Allen School’s Richard Anderson receives humanitarian award from Association of Computer Machinery

, professor in the UW’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, has received the from the Association for Computer Machinery.

The award, given every two years, recognizes an individual or group who has made a significant contribution through computing technology. Anderson’s award, which comes with a prize of $5,000, recognizes “contributions that bridge the fields of computer science, education and global health.”

Anderson co-directs the , which studies how technology can be used to improve the lives of populations in low-income regions. “With his students and collaborators,” the association noted, “Anderson developed a range of innovative applications in health, education, the internet, and financial services, benefiting underserved communities around the globe.”

Eugene Leighton Lawler (1933-1994), for whom the award is named, was a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley.

Read more about the award on the Allen School .

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91探花chemistry professor Dianne Xiao receives award from DOE Early Career Research Program

, 91探花assistant professor of chemistry, has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science to receive funding from its .

The Early Career Research Program, now in its 12^th year, program supports “exceptional researchers during the crucial early years, when many scientists do their most formative work.”

The program provides university-based researchers with about $150,000 a year for five years, to cover summer salary and expenses. Eighty-three scientists were selected nationwide, including 32 from the DOE’s national laboratories and 51 from U.S. universities. The awards were announced on May 27.

Xiao’s , listed under the Basic Energy Sciences category, is titled “New Synthetic Approaches Towards Atomically Precise 蟺鈥揹 Conjugated Materials.”

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Charles Johnson guest-edits anthology of Black American literature, parts with archive

, 91探花professor emeritus of English, has guest-edited and contributed to a special edition of Chicago Quarterly Review, “

The Chicago Quarterly Review is a nonprofit, independent journal, established in 1994 that publishes short stories, poems, translations and essays by emerging and established writers.

An essayist, screenwriter and professional cartoonist as well as author, Johnson won the National Book Award for his novel “.”

Johnson wrote the introduction and contributed a story to the anthology 鈥� the journal’s volume #33 鈥� called “Night Shift,” which he penned for the 2020 for Humanities Washington. The volume contains work by more than two dozen Black writers. An earlier special edition of the journal was dedicated to South Asian American writers, and an upcoming issue will focus on Native American literature.

Also, Washington University in St. Louis in May that it has acquired the Charles Johnson Papers, an archival collection of materials related to Johnson’s work as an author and illustrator. “Spanning nearly six decades, the collection brings together manuscripts, drafts, correspondence, artwork and ephemera, and serves as a testament to Johnson’s wide-ranging career as a public intellectual.”

An astronomer tells tales of stargazing and pursuing the universe’s big questions, a grandparent shares wisdom for happy living, a jazz drummer lays down a cool new album 鈥�

But behold, yet more! An engineer pens STEM biographies for children, a cartoonist draws stories from his life, researchers ponder the future of river and wildlife conservation, and faculty masters bring out new classical recordings on guitar and piano.

Though 2020 was a holy humbug of a year, 91探花 talents persevered, and published. Here’s a quick look at some giftworthy books and music created by 91探花faculty and staff, and a reminder of some recent favorites.

Stargazing stories: , associate professor of astronomy, published the anecdote-filled “” in August. “These are stories astronomers tell each other when all of us are hanging out at meetings,” Levesque said. Kirkus Reviews called them “entertaining, ardent tales from an era of stargazing that may not last much longer.”

‘Grand’ wisdom: , professor emeritus of English, has written novels, short stories and more, but takes a personal turn in “.” He offers his grandson, and readers, “what I hope are 10 fertile and essential ideas for the art of living.” It’s all presented “tentatively and with great humility,” Johnson says, as “grandfatherly advice is as plentiful as blackberries.”

Drums, duets: , assistant professor of music, released the album “” in March. Poor told 91探花News the music “is a celebration of space 鈥� space for drums to resonate and convey a feeling, and for the melody to dance around and push that feeling. It is primarily a collection of duets with saxophonist聽 and the sound of the record is focused on drums and sax throughout.”

STEM stories: , professor of civil and environmental engineering, published two books for young readers this fall: “The Secret Lives of Scientists, Engineers, and Doctors,” volumes and . The volumes showcase “the struggle, growth and success” of 12 professionals in STEM fields, including a geneticist, a biologist, a cancer researcher and a scientist at the National Institutes of Health. More books are .

Life drawings: , professor of Slavic languages and literatures and comparative literature, published “,” a eclectic collection of drawings and essays, highlighting his different styles through the years, “from tragedy to tragicomedy to documentary to black humor,” he said.

Guitar works: School of Music faculty guitarist released his 10^th album in March. “” features classical guitar works written for him by composers and

Sheppard plays Brahms: , internationally known professor and pianist, put out a digital release of 107 early Brahms works in October, titled “.” The work joins Sheppard’s lengthy from a decades-long career.

Ecological restoration: How has climate change affected regional ecological restoration? , a research scientist in human centered design and engineering, looks for answers in “,” from 91探花Press.

River history: Seattle was born from the banks of the Duwamish River, writes BJ Cummings of the 91探花Superfund Research Program, but the river鈥檚 story, and that of its people, has not fully been told. Cummings seeks to remedy that with 鈥�,鈥� published by 91探花Press.

Coexisting: Agriculture and wildlife can coexist, says , professor of environmental and forest sciences, in his book “.” But only “if farmers are justly rewarded for conservation, if future technological advancements increase food production and reduce food waste, and if consumers cut back on meat consumption.”

And here are some favorites from 2019:

O鈥橫ara鈥檚 鈥楥ode鈥�: History professor provides a sweeping history of California鈥檚 computer industry titans in “ The New York Times called it an “accessible yet sophisticated chronicle.”

Mindful travel: of the English Department and the Comparative History of Ideas program discusses how travelers can respectfully explore cultures with lower incomes, different cultural patterns and fewer luxuries in “.”

Kingdome man: , associate professor of architecture, studies the life and work of Jack Christiansen, designer of the Kingdome and other structures, in “,” published by 91探花Press.

Powerful silence: “,” a documentary directed by English professor about NFL star Marshawn Lynch’s use of silence as a form of protest, is available for rent or purchase on several platforms.

Seattle stories: 91探花Press republished English professor ‘s well-loved 1976 reflections on his city, “.” Sale, who taught at the 91探花for decades, died in 2017.

• Joanne De Pue, School of Music communications director, assisted with this story.

“” was published May 5 by Hanover Square Press. Small and 152 pages slim, the volume nonetheless is like a thoughtful tour of the author’s bookshelf.

In its pages, Johnson offers “what I hope are 10 fertile and essential ideas for the art of living to my grandson and those other children in his generation.” He writes that he offers the thoughts “tentatively and with great humility” 鈥� admitting that “grandfatherly advice is as plentiful as blackberries.”

Johnson is the Pollock professor of English at the UW, now emeritus. His 1990 novel “” won the National Book Award. This is his 25^th book. 91探花Notebook connected with Johnson via email to ask a few questions about the new book.

How did this little book come about?

Charles Johnson: At the request of the editor of “3rd Act” magazine, a local publication for seniors, I published an essay titled “” in their fall, 2018 issue. The response to this essay was strong so I pitched it as a book idea to one of my former editors at Scribner, John Glynn, who has his own imprint now, Hanover Square Press, at Harper Collins. John was enthusiastic about the book and did, I feel, a gorgeous job on its production. What I did was simply expand on the original essay’s 10 items of advice that I would offer to my grandson and his generation for a happy life.

Who is the book written for?

C.J.: The audience for “GRAND” is parents and grandparents, and probably any adult who might find the wisdom in the 10 items of advice interesting. And of course it’s for our grandchildren, too, when they’re old enough to read and understand its contents.

Your grandson, you write, will have the freedom to react to life as he wishes: “There is a time-honored word for this flexibility in life: jazz.” Why was that the perfect word?

C.J.: Like me, the great jazz musician is a practicing Buddhist. I was delighted when he said in a 2007 interview for Beliefnet that, “The cool thing is that jazz is really a wonderful example of the great characteristics of Buddhism and the great characteristics of the human spirit. Because in jazz we share, we listen to each other, we are creating in the moment. At our best we’re nonjudgmental. If we let judgment get in the way of improvising, it always screws us up. So we take whatever happens and try to make it work…”

Of the “ideas for the art of living” that head each chapter, one inspires a laugh: “Open Mouth, Already a Mistake.” What’s the lesson there?

C.J.: The lesson is simply the advice that we find in much spiritual literature: Namely, that before we speak we should check what we are going to say at Three Gates. The Gates are questions. “Is it true?” “It is necessary?” to say at this time. And “Will it cause no harm?” If what we intend to say can pass this test, then for a Buddhist 鈥� or anyone 鈥� it would be what is called

“GRAND” is also out as an audiobook, read by actor . You’ve said you enjoy dramatically reading your writing to audiences. What was it like to hear another voice, narrating and interpreting your work?

C.J.:聽I don’t have the audiobook, but I recently did listen a little bit to Ron Butler reading from the book’s introduction on Amazon’s feature where you can listen to a sample of the text. I was impressed. Harper Collins sent me samples from four actors, and I selected Butler because I felt his voice, although not like my own, hit all the right notes with the right timbre, and made the writing come alive.

You write of seeking the beautiful amid impermanence and change. What are your thoughts in light of the coronavirus pandemic?

C.J.: I think we are going through a remarkably painful and challenging moment in modern history that has upended a way of life that we were used to. When I wrote “GRAND” last fall, we were not in the midst of a global pandemic. My 8-year-old grandson was not doing remote learning with his teachers. I was not going to the grocery store wearing a mask.

The advice about how to deal with change, loss and impermanence in the 10 items I compiled for my grandson is something we are right now experiencing palpably. The specter of death and disease, and our fragility as well as resilience as human beings is dramatically on display every day.

91探花Notebook is a section of the 91探花News site dedicated to telling stories of the good work done by faculty and staff at the 91探花. Read all posts here.

91探花English professor emeritus is one of five people whose likeness is featured on posters promoting diversity and inclusion sent by the to every college undergraduate philosophy program in the United States and Canada.

And he is in excellent company: The other four people featured, each in a separate poster, are American writers and ; British novelist , winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize for literature; and English actor . The posters are part of a of information designed to help departments support philosophy students from underrepresented groups.

Johnson earned his doctorate in philosophy from the State University of New York and is the co-author, with Michael Boylan, of a on philosophy. In that book Johnson quotes French philosopher Albert Camus: 鈥淚f you want to be a philosopher, write novels.鈥�

He is the 91探花Pollock Endowed Professor of Writing, the author of two dozen books and recipient of numerous honors, including the 1990 National Book Award for his novel 鈥�.鈥� A stage production of the novel will premiere at Chicago’s in February 2020. Other recent awards and activities include:

• Johnson鈥檚 2018 short story collection 鈥溾�� was a finalist for the 2019 in fiction.
• Actor Levar Burton (鈥淩eading Rainbow,鈥� 鈥淪tar Trek: The Next Generation鈥�) has recorded a performance of Johnson鈥檚 story 鈥淜woon鈥� for the .
• Johnson published a tribute to novelist , who died in August. She was best known for her 1959 debut novel 鈥�.” He suggests that Marshall鈥檚 works should be taught widely in schools 鈥渇or the literary standard she set for 65 years. We owe that to ourselves for generations to come.鈥�

91探花Notebook is a section of the 91探花News site dedicated to telling stories of the good work done by faculty and staff at the 91探花. Read all posts here.

An architect argues to stay the wrecking ball and reuse older buildings, a historian recalls Martin Luther King Jr.’s timeless economic message, a master storyteller brings a new set of tales, an engineer conjures a children’s book with a robot’s-eye view of the deep ocean 鈥�

But hark! 鈥� yet more. Personal essays on nature spanning a biologist’s career, a best-selling author’s take on America’s unprecedented president, and a thoughtful book about books themselves, their past and their unwritten future. Plus jazz and classical recordings from faculty in the 91探花School of Music.

As the year comes to a close and festivities abound, some 91探花 faculty creations can make great gifts for the thinking Dawg on your giving list. Here’s a quick look at some gift-worthy books and music created by 91探花talents in the last year or so.

Michael Honey, 鈥�To the Promised Land: Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice.鈥�

Fifty years have passed since King’s 1968 assassination. In a new book, Honey, a 91探花Tacoma historian, notes that economic justice and labor rights were always part of King鈥檚 progressive message. 鈥淗e said in Memphis, 鈥業t鈥檚 a crime in a rich nation for people to receive starvation wages,鈥欌�� Honey says. 鈥淭hat remains a basic issue right now across the country, where it seems like the economy is doing really well but there are millions of people in poverty.鈥� Published by .

Dana Manalang, “.”

After years working on a cabled observatory that monitors the Pacific Northwest seafloor and water above, Manalang, an engineer with the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory, decided to share the wonder of the deep sea with younger audiences. The result is this new children’s book published by Virginia-based , which combines images of the deep ocean captured during 91探花School of Oceanography research cruises with rhyming couplets and a cartoon robot illustrated by 91探花designer .

Charles Johnson, 鈥�.鈥�

A prolific author and 91探花professor emeritus of English, Johnson spins a dozen yarns in this new story collection, from realism to light science fiction and beyond, laced gently with humor and philosophy. Calling him a 鈥渕odern master,鈥� Kirkus Reviews said his stories 鈥渃an be as morally instructive as fables, as fancifully ingenious as Twilight Zone scripts, and as elegantly inscrutable as Zen riddles.鈥� Asked how he knows when a story is done, Johnson said: 鈥淲hen I can鈥檛 add another line (or word) to it without disturbing the delicate balance of music and meaning, sound and sense that comes from relentless revisions.鈥� Published by

Kathryn Rogers Merlino, 鈥�Building Reuse: Sustainability, Preservation, and the Value of Design鈥�

Tearing down buildings and discarding the energy and materials embodied in them is contrary to the values of sustainability, writes Merlino, an associate professor of architecture in the 91探花College of Built Environments. We avidly recycle and compost, but have no cultural ethic about reusing our largest manufactured goods 鈥� our buildings. 鈥淲e quickly demolish buildings in the name of new, 鈥榞reen鈥� structures, rather than looking for the possibilities of how we can work with what exists,鈥� Merlino says. To me there is an inherent conflict in there, and I think we can do better.鈥� Published by .

David Shields, 鈥�No One Hates Trump More Than Trump: An Intervention.鈥�

In his latest release, Shields, a 91探花professor of English and New York Times best-selling author, deconstructs the mind of the current president of the United States. The book, is 鈥渁t once a psychological investigation of Trump, a philosophical meditation on the relationship between language and power,鈥� publisher鈥檚 notes say, 鈥渁nd above all a dagger into the rhetoric of American political discourse 鈥� a dissection of the politesse that gave rise to and sustains Trump.鈥� He calls it 鈥渁 manual for beating bullies.鈥� Published by .

Kenneth Pyle: 鈥溾��

After the United States ended World War II by dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it then conducted 鈥渢he most intrusive international reconstruction of another nation in modern history,鈥� writes Pyle, a 91探花professor emeritus of international studies. Only now, amid geopolitical changes of the 21st century, is Japan pulling free from American dominance and constraints placed on it after the war. The book, distilling a lifetime of research, examines how Japan, with its conservative heritage, responded to the imposition of a new liberal order and tracks the now-changing relationship between the two nations. Published by .

Amaranth Borsuk, 鈥� 鈥�

Borsuk, a 91探花Bothell assistant professor as well as a poet and book artist, explores the book, its past and possible futures in this compact volume. 鈥淩ather than bemoaning the death of books or creating a dichotomy between print and digital media,鈥� she writes, 鈥渢his guide points to continuities, positioning the book as a changing technology and highlighting the way artists in the 20th and 21st centuries have pushed us to rethink and redefine the term.鈥� Published by

Jim Kenagy, 鈥�鈥�

Kenagy, a professor emeritus of biology, presents a collection of 13 nature essays set in time across his life, from freshman field trips through his 聽dissertation and career at a major university. 鈥淭hese stories are not the scientific reports of a research professor, nor are they an attempt at popular science,鈥� state publisher’s notes. 鈥淭hese are personal essays that spring forth from observation and discovery of what nature has to show anyone who is willing to pay attention.鈥� Published by .

Pimone Triplett, “”

In her new book of poems, Triplett, a 91探花associate professor of English and creative writing, says she explores “the thinning lines between responsibility and complicity, the tangled 鈥榮upply chain鈥� that unnervingly connects the domestic to the political, personal memory to social practice, and our age-old familial discords to our new place in the anthropocentric world. Published by .

Multiple authors, “”

This reference book was first published in 1973 and became an instant classic for its innovative style and comprehensive illustrations. Now, botanists at the 91探花Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture have created this updated second edition, which includes the reclassification or renaming of about 40 percent of the taxa covered by the first edition. Published by .

And to accompany your reading, here are some recent recordings from faculty in the 91探花School of Music:

Cuong Vu 4-Tet, “”

The latest CD by Vu, trumpeter and 91探花Jazz Studies professor and chair 鈥� created with his “4-tet” 鈥� is landing on critics鈥� best-of lists for 2018. Guitarist Bill Frisell, drummer Ted Poor, bassist Luke Bergman and Vu all contribute new music on this follow-up to the group鈥檚 2017 album. A London Jazz News critic called the results 鈥渦niformly excellent.鈥� Released by RareNoise Records.

Craig Sheppard, “” and “”

Sheppard, 91探花professor of music, released two CDs this year, documenting live performances at Meany Hall. For one, he presents the revised score of Bach’s master work, left incomplete upon the composer’s death. The other is a deluxe collection of Brahms’s four sets of lyrical piano miniatures,
Opus 116 through 119. Released by Romeo Records.

Michael Partington, “”

An artist in residence at the 91探花School of Music, Partington returns to the 19^th century repertoire that formed the basis of his early musical development in this collection, performed on a mid-1800s French Romantic guitar. Released by Rosewood Guitar.

, 91探花 professor emeritus of English and award-winning author, has released a new book of short stories, his fourth.

The dozen stories in “,” published this month by Scribner, range from realism to light science fiction, myth and his own personal experiences, laced gently with humor and philosophy. Calling him a “modern master,” Kirkus Reviews of the new book: “Johnson’s stories can be as morally instructive as fables, as fancifully ingenious as Twilight Zone scripts, and as elegantly inscrutable as Zen riddles.”

Johnson, the S. Wilson and Grace M. Pollock Endowed Professor of Writing, is author of 23 books over a five-decade career and the recipient of numerous awards, including the 1990 National Book Award for his novel “.”

He talked with 91探花News about the new book and his creative process for short story-writing.

Where do the initial ideas 鈥� the very first thought 鈥� for stories generally come from? Is there any pattern?

C.J.: Eleven of the 12 stories in 鈥淣ight Hawks鈥� were written for Humanities Washington’s yearly fundraiser. I fathered this reading series 20 years ago with the suggestion that the board members at Humanities Washington give a theme or prompt to three writers who would then use it to create a new literary work for the event.

I’ve done this 19 times now. Each year now the talented musicians in the create a song for the stories, which they perform after the writer reads it.聽 Over the last two decades themes we’ve been given to write to 鈥� which all involve bedtime or nighttime in some way 鈥� include “night hawks,” “night watch,” and “pillow talk.” Writing to a theme this way has blessed me to dream up a new story I would never have thought of doing on my own.

This is reminiscent of improvisational comedy, where performers create a piece from words suggested by the audience. What theme, if you can say, suggested your lead story, “The Weave,” which was included in the prestigious 2016 Pushcart Anthology?

There is a similarity with the Bedtime Stories approach and improvisational comedy. Or even with medieval troubadours called upon to whip up a story requested by an audience. For “The Weave,” I believe the prompt or phrase for that year was “red eye.” In the third sentence of the story it says of the character Ieesha, “She has a sore throat and red eyes…”

What do you learn about a story by reading it aloud before an audience?

I never just “read” a story. I dramatically perform it. One composes a story as one would, say, a musical composition. There are places where the tempo speeds up, other places where it slows down. Places where one turns up the volume when reading, and other places where one lowers it. You discover these places when you read the story aloud.

I always select, for example, a passage from a novel or story and test it, play and experiment with performing it before I give readings. That means there are chapters and passages I can’t just read “cold” because I haven’t had the opportunity to feel my way through them, as an actor would.

As a practicing Buddhist, I can also say that control of one’s breath is also important during the reading experience. One also changes, if possible, voices when reading dialogue because each character speaks or sounds differently from the others. Before giving a reading (or even a lecture), I always sit first in meditation to prepare myself for delivering the performance.

How do you know when an idea will become a story? What elements need to be in place for you to think: Yes, I can write this.

In my essay “Storytelling and the Alpha Narrative” in “The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling” (2016) I explain this process. We begin with a conflict, what writer John Barth once called the “ground situation.” That’s your first good idea at the start of the story. You then need a second good idea for the middle of the story, one that expands, develops or complicates in some way the first idea. And then at the story’s end you need a third good idea to wrap things up. Using this model, then, one needs three good ideas for storytelling.

How much of a story do you have to have planned out before you begin? Do characters sometimes take you in unexpected directions?

Ninety percent of good writing is rewriting and/or re-envisioning the story as one carefully moves through it, layering and cutting each sentence and paragraph until one achieves specificity or granularity of detail, rhythm and music in the prose. As the writer discovers new details for character and event, it is very likely that one’s original idea will be modified and an early outline will have to be abandoned; a writer gets to know his or her characters better with each new detail that despoils possibilities.

That’s the joy of literary art 鈥� this process of discovery that makes the challenge of every story different.

During your final edits of a piece of fiction, are you more likely to take something out or put something in?

Because I highly value poetic compression in my prose, I’m most likely to take something out if it doesn’t contribute to the music of a sentence.

With writing as with cartooning 鈥� which you also do 鈥� it鈥檚 good to know when to stop, when enough lines are laid down. How do you know when a story is done?

I know a story is done when I can’t add another line (or word) to it without disturbing the delicate balance of music and meaning, sound and sense that comes from relentless revisions as it moved from one draft to another.

Finally, a new book such as “Night Hawks” is complete, jacketed and in your hands. What tend to be your thoughts?

I feel a profound sense of relief. The stories were written over 12 years. It always takes a team of talented people 鈥� my editor, proofreaders, the publisher, and many others 鈥� to bring any book to its final form as a gift to readers, and for their crucial help I am eternally grateful.

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For more information about Johnson and his work, contact him at CChasjohn@aol.com.

A novelist’s thoughts on storytelling, a geologist’s soil restoration strategy, an environmentalist’s memoir, a celebration of Latino music influences, a poet’s meditations on her changing city 鈥�

Yes, and a best-selling author’s latest work, a podcast reborn as a book, a collaboration of world-class violists and even tales of brave Icelandic seawomen 鈥� at this festive time of year, 91探花 faculty creations can make great gifts for the Dawg on your shopping list.

Here鈥檚 a quick look at some gift-worthy books and music created by 91探花talents in the last year or so 鈥� and a reminder of some perennial favorites.

Charles Johnson, “.” Johnson, National Book Award-winning author of “” and longtime professor of English, discusses his art in a book stemming from a year of interviews. “There is winning sanity here,” the New York Times wrote: “Johnson wants his students to be ‘raconteurs always ready to tell an engaging tale,’ not self-preoccupied neurotics.” Published by .

Marisol Berr铆os-Miranda, Shannon Dudley and Michelle Habell-Pall谩n, ““ An extraordinary exhibit at the Smithsonian and Seattle’s Experience Music Project (now Museum of Pop Culture) comes to life as a book, detailing Latino influence on American popular music from salsa to punk, Chicano rock to the Miami sound. Berrios-Miranda is an affiliate associate professor of ethnomusicology, Dudley an associate professor of music and Habell-Pall谩n an associate professor in the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies. It’s a dual-language volume 鈥� English on the right side, Spanish on the left. And as a bonus the authors have created an American Sabor on iTunes and Spotify; the book flags specific songs with a playlist icon. Published by 91探花 Press.

David R. Montgomery, “.” Montgomery, a professor of Earth and space sciences, won praise for his popular 2007 book “.” Several books later he returned in 2017 with this view of environmental restoration based on three ideas 鈥� “ditch the plow, cover up, grow diversity.” said Montgomery’s well-expressed views “will convince readers that soil health should not remain an under-the-radar issue and that we all benefit from embracing a new philosophy of farming.” Published by .

Margaret Willson, Willson is an affiliate associate professor of anthropology and the Canadian Studies Arctic Program. In her years working as a deckhand she came across historic accounts of a woman sea captain known for reading the weather, hauling in large catches and never losing a crew member in 60 years of fishing. “And yet people in Iceland told me there had been few seawomen in their past, and few in their present,” she said. “I found this strange in a country of such purported gender equality. This curiosity led to the research and all that came from it.” Published by .

Estella Leopold, “.” Leopold is professor emeritus of biology and the youngest daughter of , who wrote the 1949 classic of early environmentalism, “.” She returns to scenes of her Wisconsin childhood in this follow-up, describing her life on the land where her father practiced his revolutionary conservation philosophy. Published by .

David Shields, “.” Shields is a professor of English and the best-selling author of many books, starting with his 1984 novel “.” In 2017 he brought out this collection of essays that the New York Times called “a triumphantly humane book” and him “our elusive, humorous ironist, something like a 21^st century Socrates.” The paper’s praise continued: “He is a master stylist 鈥� and has been for a long time, on the evidence of these pieces from throughout his career. . . All good writers make us feel less alone. But Shields makes us feel better.” Published by .

Joseph Janes, “.” The year 2017 saw Janes’ popular podcast “” become a book under a slightly different title. Janes is an associate professor in the Information School who writes here about the origin and often evolving meaning of historical documents, both famous and less known. Some of his favorite “documents” are Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s fictional list of communists, the Fannie Farmer Cookbook and the backstory to what’s called the Rosie the Riveter poster. Published by .

Frances McCue, Well-known Seattle poet, teacher and self-described “arts instigator,” McCue is a senior lecturer in English. She was a co-founder of Hugo House, a place for writers, and served as its director for 10 years. Those experiences fuel this book of poems about the changing nature of the city. “This is Seattle. A place to love whatever’s left,” she writes. Published by .

Scott L. Montgomery, “.” Scientific research that doesn鈥檛 get communicated effectively to the public may as well not have happened at all, says geoscientist Montgomery in this second volume of a popular 2001 book. A prolific writer, Montgomery is a lecturer in the Jackson School of International Studies. “Communicating is the doing of science,” he adds. “Publication and public speaking are how scientific work gains a presence, a shared reality in the world.鈥澛� Published by .

Odai Johnson, “.” The true cultural tipping point in the run-up to the American Revolution, writes Johnson, a professor in the School of Drama, might not have been the Boston Tea Party or even the First Continental Congress. Rather, he suggests, it was Congress’ 1774 decision to close the British American theaters 鈥� a small act but “a hard shot across the bow of British culture.” Published by .

Here are some recordings from 2017 involving faculty in the 91探花School of Music:

Melia Watras, “.” Music professor Watras offers a collaboration from of world-class violists performing and sharing their own compositions with each other. Her own playing has been described in the press as “staggeringly virtuosic.” Richard Karpen, School of Music director, is among several guests. The title comes from the number of strings on the instruments used: two violas, one violin, and the 14-string viola d’amore. .

Cuong Vu 4-Tet, “.” A live collaboration between Vu, 91探花Jazz Studies chair, and renowned jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, who is an affiliate professor with the School of Music. Recorded in 2016 at Meany Theater, Vu and Frisell were joined by artists in residence Ted Poor on drums and Luke Bergman on bass. Released on .

Craig Sheppard, “.” Sheppard, longtime professor of music and a world-class pianist, plays sonatas and mazurkas by Frederic Chopin recorded live at Meany Theater in February 2017. The Seattle Times said of an earlier Chopin concert of Sheppard’s that his playing featured “exquisite details 鈥� it was playing that revealed layer after layer of music in each piece, as if one were faceting a gemstone. Released on .

Here are some other notable recent UW-authored books:

• Research on poverty and the American suburbs in “,” by Scott Allard, professor in the Evan School of Public Policy & Governance.
• Literature meets science to contemplate the geologic epoch of humans in “,” co-edited by Jesse Oak Taylor, associate professor of English.
• A popular science exploration of machine learning and the algorithms that help run our lives in “,” by Pedro Domingos, professor of computer science and engineering.
• A close look at four of America’s electoral adventures in “” by Margaret O’Mara, professor of history.
• A fully revised second edition of Earth and space sciences professor Darrel Cowan’s popular 1984 book, “.” This 378-page paperback is filled with details about Washington state geology.
• The story of a city’s transition from the Ottoman Empire to Greece in “” by Devin Naar, professor of history and Jewish studies.
• A city that “thinks like a planet” is one both resilient to and ready for the future that the changing Earth will bring, says Marina Alberti, professor in the College of Built Environments in “.
• Todd London, professor and director of the School of Drama, follows the professional theater experiences of 15 actors from the 1995 class of Harvard’s American Repertory Theater in “.”
• Dr. Stephen Helgerson, a 91探花School of Public Health alumnus and physician in preventive medicine for four decades, uses the novella form to tell of the influenza epidemic’s arrival in his state in “.”
• On the 500^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, an exploration of faith that results in the common good in 鈥�,鈥� co-authored by Steve Pfaff, professor of sociology.
• Calm down from holiday 鈥� and tech-induced stresses 鈥� by thinking mindfully with “” by communication professor David Levy.

Finally, still-popular and pertinent books from a few years back include the second edition of “” by Jeffrey Ochsner, professor of architecture; “” by Randlett with Frances McCue; “” by Cliff Mass, professor of atmospheric sciences; and the ever-popular “” by Bill Holm, professor emeritus of art history. All of these were published by , which has many other great titles.

is the S. Wilson and Grace M. Pollock Endowed Professor of Writing, now emeritus, at the 91探花. He is the author of 22 books over a five-decade career and the recipient of numerous other awards and honorary degrees, including the 1990 National Book Award for his novel “.”

Johnson’s latest book, published this fall by Scribner, is “.” A in the New York Times praised the book, saying, “There is winning sanity here. Johnson wants his students to be ‘raconteurs always ready to tell an engaging tale,’ not self-preoccupied neurotics.'”

This book arose from extensive interviews with scholar E. Ethelbert Miller. Why did you decide to cull it from that wide-ranging discussion to make it a separate book?

Several people, among them Ethelbert Miller and , who is a 91探花professor emeritus and former , read the 672-page tome ““ (Dzanc Books, 2015), in which I answered 218 questions (out of 400) that Miller asked me about every subject under the sun in 2011,聽and they said my short essays on literary craft could stand by themselves as a manual of instruction. Joe Scott, who tells me he never took a course in writing, told me the craft essays helped him a great deal聽so this book is dedicated to him.

You write that “a body of work should deliver both theory and practice.” Would you explain a bit?

It’s important for a writer (or any artist) to have a vision of their entire body of work or oeuvre. They need to understand how each book they publish is uniquely bringing something to the table of literary culture that we have never seen before and that enriches this culture.

In my case, every novel, essay, scholarly聽article, short story, drawing or political cartoon or my 1970 PBS series “Charlie’s Pad,” screenplay, book review, newspaper op-ed, etc. should be seen as a brick in the larger building of art that I’ve been creating for 51 years since 1965 when I began publishing at age 17.

Theory complements and explains practice. So, for example, published his classic essay “A Blueprint for Negro Writing” in 1937, John Gardner published his manifesto “, and I published my dissertation ““ (1988) as way to clarify our creative practice. One isn’t just writing blindly from one book to the next with no general vision in mind.

As an early exercise, you write, you copied by hand a chapter of your mentor John Gardner’s writing, to “plunge” into his meter and rhythm. The young Jack London similarly copied Rudyard Kipling stories, and a fledgling Hunter S. Thompson typed out all of “The Great Gatsby” for practice. What is the value of this sort of exercise?

I’d forgotten those stories about London, who was a truly gifted storyteller (but sadly, a paleo-racist who hated boxer Jack Johnson), and Thompson. But I love stories like that. The exercise is useful because copying a work forces a writer to more closely and carefully experience the music of another writer’s prose. In the new book, I discuss this important and necessary聽unity of music and meaning, sound and sense in every sentence and paragraph, which I view as being units of energy to be released on the page.

Recalling Gardner once saying that “teaching creative writing is a joke,” you write that you work against that by making your writing workshops rigorous and demanding. How much of creative writing can truly be taught?

You can teach the basics of storytelling 鈥� for a garden variety novel or short story 鈥� in a聽10-week academic term. I did that for 33 years. The fundamental tools in one’s toolbox aren’t many: characters, description, narration, plot, dialogue and scene construction. That’s all you need for what I call industrial fiction. But for original, perception-liberating storytelling, you obviously need much more than just the basics.

What do you hope a writer seeking improvement might take away from this book?

There are numerous writing exercises, creative tips, and lots of discussion of literary technique in “The Way of the Writer.” But what’s really important is that an aspiring writer needs to understand that those things are just in the service of that most deceptively simple and yet difficult of achievements 鈥� delivering undamaged a whopping good, imaginative and original story 鈥� and that being an artist is a total Way 鈥� a daily Way 鈥� of being-in-the-world.

Back, briefly, to “Middle Passage”: You describe writing 3,000 pages over several years to finally arrive at the 250-page book. What guided you as to what to keep and what to cut?鈥�

What guided me was the logic of the story聽itself. I wrote the first draft of “Middle Passage”聽too quickly, in two years. As I’ve explained often and elsewhere, the second half of that first version of the novel differs radically from the version published 26 years ago. It more resembles “Gulliver’s Travels.” In fact, for six years my working title for the novel was “Rutherford’s Travels” 鈥� and the聽adaptation by Pegasus Theater just performed in Chicago uses that earlier title.

When I rewrote and rethought the novel during the last four years of its composition, I added a second mutiny to the one by the slaves (by the crew of the Republic), kept the entire story on the sea right through to the end so the threat of dying by drowning never ends, and I brought Rutherford Calhoun (my Odysseus) and Isadora Bailey (my Penelope) together again, which allowed the book to start off as a picaresque, turn into an epic at the middle of the story, and come to rest finally as a romance.

A by the Chicago Tribune called Pegasus Theatre’s “Rutherford’s Travels” production “as arresting and vivid as the best sea tales.” What were your thoughts or concerns seeing your most famous work being adapted to for the stage? Might Seattle audiences get a chance one day to see the play?聽

The production by Pegasus Theatre received unanimously rave reviews, and for good reason: The play is a fantastic, powerful experience. I saw two performances in November. The Chicago production ended Dec. 4, but writer/producers David Barr III and Ilesa Duncan are receiving requests from regional theaters to do the show. I think the plan will be like the one my friend, the late playwright , followed 鈥� staging the play around the country in regional theaters, then taking it to Broadway. So Seattle should be somewhere in that game plan or playbook.

###

For more information about Johnson and his work, contact him at CChasjohn@aol.com.

, 91探花professor emeritus of English, was asked to write a statement regarding an item that will be displayed at the new in Washington, D.C. What he wrote was featured in a special issue of

The item is an iron slave shackle from the 19^th century.

Johnson is the author of several books, including “,” which won the 1990 National Book Award. Its central character is a freed slave who finds himself aboard a ship bound for Africa to capture tribal residents there to return to America to sell as slaves.

Here is what Johnson wrote, under the title “Captured in Africa”:

“If these shackles could speak, they would say it took the resources of an entire society to create slave ships. Every shipboard item pointed to not only the financiers but also the merchants who prepared barrels of salted beef and the workers who created tools of restraint. A medical device adapted for the trade, the speculum oris, was used to force open the mouths of slaves who refused to eat. Everyone in slave trading societies, even those who never owned a slave, was implicated. No one in a country that profited from traffic in slaves was innocent.”

Johnson is in excellent company in providing statements for the article, about items in the museum. Oprah Winfrey wrote about a shawl owned by Harriet Tubman. wrote about a bus station waiting room sign for white passengers only. wrote about a protest placard for the 1963 March on Washington 鈥� and many more, illustrated in the magazine through haunting images by photographer .

The museum opens on Sept. 24.

Johnson’s next book is “ being published this fall by Simon & Shuster.

is the Pollock Professor of English, now emeritus, at the 91探花. He is the author of 21 books over a 50-year career and the recipient of numerous other awards and honorary degrees.

Johnson has three new books out: “,” “” and “.”

“The Words and Wisdom of Charles Johnson” reflects a year of questions posed to you by poet and teacher and ranges across more than 600 pages. How did this unusual collaboration come about?

CJ: At the beginning of 2011, Ethelbert approached me with a proposal to ask me questions covering a wide range of topics for an entire year. He asked me 400, and of those I answered 218, often at length in the form of mini-essays on virtually every subject under the sun 鈥� writing craft; literature black and white; Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism; Western philosophy; cartooning and the visual arts; the martial arts; the film work I did for 20 years for PBS and Hollywood studios; the practice of meditation; the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr.; my personal life and habits 鈥� you name it.

For me, it was a real brain dump. There’s no book like this anywhere in world literature 鈥� a very candid, detailed look into a writer’s mind and heart and journey through this life. It was a fascinating challenge for both of us. Ethelbert had to read all my novels, stories, essays, book prefaces and introductions, and because he is an arts advocate and chairs a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C., the Institute for Policy Studies, many of his questions have a political flavor. Really, the 672-page “Words and Wisdom” is as much his book as it is mine.

You started as a cartoonist. Now you have returned to cartoon illustration for the “Adventures of Emery Jones, Boy Wonder” series that you co-write with your daughter, artist . The second of these books, “The Hard Problem” is now available. What was it like to draw professionally again?

CJ: Being able to draw professionally again for publication has been a blessing for me. Between 1965 (when I was 17) and 1972, I worked intensely as a professional illustrator and cartoonist, publishing thousands of drawings as a college undergraduate, everything from comic strips to panel cartoons and editorial cartoons. My work appeared in the black press (Black World, Jet, Ebony), The Chicago Tribune, a newspaper in southern Illinois, and really everywhere I could find.

I also published two books, “” (1970) and “Half-Past Nation-Time” (1972), and I did one of the early how-to-draw TV shows, “Charlie’s Pad” (1970), which ran on PBS stations all over the country. But when I transitioned into working on my Ph.D. in philosophy in the early ’70s, then teaching in an English department for 33 years, those fields and the book world never gave me an opportunity to draw, which was my first love since childhood.

When my daughter and I began “” in 2012, I hadn’t drawn for publication in three years. But our illustrator bailed on us at the last minute so I had exactly 18 days and nights to . But that got me back into the swing of things. I did 20 for “The Hard Problem” and spent an entire year 鈥� at Elisheba’s suggestion 鈥� drawing a weekly, science-based “” cartoon to promote our series on social media. It’s been wonderful, like a homecoming, or returning to my creative roots.

Another blessing 鈥� and every artist-father’s dream 鈥� is the experience of creating a series of children’s books (though they’re certainly for adults, too) with my artist-daughter. We’ve been told that the Emery Jones series is the first black, father-daughter fiction collaboration. The main character is named after her son, my grandson, Emery, who is now 3 years old.

You’ve said that the old adage, “90 percent of writing is rewriting” pertains to your work as well. But is the process different when you and your daughter co-write the Emery Jones books? How does that collaboration work?

CJ: When we co-author the Emery Jones books, I ruthlessly revise the prose passages I compose, as I do with anything I write. But I don’t touch the prose or poems Elisheba contributes (she has two poems in “The Hard Problem”), though she will revise my lines if she doesn’t like something.

With these children’s or young adult books, I trust her language and thoughts because she’s closer to the way young people and kids think and feel than I am.

Your 1990 novel “Middle Passage” won the National Book Award for fiction. The New York Times called it “fiction that hooks into the mind.” Did the success of that book change your life or work?

CJ: My publisher is releasing this year a “Scribner Classic” edition of that novel to celebrate its 25th anniversary, with an introduction by cultural critic Stanley Crouch (who was my guest the night of the National Book Award ceremony in 1990), a new cover and new quotes about it from other writers.

Receiving that national fiction prize 鈥� only the second time a black male writer had gotten it after for “Invisible Man” in 1953 鈥� catapulted my “career” (a word I dislike because I don’t like to think of myself as “careerist,” but simply as someone who loves to create). But my family has always been more important to me than anything in the art, literary or academic worlds. So my life, work and reasons for creating have remained the same since I began publishing stories and drawings 50 years ago.

In “Taming the Ox” you discussed Barack Obama in 2008 when his presidential campaign was gaining momentum. You described the “Obama phenomenon” as “not so much revolutionary as it is potentially evolutionary,” from a Buddhist perspective. Now, late in the president’s second term, how do you think that evolution has gone?

CJ: Well, as we know, evolution moves slowly, ponderously, and often at a glacial pace. But we can finally take off the table a discussion that dates back to the founding of this republic: namely, the issue of whether a black person could ever become president or leader of his or her nation. (That still hasn’t happened in Europe or the other western democracies.)

As his second term draws toward an end, there are certainly paleo-racists out there, real Neanderthals, who are still fixed on this bi-racial president’s “race,” but generally I think most people have been more concerned with his daily performance as the president and his policies rather than how much melanin he has. I see that as incremental progress.

But does that mean we’ve entered what some people call a “post-racial” period in American history? I think not. “Race” is still a lived-illusion for far too many people.

Finally, scholars pronounce the concept of The Novel dead every decade or so, yet readers continue to enjoy fiction. What do you think is fiction’s current state of health?

CJ: If we judge the health of fiction by the amount of novels being produced today, which is enormous, with so many authors self-publishing or using nontraditional ways to get their work directly to readers, then I think we would have to conclude that this is a robust period for literary creation of works good, bad, and ugly.

Readers will always enjoy good, imaginative storytelling, which is as old as humanity itself. And the English (and American) novel is just one form of storytelling, albeit one that is capacious and capable of assuming many forms of narrative art since Samuel Richardson’s “” in 1739, Daniel Defoe’s “” in 1719, “ in 1722, and “proto-novels” such as Malory’s “” (1485) and Cervantes’s “” (1605-15).

Really, what we call the novel is too much of a shape-shifter to ever die.