Step Into The Ring With Oliver Mayer's The Hurt Business [+]PLUS

By Sophia Pomponio 

Looking for a transformative literary experience that will hit you where it hurts? Step into the viscerally alive world of The Hurt Business by Oliver Mayer—a dynamic collage of plays, interviews, criticism, and intimate glimpses into the playwright's life. This is not just a collection of scripts; it is an invitation into Mayer’s creative mind and personal journey.

Inside The Hurt Business, readers will find three of Mayer’s groundbreaking plays (Young Valiant, Blade to the Heat, Joy of the Desolate) alongside a treasure trove of essays, interviews, and photographs that reveal the man behind the words. It’s more than a book—it's an archive, offering layers upon layers of Mayer's exploration of eroticism, family dynamics, identity, and resilience.

 

                                                                   The Hurt Business

One of the most powerful concepts Mayer brings forward in The Hurt Business is Duende—the Spanish term describing a heightened state of emotion, authenticity, and soul. As Mayer writes on page 69, “Duende is what happens when the fight inside you matches the fight outside you. It’s what makes a performance unforgettable, when the cost of creating is felt by everyone in the room.” Throughout his works, Mayer channels Duende into each line of dialogue, each emotional conflict, allowing readers and audiences alike to feel the raw vitality that defines his style.

Through vivid storytelling and candid reflections, Mayer shows how his personal history bleeds into his art, creating works that can cut deep even on the page. Whether it’s the electric charge of forbidden love or the deep fissures within family ties, Mayer doesn’t shy away from the beautiful and brutal sides of life.

If you’re ready for a literary experience that will leave you breathless and craving more, The Hurt Business is your next must-read. Crack it open and discover Oliver Mayer—not just the playwright, but the lover, the thinker, and the man in full.

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USA PAPERBACK: $28.95

ISBN 10: 1879691841

ISBN 13:  ‎ 978-1879691841  

 

 

Tipai Ethnographic Notes: A Rare Look at Baja California’s Indigenous Past

By SAFIYA MOHAMED

San Diego State University Press proudly presents Tipai Ethnographic Notes: A Baja California Indian Community at Mid-Century, by William D. Hohenthal, Jr., edited by Thomas C. Blackburn with contributions from Margaret Langdon, David Kronenfeld, and Lynn Thomas. 

Tipai Ethnographic Notes

The story behind this book is as remarkable as its contents. While conducting research at the Bancroft Library, anthropologist Thomas C. Blackburn discovered an extensive set of manuscripts titled Field Observations I by William D. Hohenthal, Jr. Captivated by the depth and richness of Hohenthal’s fieldwork, Blackburn reached out to the author. Hohenthal, thrilled that his work had been rediscovered, provided Blackburn with the original manuscript along with field notes, sketches, photographs, maps, wordlists, and other vital materials — realizing their collective importance for future scholarship.

Born in 1919, William Dalton Hohenthal, Jr. grew up immersed in different cultures, thanks to his father's military postings. Experiences in the Philippines, China, Brazil, and across Europe sparked his lifelong interest in anthropology. After completing his undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and serving in World War II, Hohenthal returned to Berkeley to pursue graduate work in anthropology, receiving his Ph.D. in 1951. His early exposure to diverse Indigenous groups and his extensive field training shaped the extraordinary ethnographic sensitivity found in Tipai Ethnographic Notes.

The book itself is a comprehensive study. It not only documents Tipai life but also includes valuable information about the Paipai and Kiliwa peoples. Hohenthal’s work details their natural environment — climate, animal life, water sources, vegetation, and topography — alongside their social structures, clan territories, settlement patterns, and languages. Readers will find careful linguistic documentation, including many Tipai, Paipai, and Kiliwa words with an explained orthography system.

Hohenthal’s notes also delve into:

• Prehistory and history of the region, including discussions of pictographs, petroglyphs, and archaeological sites

• Subsistence practices such as agriculture, hunting, fishing, and food preparation

• Social organization, law, and governance

• Religious beliefs, ceremonies, and healing practices

• Ethnoscientific knowledge systems

Tipai Ethnographic Notes preserves a unique record of Indigenous life during a pivotal period of transition — offering an irreplaceable resource for scholars, students, and anyone interested in the ethnology of Baja California, Indigenous studies, and the history of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.

Tipai Ethnographic Notes

Tipai Ethnographic Notes

Tipai Ethnographic Notes

Rich in observation, respectful in detail, and essential for a deeper understanding of the region’s cultural history, Tipai Ethnographic Notes is a major contribution to anthropology and Indigenous studies.

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USA PAPERBACK $27.95

ISBN 10: 0879191449

ISBN 13: 978-0879191443

Poetry Without Limits: Inside Barilli’s Voyage to the End of the Word

By SAFIYA MOHAMED

What happens when poets push language to its breaking point? Originally published in Italian in 1981, Renato Barilli’s Voyage to the End of the Word, now available in English, translated by Teresa Fiore and Harry Polkinhorn, offers a fascinating exploration of Italian experimental poetry during the explosive cultural moment of the 1960s and 70s. 

Voyage to the End of the Word

Barilli, an influential figure in aesthetics and literary criticism, places this experimental wave within a rich theoretical framework. Drawing on Saussure’s concept of the linguistic sign and Freud’s idea of pre-oedipal bliss, he maps out how poets stretched and reshaped language during a time of intense artistic innovation. The book doesn’t just offer critical analysis, it also includes a dynamic mini-anthology of poems that embody the era’s spirit. Readers encounter puns, playful visuals, neologisms, and daring formal experiments that expand the very idea of what poetry can be. Each piece captures the raw energy of a moment when words were stretched, bent, and reshaped with radical intent.

Voyage to the End of the Word

Voyage to the End of the Word

Voyage to the End of the Word

As Professor of the Phenomenology of Styles at the University of Bologna, Barilli has long been recognized for his deep and interdisciplinary approach to both art and literature. Voyage to the End of the Word stands as a vital bridge between theory and poetic practice, inviting readers into the dynamic world of language experimentation at a moment when art and politics were tightly intertwined.

This new translation brings Barilli’s insights to an English-speaking audience at a time when questions about the limits and possibilities of language feel as urgent as ever. For scholars, students, writers, and anyone curious about the experimental spirit of twentieth-century Italian literature, Voyage to the End of the Word offers both a masterclass in theory and a celebration of poetic play. This first-ever English edition opens up an important chapter of Italian literary history for a global audience and offers fresh inspiration for today’s writers and thinkers who continue to ask: how far can language go?

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USA $16.95

ISBN 10: 1879691493

ISBN 13: 978-1879691490

New Release: Reflections from the Inside: New Indigenous Scholarship from Brazil in Translation

By SAFIYA MOHAMED

Published by San Diego State University Press under its new Girassol Books imprint, Reflections from the Inside: New Indigenous Scholarship from Brazil in Translation, edited by Kristal Bivona and Manuela Cordeiro, introduces groundbreaking work by emerging Indigenous scholars from Brazil. 

Reflections from the Inside

The collection responds to a critical gap in available resources. While designing a new B.A. in Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University, educators identified a lack of translated texts that reflect non-hegemonic, Indigenous perspectives. Reflections from the Inside brings together five essays written by young Indigenous researchers, offering a necessary corrective to the historical invisibility of these voices in academic and public discourse.

Each contributor is also associated with the Brazilian Articulation of Indigenous Anthropologists (ABIA), an organization committed to anti-racist activism and the promotion of Indigenous rights, both within and beyond academic spaces. These scholars are not only researchers but also active participants in public policy forums, activist movements, and cultural institutions. The essays featured were originally published in peer-reviewed academic journals in Brazil and are now available in English for the first time.

The collection spans a wide range of topics and methodologies:

• Chapter One: "Indigenous Anthropologists and the Spectacle of Otherness"
  Felipe Sotto Maior Cruz (Tuxá) offers a critical analysis of the field of anthropology, focusing on Indigenous students’ experiences in Brazilian universities and the systemic barriers they encounter.

• Chapter Two: "Sociogenesis of the Ethnic Mobilization that Occurred in the Serra do Truarú Community"
  Eriki Aleixo Wapichana traces the history of Indigenous land struggles in Roraima, combining local oral histories with case studies from global Indigenous movements to reveal the driving forces behind territorial mobilizations.

• Chapter Three: "Colonization on Indigenous Women: A Reflection on Body Care"
  Braulina Aurora Baniwa explores the lasting impacts of colonization on Baniwa women's ancestral body care practices, particularly the role Christian missionary activity played in disrupting the transmission of traditional knowledge.

• Chapter Four: "Collective Authorship and Autoethnography"
  Ana Manoela Primos dos Santos (Karipuna) challenges dominant academic practices by proposing a model of collective authorship, grounded in the Karipuna concept of maiuhi — mutual support and joint effort — as central to ethnographic work.

• Chapter Five: "The Cosmology of the Image"
  Edgar Kanaykõ Xacriabá examines the power of photography in Indigenous struggles, using his documentation of the 2017 Free Land Encampment in Brasília to highlight how images serve both cultural survival and political resistance.

Reflections from the Inside offers essential perspectives for readers interested in Indigenous rights, decolonial thought, anthropology, Brazilian studies, and beyond. It brings urgent new voices to the forefront and invites a rethinking of scholarship, authorship, and resistance.

Reflections from the Inside

Reflections from the Inside

Now available from Girassol Books, an imprint of San Diego State University Press.

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$16.95 USA

ISBN 10: 1938537610

ISBN 13: 978-1938537615