Dr. Ibrahim “Abe” Fawal, author of the stunning Palestinian novel On the Hills of God, will be interviewed tomorrow, Feb. 1, 2007, at 6:30 pm on the Birmingham, Alabama, radio program Tapestry on WBHM. Fawal will also give a lecture on “The Origins of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict” on Thursday, Feb. 8, at 7:00 pm at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Education, Room 230. Dr. Fawal, who was born in Ramallah, will speak about Palestine and its history, using his novel as a jumping off point for discussion.

Booklist called the PEN Oakland Award-winning On the Hills of God a “novel that appeals to our common humanity.” Richard North Patterson said that this “passionate and deeply human narrative should capture anyone interested in the origins of the Middle East conflict.” And in the foreword to a new edition of the book, Oxford University scholar Robin Ostle comments that the book “deserves the widest possible distribution.”

To learn more about the Tapestry radio program, or for post-interview excerpts, visit the Tapestry website. On the Hills of God is available from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite local or online book retailer.

Forget Othello and Animal Farm; John Egerton’s Ali Dubyiah and the Forty Thieves is the ultimate literary fable when examining the Bush presidency.

In Nicholas D. Kristof’s New York Times column on Tuesday, he posited that perhaps in the classics of literature can be found metaphors for the Iraq war–“Forget the Vietnam analogy that critics of the Iraq war usually toss out,” Kristof writes. “A more trenchant analysis of Iraq-style adventures appears in the histories of Thucydides, written 2,400 years ago.” He goes on to suggest not only The Aeneid and Moby Dick–citing Ahab’s white whale obsession as a symbol of the Bush presidency–before opening his column for suggestions of other appropriate books.

As one commenter writes, “A recent book actually inserts Bush into one of the classics: Ali Dubyiah and the Forty Thieves by the Tennessee journalist John Egerton is a political satire on the misadventures of George W. Fratbush (son of former potentate Wimpbush).” The comment goes on to say that Ali Dubyiah “is riotously funny, yet beyond the barbs it is a keen analysis of how we got into this mess and, worse, what lies ahead for us.”

For more on John Egerton’s tale of political science-fiction, visit http://www.newsouthbooks.com/alidubyiah. Ali Dubyiah and the Forty Thieves is available now from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite local or online book retailer.

As reported Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2007 in the New York Times, James F. Seale has been arrested in Roxie, Mississippi, in connection with the murders of two African-American men, Henry H. Dee and Charles E. Moore, in 1964. Seale is alleged to have been a member of the Ku Klux Klan. The FBI believes Seale and others suspected the two men of planning an “armed uprising,” while in fact they may just have been hitchhiking in the area.

NewSouth author Rev. J. Phillips Noble grew up in Learned, Mississippi. He served as the first chairman of the Human Relations Council during desegreation in Anniston, Alabama. Regarding the arrest in Mississippi, Noble wrote:

The history of the world is littered with examples of “man’s inhumanity to man.” High up on the list is the ignorant, prejucice, and hate driven horrific crimes committed on African Americans during the 1960’s. Many were people who were not involved in Civil Rights activity, but innocent bystanders who became the objects for violent treatment just because they were black.

Time brings some healing of hurt to families of these victims, but it does not entirely remove it. However, time does not negate the need for justice for those who perpertrated cruel violence to innocent victims. I am immensely proud of my fellow Mississippian, former Gov. William Winter, who was a voice for tolerance and moderation in an atmosphere of bigotry and hatred during the 1960s, and others like him, and I continue to be appalled at the depths of hatred to which some of my fellow Mississippians could sink as they carried out their evil deeds. I am grateful that the wheels of justice continue to grind in my native state.

Rev. J. Phillips Noble wrote about his experiences struggling for civil rights in Anniston in his book Beyond the Burning Bus, available from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite local or online book retailer.

NewSouth Managing Editor Brian Seidman‘s short story “So a Horse Walks into a Bar …” has been selected for inclusion in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds fiction anthology, published by Pocket Books.¬† The 400-page anthology will be available in summer 2007.

Brian Seidman joined NewSouth Books in 2004.  His responsibilities include editorial, design, and production of many of the house’s titles; scheduling and coordinating manufacturing; overseeing shipping and fulfillment;  and facilitating acquisitions.  He has also presented on writing and editing at the Hariette Austin Writers Conference and the Tennessee Mountain Writers Conference, among others.

NewSouth congratulates Brian on this publication.  Strange New Worlds Volume 10 is available for pre-order from Amazon.com, or your favorite local or online book retailer.

NewSouth novelist Rod Davis, who compellingly described the cultural tapestry of pre-Katrina New Orleans in Corina’s Way (2004), has a cover story in the February issue of D Magazine on what he calls “the biggest identity crisis in Dallas history”: the “Mexican Invasion. As our author makes clear, this is more than just a Dallas story. From the article:

Last June, a group of more than 500 economists, including five Nobel Laureates, sent an “Open Letter on Immigration” to President George W. Bush. “Overall,” the letter said, “immigration has been a net gain for American citizens, though a modest one in proportion to the size of our $13 trillion economy.” The Texas Comptroller takes a similar position. A special report issued in December says that on balance, undocumented immigrants (it used the conservative 1.4 million estimate) produced $1.58 billion in state revenues in fiscal 2005, exceeding the $1.16 billion cost of state services to them by $424.7 million. As a caveat, the report said that local governments tended to pay out more, with a net loss of $928.9 million statewide. That’s across the board. Some counties lose more than others; some probably gain. Dallas, for example, with a greater population and percentage of the undocumented, is likely to have much higher revenues than Travis County, one of those on which the comptroller’s office based its local-government estimate. And the undocumented in Dallas, according to the Dallas Fed, tend to have higher skill levels than most other parts of the state. But the most eyebrow-raising figure from the state report said that one of the best ways to consider the impact of the undocumented in Texas was to consider their disappearance, which would drop the gross state product by an estimated $17.7 billion in various kinds of lost revenues.

Davis will also be interviewed about our nation’s immigration issues on PBS’s “Think” program (KERA, FM 90.1). The program airs Thursday, January 25, 2007, between noon and 1 pm.

Davis’s PEN Southwest Book Award-winning novel Corina’s Way is available directly from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite local or online book retailer.

NewSouth is proud to announce the release of Victory After the Fall: Memories of a Civil Rights Activist by Rev. H. K. Matthews, with J. Michael Butler. Matthews is one of the unsung heroes of the Southern civil rights movement, having participated in the first sit-in demonstrations in northwest Florida, and having led a campaign against the use of Confederate symbols at an area high school. And in the course of his activism, Matthews served time in state prison for a crime that never occurred.

However, Victory After the Fall is much more than one man’s account of his life experiences. It is a first-person narrative of the challenges and opportunities black citizens encountered before, during, and after the 1960s struggle for racial equality. Victory After the Fall provides a fascinating journey into the civil rights battlegrounds of northwest Florida and beyond, but it is also a story of moral courage and personal redemption.

Victory After the Fall is available directly from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite local or online book retailer. Victory After the Fall is also available as an Adobe Reader ebook.

Rev. Robert Graetz, author of A White Preacher’s Message on Race and Reconciliation from NewSouth Books, will speak on January 18, 2007, at noon, at the Alabama Department of Archives and History’s monthly ArchiTreats program. Rev. Graetz will discuss both his book, and his experiences during and after the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

White Preacher’s Message details Rev. Graetz’s life as the young white pastor of a black Lutheran Church in Montgomery, where he and his wife were among the few whites who supported the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Though his church and home were bombed and his life was threatened, Rev. Graetz never wavered, and his memoir discusses both the boycott, white privilege, black forgiveness, and the present-day challenges for human and civil rights, including gay rights.

To learn more, visit the ADAH ArchiTreats website.

A White Preacher’s Message is available from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite local or online book retailer.