of Kent State University Press books

Clara Totten @tottencs.bsky.social · 3w ago

First up in my fave @ksupress.bsky.social books at @literarycleveland.bsky.social’s Inkubator: THE COMING OF FABRIZZE. Raymond DeCapite was a #CLE author known for his dialogue-centric writing & depictions of Italian-American Cleveland. This novel is funny, brisk, a little heartbreaking. Love it.

The cover of the book, “The Coming of Fabrizze”

A book page from “The Coming of Fabrizze” showing a lot of dialogue

Clara Totten @tottencs.bsky.social · 3w ago

@ksupress.bsky.social is off and running at the Inkubator Writing Conference by @literarycleveland.bsky.social! Today and tomorrow, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite KSUP books from here at #cleink26 📚

Kent State University Press display table with books on it

Steve Herman @newsguy.bsky.social · 3w ago

I've been thinking a lot about The Toledo Blade recently as I have written a blurb for David M. Murray's upcoming book about the newspaper and the Block family. www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/2026/the-con...

The Conscience of a City and a Nation - The Kent State University Press

kentstateuniversitypress.com

NewsLab@thenewslab.bsky.social · 3w ago

The Toledo Blade's owners want to sell the 191-year-old newspaper and are threatening to shut it down completely at the end of this year if no buyer is found. www.toledoblade.com/local/city/2...

Kent State University Press @ksupress.bsky.social · 3w ago

Now available at @projectmuse.bsky.social: the September issue of KSUP's journal "Civil War History," edited by @jimdowns.bsky.social. muse.jhu.edu/pub/14/issue...

Text: Civil War History
Vol. 72 No. 3
September 2026
with black-and-white image of disaster: William Ludwell Sheppard, Richmond Calamity—Interior of Hall of Delegates—Getting Out the Dead and Wounded, Harper’s Weekly, May 14, 1870.

Kent State University Press @ksupress.bsky.social · 4w ago

Podcasts, newspapers, journals, blogs—KSUP's authors (and their books) spent another big month shaping conversations about things that matter. Congrats to @chrisbriem.bsky.social, @ninamandell.bsky.social, @creakyvoice.bsky.social, and more.

Early fall news and reviews

Six months after its initial publication, Christopher Briem’s Beyond Steel continues to attract attention as one of the year’s significant books about the region. A new opinion piece in…

kentstatebooks.wordpress.com

Kent State University Press @ksupress.bsky.social · last mo.

Pleased to have the opportunity to highlight @creakyvoice.bsky.social's book “Oil Courses” in the new issue of @nplusonemag.com! Congrats to the author and to our partners at the Wick Poetry Center—and thanks to Vesto PR for including us in the roundup.

Two panels of ads in a print magazine, with Carolyn Williams-Noren's book in the upper right hand corner. Header "new poetry for September."

n+1 magazine cover with black tangles on a yellow background. Text:
VOTE DRUNK!
SPEAKER, MEMORY THE FAMILY FOUCAULT DISPATCH FROM SOUTHERN LEBANON ORANGE: THE NEW RED?
PLUS
NEW FICTION BY CHAD HARBACH

Tom @alas-not-me.bsky.social · last mo.

40 % off right now on my book from @ksupress.bsky.social , which keeps bouncing back to #1 New Release in British and Irish Literary Criticism. Inconceivable.

Kent State University Press @ksupress.bsky.social · last mo.

Congrats to KSUP author Earl J. Hess, whose "thorough, enlightening" book "Civil War Camps and Soldier Health" earns a rave in "Emerging Civil War."

Book Review: Civil War Camps and Soldier Health: Sanitation and Military Effectiveness in the Union Army - Emerging Civil War

Civil War Camps and Soldier Health: Sanitation and Military Effectiveness in the Union Army. By Earl J. Hess. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 2026. Paperback, 344 pp. $39.95. Reviewed by ...

emergingcivilwar.com

TheBookLoft @thebookloft.bsky.social · last mo.

She was a juggernaut who touched the lives of untold millions, not only through her music & movies but through her child literacy program. We are worse off without you & you'll be missed. Eternal rest, Dolly Parton

Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts [NEOMFA]@neomfa.bsky.social · last mo.

Student Ashton River Leigh, alum Carrie George, core faculty Hilary Plum, and recent guest faculty Xan Forest Phillips are among the readers in the 2x2 / FMZ event on Saturday, August 29! 7:00 pm at Riff’s, 2418 Professor Ave in Cleveland!

Kent State University Press @ksupress.bsky.social · last mo.

Fall’s starting to shape up around the KSUP offices: We’re excited about the arrival of early/advance copies of Carolyn Williams-Noren's “Oil Courses,” Jonathan Knight’s “Classic Guards,” the latest Funky Winkerbean book, and a new edition of “Cuyahoga Valley National Park Handbook.” Happy reading!

Four books and one seasonal catalog arranged in a stylized display against a wood-grain background.

Chris Briem (www.briem.com)@chrisbriem.bsky.social · last mo.

OK, this is a bit different. But I am interviewed on the new Pittsburgh Gen X Podcast - which is taking over the podcast scene here.. and will be streaming on WQED as well! www.youtube.com/watch?v=on8I...

Gen X Pittsburgh Podcast - Chris Briem, Economist and Author!

YouTube video by Gen X Pgh Podcast

youtube.com

Chris Briem (www.briem.com)@chrisbriem.bsky.social · last mo.

Sign up before it sells out. Panel discussion with me and @brotheroneill, September 22 at 6pm. Pittsburgh History and Landmarks (PHLF) 'Landmarks Night at the Union Trust' phlf.org/event/landma...

Landmarks Night at The Union Trust - Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation

Friends, members, donors, and supporters of our organization:Please join us for a special event at the historic Union Trust Building, one of Downtown’s most significant architectural landmarks, for a ...

phlf.org

Chris Briem (www.briem.com)@chrisbriem.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Warning, vanity reference but: NextPittsburgh: How much do Pittsburgh’s population changes matter? nextpittsburgh.com/city-design/...

How much do Pittsburgh's population changes matter?

Pittsburgh’s population fluctuates from year to year. Why does that always make headlines? It all goes back to our past.

nextpittsburgh.com

Kent State University Press @ksupress.bsky.social · last mo.

Come anticipate fall books from Kent State University Press! Our new seasonal catalog announces titles from @creakyvoice.bsky.social, Jen Schwanke, David M. Murray, Mark Burrell, and more. Enjoy: www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/wp-content/u...

Just Some Girl
Growing Up in the Rural Midwest
JEN SCHWANKE
"An elegant and deeply felt commentary on the making of a woman"-Melissa Petro
Set against the backdrop of rural Ohio, Just Some Girlyrically unpacks what it means to become a woman. While the author is initially nurtured by loving parents and strong sibling bonds, adolescence finds Schwanke lacking a sense of identity and feeling deeply insecure, like so many other teenage girls. To cope, she simultaneously reaches toward—and eventually fights against—disordered eating, alcohol abuse, painful relationships with men, and self-sabotage.
As Schwanke interrogates her experiences and choices, she makes connections between her life and the lives of other women: her mother, her sisters, a trusted professor, and the women she encounters in town, at church, or at work. This through line captures the universal struggle-told from Schwanke's unique perspective-to reject the deep roots of a patriarchal world.
In these essays, Schwanke proves herself to be an emerging literary voice, reminiscent of great essayists like Jo Ann Beard and Melissa Febos. She renders her life-difficulties and triumphs alike-with stark honesty, compas-sion, and curiosity. Just Some Girl is a powerful coming-of-age memoir about how place, family, and our own choices shape us into wise yet imperfect adults.

Oil Courses
C A R O L Y N W I L L I A M S - N O R E N
Pádraig Ó Tuama, Judge
Winner of the 2025 Stan and Tom Wick
Poetry Prize
Grounded in deep concern about the climate
crisis, Carolyn Williams-Noren’s Oil Courses
recalls a family reliant on the oil industry—her
father worked for British Petroleum in Anchor-
age, Alaska—and a summer spent in its service
on Endicott Island. What “curriculum” has
oil offered each of us? To answer, Oil Courses
turns to strange happenings in the changing
landscape and in our interior lives, magnifying
odd scenes that once seemed ordinary and filing
them under the names of school subjects such as
physics, economics, and history.
In these poems, the absurd, the beautiful,
and the alarming collide. Tiny fish begin to
swim sideways, poisoned. The permafrost melts.
Whales are hunted and skinned. The high
school yearbook features students who have hit
moose with their cars. The speaker of one poem
wins a trophy for an essay on the subject “What
Petroleum Means to Me,” presented by a group
of women called the “Petroleum Wives.”
Oil Courses speaks to our collective reliance
on exploitative industries and questions our
responsibilities and relationships to the natural
world. These poems are droll, revealing, and
ultimately haunting.
Related Interest ▼
How Blood Works

The Conscience of
a City and a Nation
Paul Block Jr., The Toledo Blade, and
the Shaping of Mid-Century America
D A V I D M . M U R R A Y
The pioneering career and fascinating life
of one of Toledo’s most notable citizens
The Conscience of a City and a Nation is the first
comprehensive biography of Paul Block Jr., son
of a publishing giant who owned newspapers
across the United States. Although Block was
passionate about studying chemistry, after his
father’s death, he stepped in to help run papers
the Blocks owned in Pittsburgh and Toledo.
Eventually, Block and his family relocated to
Toledo, one of Ohio’s up-and-coming cities.
After working to gain respect from his col-
leagues at The Blade, Block became well known
for his commitment to unbiased journalism. This
book traces his long career—his work on the
Toledo Tomorrow project, educating the nation
about the dangers of atomic secrecy, and his ad-
vocacy for civil rights and social justice. During
a turbulent time in American history, Block was
unafraid to champion causes he believed in.
Making use of archival materials—including
Block’s letters, records, reports, clippings, and
photographs—Murray traces Block’s unlikely
trajectory and his philosophy about the role
journalism should have in influencing change at
the local, national, and even global levels. Metic-
ulously researched and engagingly written, The
Conscience of a City and a Nation is an important
biography about one of Ohio’s most influential
figures in the 20th century.

The View
from Havana
Searching for Ernest Hemingway
M A R K B U R R E L L
A journalist’s passion for cars and boats
becomes a story that’s part travelogue, part
personal adventure, and part literary study
It began with a simple question: Was Ernest Hem-
ingway a “car guy”? For journalist Mark Burrell,
this initial curiosity turned into a decades-long
quest to learn more about Hemingway by finding
the people who knew him best in Italy, Cuba, and
Key West. With every interview and meeting,
more questions arose. Was an old boat at Hem-
ingway’s Cuban estate, Finca Vigía, the real Pilar
or a replica? Were Hemingway’s furniture, art,
and 9,000-book library still inside the Finca? How
did Cubans feel about the American writer, and
what role did he have in his community there?
Was Hemingway’s son, Patrick, right that losing
his hilltop villa after 20 years was the “last straw”
that led to his father’s suicide?
Through a captivating blend of memoir and
personal journalism, Burrell’s explorations
reveal a shy, sensitive artist who never recovered
from losing Finca Vigía, Havana, Cojimar,
and the “good natured people of the northern
shore” to the Cold War. As Burrell got to know
Patrick and those closest to Ernest Hemingway,
he formed a novel view of “the bronze God of
Literature,” as he’s known in Cuba. Burrell’s
adventures took him from dodging freighters at
night in the Gulf Stream to racing vintage cars
in Italy, all in pursuit of better understanding a
literary giant.

Chris Briem (www.briem.com)@chrisbriem.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New on book in Payday Report with a video interview. paydayreport.com/beyond-steel...

"Beyond Steel" Raises Questions about Pittsburgh's Past and Future

University of Pittsburgh regional economist Christopher Briem’s new book, Beyond Steel, is an essential text for understanding the confusing identity of Pittsburgh in the 21st century.

paydayreport.com

Kent State University Press @ksupress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

We're winding down summer with a roundup of recent news and reviews, including attention for books by @creakyvoice.bsky.social, @chrisbriem.bsky.social, Martin Bush, Raymond DeCapite, Earl J. Hess, and more. Congrats to all of KSUP's authors!

Late summer news and reviews

Kirkus Reviews has the first published review of Oil Courses, the newest volume in our collaboration with the Wick Poetry Center. Congrats to author Carolyn Williams-Noren, whose “climate-conscious…

kentstatebooks.wordpress.com

Kent State University Press @ksupress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Nice seeing KSUP books by Martin Bush and Eric LeMay in the window display at @harvardbookstore.bsky.social—especially when they’re surrounded by other great titles from @longleafserv.bsky.social client presses.

A display of many books in a bookstore window.

Cleveland Magazine @clevelandmag.bsky.social · 2mo ago

There’s always something new to listen to in Northeast Ohio. We feature a snippet of the local music scene in our Cleveland Current Spotify playlist, updated every month with a new mix of tunes. https://clevelandmagazine.com/articles/30-new-songs-by-greater-cleveland-musicians/

Ohio Poetry Association @ohiopoetry.bsky.social · 2mo ago

October 16-17th, join us in the great city of Toledo for the 89th annual Ohio Poetry Day celebration! Complete info at ohiopoetryday.blogspot.com

Ohio Poetry Day Association

"In 1938, the State of Ohio set the third Friday of every October as Ohio Poetry Day. This was the first poetry day established by a state government in the United States. Tessa Sweazy Webb spent th...

ohiopoetryday.blogspot.com

Chris Briem (www.briem.com)@chrisbriem.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Coincidentally, there are a few podcasts coming up. But here is one Pittsburgh-focused podcast you may not have heard of yet and my interview with Ken Eshenbaugh on Steel City Soliloquies: youtu.be/FETvjjWcQqA?...

Kent State University Press @ksupress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

First published review! Kirkus praises @creakyvoice.bsky.social’s “Oil Courses,” coming in September from KSUP and the Wick Poetry Center, saying this “climate-conscious lyrical narrative” makes for “a compelling read.” Preorder now from your favorite indie! www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...

Book cover with text: "OIL COURSES
poems by carolyn williams-noren
WINNER OF THE 2025 STAN AND TOM WICK POETRY PRIZE • PADRAIGÓ TUAMA" and collage image including child, moose, and map.

Text at bottom: "COMPELLING."
Kirkus Reviews

Dr. Jim Downs @jimdowns.bsky.social · 2mo ago

My new essay in Literary Hub on the value—and the difficulty—of public history. lithub.com/on-the-publi...

On the Public Historians Reminding Us How Easy It Is to Repeat the Mistakes of the Past

A recent essay in The New Republic asks why historians have become such visible public voices during the Trump era. Katherine Kelaidis argues that figures such as Heather Cox Richardson, Jill Lepor…

lithub.com