100 Awesome Books - And We Made the Cut!

Great news! The University of Ottawa Press' premier edition of Sofia Tolstaya's memoirs, entitled My Life, was selected for the 2010 Globe 100: Non Fiction list. 

We are extremely excited to have been chosen. To see the complete listing, as well as the lists for Canadian and International Fiction, visit www.theglobeandmail.com

For more information about My Life, visit the University of Ottawa Press website at the following link: http://www.press.uottawa.ca/book/my-life

Meet the 2010 winner of the Governor General's Literary Awards!

For those of you who are looking for something to do this evening, you may want to head down to the ByWard Market for a literary meet-and-greet!

Those of you who venture out will have the opportunity to meet the winners of the 2010 GGs, and have your books signed. The winners include novelists, non-fiction writers, poets, playwrights, illustrators and translators from across the country.

The English-language winners will be gathered at Nicholas Hoare Books, 419 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, and the French-language winners will be at the Librairie du Soleil, 33 George Street, Ottawa.

The event takes place from 6-8pm so if you're lucky, you may even have the opportunity to check out both locations!

For a complete event details and more information on the winners, visit the website of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Finding the Feminine Side of Engineering

An excellent article appeared in the autumn issue of the UK magazine Engineering Apprentice. Writer Ross Ringham had a chat with UOP author Monique Frize about her book The Bold and the Brave: A History of Women in Science and Engineering. They spoke about issues facing women in Engineering, and what needs to be done in both the education system and in the industry itself to achieve gender balance.

Here is some of what Frize had to say:

Increasing the pool of women engineers requires that policies, strategies and initiatives be invested at each level of education, from primary school, to college, to university. We must profile women and their work for generations to come, so that girls think, "I can also do this," and boys think, "Girls and women can also do this."

Equally important is the integration of feminine attributes and perspectives into the culture of engineering and technology, ensuring social relevance is included in the curriculum and using a teaching style that reaches a diversity of audiences.

Engineering needs women more than women need engineering roles. Women currently flock in great numbers to health-related careers, which are in great demand everywhere with the ageing population. So we must find the way to achieve more gender balance, and a culture where women no longer have to be bold and brave to choose engineering careers.

To read the full article, visit the Engineering Apprentice website. You may be asked to create an account to view the article, but it is very simple, and there is no cost. 

Frize was selected by Professional Engineers Ontario and the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers to receive their annual Gold Medal for achievement in the field of engineering. The gold medal will be presented at a Gala tomorrow evening. 

Congratulations, Monique!!

Entrevue avec Denyse Côté, codirectrice de l'ouvrage « Famille et fragmentation »

Cette semaine, une entrevue intéressante au sujet de la garde partagée sera diffusée dans le cadre de l'émission « C'est ça la vie » à l'antenne de Radio-Canada. L’invitée est professeure Denyse Côté, codirectrice de l'ouvrage intitulé « Famille et fragmentation » qui a été codirigé avec Marie-Blanche Tahon.

L'entrevue sera diffusée à l'antenne de Radio-Canada, le 17 novembre entre 14 h et 15 h.

University Affairs article: The woman behind Tolstoy

Earlier this week, the magazine University Affairs/Affaires Universitaires published a short article about the publication of My Life -- the memoirs of Sofia Tolstaya, wife of the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy.

Writer Carolyn Wong interviewed UOP's Managing Editor Marie Clausén for a unique look at the production aspect  of this massive project.

She writes:

"It took two years for Dr. Donskov and a team of two translators (John Woodsworth and Arkadi Klioutchanski, both members of the Slavic Research Group) and press staff to ready the book for publishing. With more than 1,200 pages to translate, scores of names and details to fact-check with experts in Russia, and 4,000 footnotes to create and index, managing editor Marie Clausén describes My Life as “the biggest and most complex book project I have ever worked on.”


With the book successfully completed and launched, Dr. Donskov has turned his attention to writing a critical study of Sofia’s work; none has ever been published in English. “She was an extremely bright woman,” he says. “What is most remarkable [about My Life] is if she had been given a chance, she would have been a very accomplished writer.”


To read the full article, visit the following link:
http://www.universityaffairs.ca/the-woman-behind-tolstoy-tells-her-story.aspx

Lancement de la nouvelle collection aux PUO: 'Traduction littéraire'

Open publication - Free publishing - More lancement

Lest we forget...

    In Flanders fields the poppies blow
    Between the crosses, row on row,
    That mark our place; and in the sky
    The larks, still bravely singing, fly
    Scarce heard amid the guns below.

    We are the Dead. Short days ago
    We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
    Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
    In Flanders Fields.

    Take up our quarrel with the foe:
    To you from failing hands we throw
    The torch; be yours to hold it high.
    If ye break faith with us who die
    We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
    In Flanders Fields.

- John McCrae

   

Évènement: les cultural studies comme projet transdisciplinaire

Les PUO vous invite à la conférence de Boulou Ebanda de B'béri, auteur de la récente parution Les Cultural Studies dans les mondes francophones. Boulou Ebanda de B'béri est professeur au département de communications et directeur-fondateur du Laboratoire des médias audiovisuels pour l'étude des cultures et sociétés (LAMACS) de l’Université d’Ottawa.

L’évènement s’agit d’une reflection sur les ‘cultural studies’ comme projet transdisciplinaire.

Coordonnées de l'événement:

Jeudi 11 novembre 2010, 16h30 à 18h
Pavillon Desmarais (DMS 3105)
Université d'Ottawa

Spotlight on Tom Symons, founder of Trent University

It looks like The Peterborough Examiner has scooped the UOP! Our publicist was surprised to find a link to this article in her inbox this morning, and incredibly impressed with how quickly the news has gotten out about one of our yet-to-be announced titles: Tom Symons, A Canadian Life. This project is so new to the UOP that we haven't yet prepared marketing copy on the title, so for today, we'll let The Examiner do the talking.
Ed Arnold writes:

Peterborough's (we can proudly call him that now since he's lived here for more than four decades, can't we?) Tom Symons, the founder of Trent University, is being recognized with a new book on his professional life. Symons, who has more letters after his name than the alphabet, is one of Canada's educational/ cultural icons and has been for more than 50 years.

The book will be published next year by the University of Ottawa Press and, according to the alumni association newsletter, will tell "the story of Symons's leadership across many areas of Canadian and international life over the past 60 years."

The book Tom Symons, A Canadian Life will have a chapter by Denis Smith, Trent's first vice president, that is to be all about the university's first decade. Other chapters will look at Symons's national unity, Canadian, cultural, heritage and commonwealth roles. Various people including Walter Pitman, John Fraser, Rosalie Abella, ad Tom McMillan, will write chapters.

It's about time.

You can access the article here: http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2835626

We're happy to know that Peterborough locals are as excited about the book as we are, and we'll be sure to send The Examiner a review copy!
 

Launch: The Doom Loop in the Financial Sector, by William Leiss

Come one, come all, to the launch of William Leiss' latest book:
The Doom Loop in the Financial Sector and Other Black Holes of Risk.

Open publication - Free publishing - More william leiss

Nouveauté des PUO: Droits et voix, la criminologie à l'Université d'Ottawa

Dernièrement, le bulletin de découverte et d‘invention de l’Université d’Ottawa, Perspectives sur la recherche, a annoncé la parution d’une des nouveautés des Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa. L’œuvre est intitulée Droits et voix : La criminologie à l’Université d’Ottawa et a été rédigé sous la direction de Véronique Strimelle et Françoise Vanhamme..  

Pour en lire plus: http://www.recherche.uottawa.ca/perspectives/

Open publication - Free publishing - More vieillissement

War and Peace, Love and Marriage, Globe and Mail

We are thrilled to announce that an excellent article about Sofia Tolstaya's My Life  appeared in Saturday's Globe and Mail. The article, called War and peace, love and marriage: How the University of Ottawa Press nabbed the rights to a memoir by Tolstoy's long-suffering wife was written by Jeremy Mesiano-Crookston,a local freelance writer.


Here's an excerpt: 

In the academic world, Leo (Lev Nikolaevich) Tolstoy is a colossus. He’s talked about, read, discussed, dissected and forms a pillar of studies of the novel itself. So how did the written memoirs of Tolstoy’s indomitable wife, Sofia Tolstaya (the Russian feminine version of Tolstoy), one of the most important and anticipated works in modern Tolstoy scholarship, land at a university press in Canada’s capital city? As with most things in academia, it involves an almost obsessive love of the subject, and lots of time. 

Twelve years ago, the University of Ottawa formed the Slavic Research Group under the direction of Andrew Donskov, a world-renowned Tolstoy expert. Since its inception, the group has produced nearly 40 volumes of high-calibre work. “I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that ours would be called the centre of Tolstoy studies in North America,” Donskov says.  [...] Over the years, Donskov worked in [Russia], published jointly with the Russian museums and organizations and eventually became the only foreign scholar on the editorial board of the Russian Academy of Sciences. When Tolstaya’s memoirs were scheduled to be printed in Russia as a coffee-table book, Donskov was entrusted with creating the full scholarly edition, as well as the obligation to treat the material as seriously as it deserved.

To read more, visit the Globe and Mail website at the following link:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/how-a-canadian-university-nabbed-the-rights-to-the-memoirs-of-tolstoys-wife/article1786973/page1/

Black Holes of Risk: author W.Leiss featured in Research Perspectives

UOP author William Leiss was recently featured in the magazine Research Perspectives. The issue, which focussed on risk, was the perfect place to showcase one of our newest titles: The Doom Loop in the Financial Sector: And Other Black Holes of Risk

The book, which hit shelves last week, tells an important story about uncontrolled risk, set against the backdrop of the global financial crisis.

Leiss is a nationally recognized risk management expert and an Associate-Director at the McLaughlin Center for Population Health Risk Assessment. He's a Fellow and former President of the Royal Society of Canada, and an Officer in the Order of Canada. Overall, he has written or edited over 15 books, including Risk and Responsibility and my favourite: Mad Cows and Mother’s Milk, both of which were published by McGill Queen's University Press. 

Open publication - Free publishing - More risk

Two-for-One Book Launch Tomorrow!

A launch will be held tomorrow evening for two of our recent titles: The 1956 Hungarian Revolution: Hungarian and Canadian Perspectives edited by Christopher Adam, Tibor Egervari, Leslie Laczko and Judy Young, as well as Gender and Modernity in Central Europe edited by Agatha Schwartz.

If you're planning on being at the uOttawa campus tomorrow, we encourage you to come out and support the wonderful folks who made these (very attractive) books possible.