Dr. Michael Whitlatch, professor of speech and drama, has a review published in the November issue of Choice. His review of “Technology in American Drama, 1920-1950 Soul and Society in the Age of the Machine,” by Dennis Jerz has just been sent to college and university libraries. —Whitlatch Publication (Buena Vista U)
Gulp! As I prepare to mark term papers and final projects, it’s probably a good thing that I am suddenly reminded of what it feels like to be judged. I wasn’t able to find any online information on the periodical “Choice” — it’s just too common a word to Google; based on the context and the title, I’m guessing it’s a librarian trade magazine. I’ll have to wait a bit to learn what his verdict is. (On a side note… I like the BVU concept of the BVU information page.)
Whitlatch is a prolific reviewer with decades of specialized experience in the subject matter and time period I studied in grad school. He has plenty of publications under his own belt, so I’m bracing myself for some serious criticism.
A few hours ago I got my hands on Nick’s book on interactive fiction (“Twisty Little Passages“), and of course I flipped it open to the works cited list looking for my name, and there it was. I feel like a real academic now. Of course, the URLs are all broken, since they point to my UWEC website, but I’m going to set up a redirect now.
And, while I’m on the subject of academic books, I wrote a long comment in response to SHU student Brian McCollum’s blogged rant against literary anthologies. (By the way, I’m not the teacher he’s referring to.)
Update: Rosemary Frezza writes, “I found the review of your book – it is short but very positive!” That’s a relief. I’ll ask the author if I can post it.
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No problem, Nick. I didn't know I was going to accept the new job at the time you were finalizing your book, and for the moment anyway UWEC is still forwarding all my traffic. I have rearranged the site, though, so I had to post redirects in the locations where the old files used to be. Nothing major, and they all should work now.
Nice review, Dennis! Congrats. Also, sorry about the old URLs appearing in my book. I just posted a page for Twisty Little Passages which at least gives the current URL for your "Annotated Bibliography of Interactive Fiction Scholarship." I'll plan to keep an up-to-date list of at least the most important link changes there.
Congratulations on your publication. (I think you really should advertise a link to places to buy your book/read your articles more visibly...). I think CHOICE really does influence how libraries make purchasing decisions... in fact, don't we get "choice cards" with capsule reviews to place orders for our library in our dept? Maybe my memory is mistaken....
How bizarre... immediately to the left of my keyboard, neatly wrapped in a rubber band, is the stack of "CHOICE" cards for October, which I haven't gotten to yet.
While the review for my book is not in the October stack, I have read the review now. It fills a "glaring gap" in scholarship, "stands alone in making a serious effort to examine the technological issues America was facing after WW I and the few playwrights (working within expressionistic drama) who were writing about these issues.... Terrific bibliography." And, to sum it all up:
Other ratings offered in the stack include "Highly recommended", "Recommended", and "Optional." Only a few items got "Essential." Quite a nice ego booster. Now it's back to the grim reality of grading papers...