Rowman & Littlefield continues to make its mark in three varied areas of interest: food studies, current events, and niche areas of sports. Associate publicist Elaine Schleiffer tells Show Daily the editors are developing these areas because they think readers are looking for something a little different. “For example, what we’re seeing with food is there are a lot of cookbooks and food histories, but with our Big City Food biographies and the Meal series, the content hasn’t been covered in quite the same way before. Public libraries and general consumers are very interested in reading something that hasn’t been written about before, and food is a perennially popular subject.” Here at BEA at Rowman & Littlefield’s booth (1126) one of the books in the Meals series, Breakfast: A History (July, 2013) by Heather Arndt Anderson, will be given away, and you’ll have an opportunity to look at the new Brunch (July) and Lunch (Feb.) books in the series.
The publisher is also expanding its general interest list by culling today’s headlines for stories ranging from health care and food scares to personal privacy and government policies. Schleiffer notes, “We’re just trying to capitalize on what the hot topics are right now. Our Privacy in the Age of Big Data (Jan.) is popular now because the NSA is always in the headlines. Eating Dangerously (Mar.) by Denver Post journalists Michael Booth and Jennifer Brown examines recent listeria and E. coli outbreaks and looks with a critical eye at how local and federal officials are dealing with the problem. This September, the publisher is bringing out The Myths of Modern Medicine by John Leifer, a former hospital vice president and founder of the Leifer Report, which examines the state of our current healthcare system, including the impact of the Affordable Care Act.”
Christen Karniski, a former professional soccer player who is now sports editor at Rowman & Littlefield, is transferring her love of sports and sports history into acquiring books that are not the usual baseball and major league stories. In June she is debuting A History of Women’s Boxing by amateur boxer Malissa Smith and in August, The Greatest College Football Rivalries of All Time by pop culture writer Marin Gitlin.
Sports fans might want come to the booth and see sports historian and journalist Harvey Frommer sign copies of an updated Red Sox vs. Yankees (Apr.) tomorrow, at 10 a.m., and if you are a fan of outrageous things that happen in the sports world, veteran sportswriter Barry Wilner is on deck today at 3 p.m., signing copies of Crazy Ball (Aug.).
