A Tribute to Fluxus Scholar Owen F. Smith from SDSU Press

 

We have published the work of over 200 authors over the years and yet it is still gutting when we hear of the passing of...

Posted by San Diego State University Press on Monday, December 19, 2022

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Black Representation in the World of Animation- For Sale Today!

 Do you have a fascination with animation? Film? African-American studies? Darius Gainer synthesizes all three in his book BLACK REPRESENTATION IN THE WORLD OF ANIMATION. Throughout the book, Gainer dissects animation over the last century, and analyzes the positioning and purpose of Black characters in the white-dominated medium. By choosing to discuss an eclectic collection of shows and characters, such as Valerie from JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS, Frozone from THE INCREDIBLES, and Storm from X-MEN, Gainer is able to form a clear picture for the audience regarding the marginalization of minorities in animation. 

With praise from other academics in similar fields, such as Tim Fielder, author of INIFINITUM: AN AFROFUTURIST TALE, and John Jennings, professor and comics illustrator, Gainer’s work is a necessary read for everyone wanting a deeper understanding of media, and to a greater extent, the world around them. 

You can purchase the book here! 

https://amzn.to/3ziLPhk

Cultural Studies in the Digital Age, the Cultural Studies Anthology for Seminars in Literature, Film Studies, Comix Studies, Media Studies, Communications, and More!

Video game-focused cultural critique? Check! https://amzn.to/3MTotnI Comix Studies? Check!...

Posted by San Diego State University Press on Saturday, October 22, 2022

POETRY INTERNATIONAL IS NOW AVAILABLE

Poetry International is Available for Purchase!

“for this anniversary edition assembled during a pandemic, climate crises and world uprisings, it’s never been more important to have these shared conversations in verse and prose on the page” 

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF SANDRA ALCOSSER

✨you can purchase the 25 year anniversary edition of POETRY INTERNATIONAL here✨

Books of the Week (9/18)

 SDSU PRESS BOOKS OF THE WEEK 

cultural studies with san diego state university press 

CULTURAL STUDIES IN THE DIGITAL AGE a collection of findings on the 21st century and the interplay between technology and the world around us (edited by Antonio Rafele, Frederick Luis Aldama and William Anthony Nericcio)

BOHEMIA IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA an anthology of essays exploring the lifestyles of Southern California and the unique way that the land of sunshine found its culture (edited by Jay Ruby) 

PROUST IN BLACK a map of the way Proustian fiction and film noir have worked together to create the city of Los Angeles (written by Fanny Daubigny)

BOOK OF THE WEEK: What's New at SDSU Press?

 Fall 2022 First Book of the Week (9/4)

The Associated Preston by Preston Turegano

In this tell-all memoir, Preston Turegano dishes out a story of war, celebs, politicians, the arts, the social elites and more. The SDSU Press best seller is available now on amazon and through the SDSU Press store. 

Creating the Future Through the Past With SDSU Press

Honoring The Land: Kumeyaay Culture Publications

SDSU Press' publication finds ways to teach Kumeyaay Culture to young students 

These past few years we have seen the United States educational system making leaps and bounds in the teaching and treatment of other cultures, but we still have holes to fill. SDSU Press has always been devoted to publishing works from a diverse range of cultures, and that is no better shown than in our collection of Kumeyaay and Indigenous peoples centered publications.

Tipai Ethnographic Notes by William D. Hohenthal Jr. 

Footsteps From the Past into the Future a collection of stories written in English, Spanish, and Kumeyaay

A Teacher's Guide to Historical and Contemporary Kumeyaay Culture by Geralyn Marie Hoffman and Lynn H. Gamble, Ph.D

Of the three main works we have on Indigenous tribes like the Kumeyaay, the teaching guide to the Kumeyaay culutre is the one that is most rooted in the type of educational practices every university press should be encouraging. This teaching guide to the Kumeyaay Culture works to spread information about the past to help better craft a more aware future. 

The publication focuses on aiding teachers of third and fourth grade classrooms on how to better teach and articulate the way that the Kumeyaay people live. And not only how they lived hundreds of years ago, but how their culture is still present today. 

Check out all of our Kumeyaay publications and order A Teacher's Guide to Historical and Contemporary Kumeyaay Culture via our AMAZON to begin teaching the minds of our future with stories from the past. 

New Edition! New Chapters! New Photos! Now Available ... SOLDIER TO AMBASSADOR by Charles Hostler

Soldier, OSS/CIA Agent, Ambassador ... the memoirs of a remarkable man who left his trace on...

Posted by San Diego State University Press on Sunday, August 28, 2022

For Over 50 Years San Diego State University Press Has Been a Catalyst for the Evolution of Ethnic Studies #iamethnicstudies

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SDSU PRESS Knows Kathy Acker!

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THEY MADE A LIST Featured on the SDSU Press Instagram Page ...

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Darius Gainer's BLACK REPRESENTATION IN THE WORLD OF ANIMATION from Amatl Comix, an SDSU Press Imprint

Interested in animation, TV, film, or historic media studies? We've got you covered. Check out new author Darius S. Gainer's BLACK REPRESENTATION IN THE WORLD OF ANIMATION. This recent publication covers the extensive history of African American representation in TV and film from the 20th-21st centuries. He critically analyzes "how mainstream popular culture goes shape to various representations of Black identity and expression in everyday media." Dive into a long overdue study offering not only the representation of Black bodies on the silver screen, but an exposure of its problematic beginnings ad harmful toxicity in the industry as well. From Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid's very first cartoon drawings of to the contemporary Disney film, Soul, Gainer's work will provide an insightful criticism that will change the way you view media forever.  

Follow us on Instagram & Twitter for more awesome reads! @sdsupress

Buy the book here: https://amzn.to/3ziLPhk

The Future of Animation Studies from SDSU Press!

 

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SDSU Press in Collaboration with the Department of Chicana/o Studies Presents: CHICANO/A/X PRINTMAKING: MAKING PRINTS AND MAKING HISTORY

From the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies and the School of Art + Design at San Diego State University, comes a remarkable celebration of 50 years of art activism. This published catalogue, CHICANO/A/X PRINTMAKING: MAKING PRINTS AND MAKING HISTORY, documents four original exhibitions of Chicanx artwork in the San Diego area, compiling stunning images of the showcased works. The catalogue renders a beautiful array of print forms including: screenprints, lithographs, linoleum cuts, monoprints, mixed media etching, watercolor and more, through which the development and growth of the Chicano/Chicana movement can be observed. Side-by-side English and Spanish translation allow readers to personalize their experience in the language that suits them most. Undeniably a great coffee table addition or wonderful gift! Buy direct from SDSU Press via our Amazon.com site: https://amzn.to/3RBJW5Z

A Description of Distant Roads: Original Journals of the First Expedition into California, 1769-1770 by Juan Crespí

A Description of Distant Roads: Original Journals of the First Expedition into California, 1769-1770 by Juan Crespí
Edited and Translated by Alan K. Brown.
San Diego State University Press,
2001. ISBN 1-879691-64-
890 pages || deluxe hard cover edition || $69.95

ONLINE SPECIAL via Amazon.com! 

This volume includes the complete journals of Juan Crespí in Spanish and English. Este tomo incluye los diarios completos de Juan Crespí en español y ingles.

Alan K. Brown's opus makes available for the first time the complete journals of Juan Crespí, the Franciscan friar who accompanied the first expeditions that established Spanish presence in Alta California. Beginning at the northern edge of the mission frontier of Baja California, the 1769 expedition trekked overland some three hundred miles to establish San Diego. From there, Crespí and the contingent of military personnel and Indian auxiliaries traveled northward on to Monterey and back again. Crespí journals provide the first detailed observations about the new land of Alta California and its peoples. This book is an essential source for the history of Spanish occupation of Alta California and the native Americans inhabiting the land.

This volume, which is the result of some forty years of research by Alan K. Brown, brings together what Crespí wrote in its entirety. All other printed and manuscript versions were censored, heavily edited, condensed, and excerpted by Serra, Palou, and othersalterations that dropped out critical detail and valuable information. This edition makes all other printed versions of Crespí's journals obsolete. Brown has stitched together the complete journals from different manuscript versions in archives in Europe and the Americas. They are presented by the editor in the original Spanish with detailed annotations and comparisons of alternate versions of sections of the text. As well, Brown provides a new English translation of the full texts.

The work includes an extensive introduction by Alan K. Brown that in itself is a valuable contribution to the history of the period and gives a detailed and realistic vision of the life of Crespí. The volume also contains detailed explanatory notes, an index of sites, a general index, and a list of references.

What the experts are saying:

"Thanks to the erudition and detective work of Alan K. Brown and the high scholarly standards of SDSU Press, we no longer have to depend on a flawed version of this essential account of the founding of Spanish California. This is the definitive edition, in English AND Spanish."

David J. Weber, Dedman Professor of History, Southern Methodist University, and author of The Spanish Frontier in North America (1992) and many other books on the Spanish-Mexican borderlands.

"This work will be an integral part of any collection of basic California historical materials. Researchers in related fields such as anthropology, historical geography, and ethnobotany, along with history buffs and mission aficionados will seize upon it as a Îmust read itemâ and it becomes an instant Îmust possessâ title for any California library reference collection. Alan K. Brown deserves immense credit for his monumental research, editing, and analytical effort that produced this volume."

Harry W. Crosby, author of Antigua California, Mission Colony on the Peninsular Frontier, (1994).

"Alan K. Brown has provided historians, scholars, and researchers with a tremendous gift. His monumental and authoritative translation of Crespí's complete journals will quickly become an indispensable work for all who study the history of California. The introduction to Brown's work is, in and of itself, a masterful piece of research and writing. The extensive and thorough footnotes attest to Brown's careful attention to detail and desire to include the latest scholarship in his work. Brown's translations from the original Spanish texts are superbly done. They remain faithful to the Spanish but are "reader-friendly." Having the Spanish version of the original journals available in the text for comparison purposes greatly increases the value of Brown's contribution to researchers."

Rose Marie Beebe, President, California Mission Studies Association and Professor of Spanish, Santa Clara University

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Not following us yet on Instagram! Do it! https://www.instagram.com/p/CfXOqWNPYcd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Get a copy of Dr. Espín's memoir here: https://amzn.to/3y0CFEu

Posted by San Diego State University Press on Tuesday, June 28, 2022

An Interview with Preston Turegano, Author of "The Associated Preston"

Preston Turegano is a retired newspaper journalist, having previously written with The San Diego Union-Tribune, referred to as "U-T." Now an author, his memoir “The Associated Preston” details gossip of many groups in San Diego, including, but not limited to, military officials, journalists, and politicians. “The Associated Preston” is published and available for sale on Amazon or through the SDSU Press website.

This interview was conducted in June of 2022 over email by Toki Lee, editorial intern and marketing associate of SDSU Press.

* * *

SDSU Press: Please introduce yourself and your upcoming book in as many or few words as you'd like.

Preston: Preston Turegano (Tu-ri-gano), retired newspaper journalist. My memoir of my 50-year writing career begins with four years as a U.S. Navy journalist, including the final year of a four-year enlistment serving in Vietnam during the American war there. I wrote and occasionally edited The Jackstaff News, a  biweekly newspaper for Naval forces throughout South Vietnam. After receiving a honorable discharge, I worked for the San Diego (California) Union-Tribune Publishing Co., first as an editorial assistant followed by a general assignment reporter for the Evening Tribune (later The Tribune). 

In 1992, The Tribune merged with The San Diego Union  to become The San Diego Union-Tribune in 1992. For the next 14 years, I was an arts and entertainment reporter/critic/columnist until retirement in 2006.  During my entire U-T employment, I collected documents, bulletin board memos, and copies of stories that never saw the light of day. Eventually, I had eight boxes of items in moving boxes I kept at home because I told myself for years, “Someday I am going to write about me and the U-T.”  

In retirement, I was a freelance writer for local publications for about a year. From the summer of 2007 until the summer of 2009, I was a public relations manager for a music arts company. My position — as a press release writer and company public information source — was eliminated as part of budget cuts imposed in the wake of the 2008-‘09 nationwide economic downturn. Between 2004 and 2012, I was an on again/off again script writer for a social organization in my native San Antonio, Texas.  After my 2012 work for The Order of the Alamo that every April produces the coronation of its queen, I turned to my memoir in earnest/ full-time.

Preston Turegano as the cover of the January 13, 1994 issue of San Diego Gay and Lesbian Times.

SDSU Press: What was it like writing this book compared to your previous work in journalism and news? Did you have to adapt your style?

Preston: Writing a memoir requires time and patience.  Sometimes, recollections occur in the middle of the night, so you wake up and dash to the desktop PC and write. My journalistic skill was that of a reporter. “Writers” waxed poetically in their newspaper prose.  I was entrenched into facts. The most nagging, frustrating, part was encountering fellow retirees who did not want to talk about anything that had happened in the past.  I refer to them as “spineless bitches” in my mem.

SDSU Press: Gossip often has a negative connotation. Did you have any hesitancy in moving forward with that word, or did you always know you wanted to use it?

Preston: Many news stories are the result of tidbits (news tips) of information; i.e. gossip whispered into your ear or written down on a piece of paper.  As I say in my mem, often gossip is something that has occurred or is going to occur that an individual or individuals don’t want others to know. A secret that should be exposed. At the U-T, my nicknames were “Gossip Central” and “The Associated Preston,” the latter a mocking take off of the Associated Press. Becoming a gossip requires you to own the name or title. A “So, what?” attitude to detractors. Some people love gossips or are gossips themselves, but won’t admit it.

SDSU Press: Did you find any unique challenges in writing what is, essentially, a memoir? What parts were you certain you wanted to keep in? What parts were you hesitant about?

Preston: “The Associated Preston” is a “memoir of betrayal, war, reporters, gatekeepers, cynics, sex addicts, sycophants, dirty laundry, celebrities, politicians, Kremlinologists, arts insiders, social elitists and more, as told by a gossipy, sort-of-retired openly-gay journalist.” I said that very early on; those words are going to be on the book cover.  Of course, many people I write about are now dead, so there’s no fear libeling them. It’s some of the still living I wonder about. I mean, I am entitled to my opinion about them and what some did to others, and I say that often in the narrative. I think the book could be marketed to journalists, journalism students, Vietnam veterans, people who work in arts, Jewish people, members of the LGBTQ+ community, certain Texans, and, of course, people who love gossip.

SDSU Press: Is there anything specific you want to say about your book that you haven't said yet? Any closing remarks?

Preston: In closing, I feel (I know, TV”s “Judge Judy” doesn’t care about how litigants before her “feel”) I have written something no one else would dare write. My memoir is part historical, part biographical, and part entertaining/amusing, and overall outrageous.  If readers don’t talk (GOSSIP) about it, trash it, or praise it, then I have failed, huh?  Lastly, I did not write it to make money. I wrote it because I had a story—or two — to tell. 

* * *

 

 

Purchase "The Associated Preston" now through Amazon!

Perversions on Parade: Brazilian Literature of Transgression and Postmodern Anti-Aesthetics in Glauco Mattoso by Steven F. Butterman

Perversions on Parade 

Brazilian Literature of Transgression and Postmodern Anti-Aesthetics in Glauco Mattoso 

by Steven F. Butterman 

AVAILABLE DIRECT ONLINE! $24.95 plus shipping via AMAZON.COM 

This is the first book-length scholarly treatment in English of the Brazilian poet Glauco Mattoso's work, some of which was written during Brazil's most recent dictatorship (1964-85). The author highlights Mattoso's themes of homosexuality, fetishism, and symbolic sadomasochism within a context of a comparative examination of transgressive literature in the Western canon (for example, the French poete maudit, such as Rimbaud, Baudelaire, and Verlaine) with particular emphasis on Luso-Brazilian literature from the Middle Ages to the present. 

Steven F. Butterman's PERVERSIONS ON PARADE, a respected 2005 issue from Hyperbole Books, an imprint of San Diego State University Press, has recently been featured in the University of Miami newspaper, The Hurricane; click here for the original story. Perversions on Parade is a 2005 Hyperbole Books Volume. Christened in 2004 as an imprint of San Diego State University Press, Hyperbole Books is dedicated to publishing cutting-edge, over-the-top experiments in critical theory, literary criticism and graphic narrative. Imagine some odd, bastard child of SEMIOTEXT[e], Taschen, and Fantagraphics Books raised in the dumpster behind Powells, and you begin to wide the wave of Hyperbole Books. Remember, "Buy the Hype."

SDSU Press Author an Advocate for Social Justice : Enrique Morones and the Power of One

Tireless and always a social justice advocate? Enrique Morones... here's his latest dispatch with photos ... "Vigil to...

Posted by Enrique Morones' The Power of One on Tuesday, May 17, 2022

SDSU Press Hosts MYRIAM GURBA at SDSU -- A Recap in Snapshots!

Myriam Gurba's lecture here at SDSU was a huge success -- thanks to all the faculty, students, and staff associated with...

Posted by William Nericcio on Wednesday, April 27, 2022

SDSU Press Co-Sponsoring Lectures by Myriam Gurba and Alex Espinoza!

Something wickedly cool coming to SDSU this week! The [Mexican-] American Revolution -- a mini-lecture series from @sdsumalas @SDSUPress, @sdsu IRA funding (Instructionally Related Activities Fund) ... #mextasy at #sdsu

Featuring Mexy superheroes @lesbrains + @alex_esp pic.twitter.com/BpFYsieIJr

— William Nericcio (@eyegiene) April 24, 2022

An Interview With Susan Letzler Cole, Author of SDSU Press's New Book "They Made A List"

click to enlarge

Dr. Susan Letzler Cole is a Professor of English and the Director of the Concentration in Creative Writing at Albertus Magnus College. Her previous works include Directors in Rehearsal: A Hidden World; Playwrights in Rehearsal: The Seduction of Company;The Absent One: Mourning Ritual, Tragedy, and the Performance of Ambivalence;  Missing Alice: In Search of a Mother’s Voice; and Serious Daring: The Fiction and Photography of Eudora Welty and  Rosamond  Purcell.  In Dr. Cole's upcoming book, They Made A List: A Memoir Beyond Memory, published by SDSU Press, she weaves together snapshots of her childhood, linguistics, child development, and etymology in a love letter to her parents.

This interview was conducted in April of 2022 by Toki Lee, editorial intern and marketing associate of SDSU Press.

* * *

SDSU Press: Please introduce yourself and your upcoming book in as many or as few words as you would like.

Dr. Cole: I'm Dr. Susan Letzler Cole, Professor of English and Director of the Concentration in Creative Writing at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Connecticut.  My book, They Made A List: A Memoir Beyond Memory, is a personal story, but at the same time it's an exploration of our earliest acquisition of language, which is a process that is both magical and mysterious. How did we get to language? How does our earliest use of words define and shape who we have been and who we eventually become? 

It has been said that the two greatest mysteries in all of nature are the mind and the universe. “You may have to travel 24 million miles to the first star outside our solar system to find an object as complex as what is sitting on your shoulders — your brain." So, in a sense, my book is a mystery story and it’s a story about a process we're all engaged in. It's a personal quest for linguistic origins: a journey that becomes everybody's. Despite recent and continuing research, exactly how the use of language arises in our infant life remains mysterious.

Some years ago I accidentally discovered my parents' list of the first 200 words I  spoke at the age of 18 months.  As I look at that and explore it, I'm looking at the gift of parents noticing how their baby learns and how we achieve selfhood through the use of language.

SDSU Press: That's very beautiful. Now, this is a very personal topic to you. This is not your first book, however, that details your personal life. I believe you've written a book called Missing Alice that touches on adolescence, and your parents as well. What was it like writing about yourself and your life before you remember it? Is it hard to write about such an inherently vulnerable subject?

Dr. Cole: Well, it is hard.  I'm writing about an initially speechless infant.  At some point,  I’m  also trying to write about the fetus, what it would be like to be in the womb. I think that is a wonderful question — it didn't occur to me that it was hard.   I've written a number of books and every book I write comes out of passion. Because this was a passionate subject for me once I found the list of my first 200 words, it didn't occur to me that this project might make me feel vulnerable or nervous, I just felt so… curious. 

You mentioned my earlier experimental memoir, Missing Alice [the name of my mother]: In Search of a Mother's Voice. After my father died, for eight years I called my mother at the same hour every night, and then after she died, her voice was missing.  I didn't think I could bear it and I began to write letters to her on my computer; then my computer failed. I took it to a computer shop, the man there opened the file and there were my letters being looked at by someone else,  out there in the public domain, and so that became: Missing Alice: In Search of a Mother's Voice.

What happened with this new book  was that again, I thought I was going to write about my mother. I thought, "Of course my mother would have made this list of 200 words!" Then, a dear friend looked at the handwritten list, which is printed in the book, and she saw two hands. And so, in some sense, this book is partly honoring my father. My father is always there in this book and in this list where my parents’ comments are intermingled. They Made a List is a record of parental acts of noticing and the importance of that:  the importance of our parents noticing how we come to language.

Dr. Cole and her mother, Alice

SDSU Press: After reading about language acquisition and whatnot, do you recommend this to be a process for other parents? Do you recommend that other parents create a list of 200 words? What are your thoughts on that?

Dr. Cole: That's a wonderful question. First of all, I want to say, and I guess this isn't very modest of me…  but 200 words at the age of 18 months, this is rather extraordinary.  Yes,  I would recommend that parents do keep lists. 

This book actually began with a futile search for my first word.   My mother was very organized. She put all the words that began with a particular letter beneath that letter in vertical columns and she did the whole alphabet. So I have no idea what my first word really was!   Lots of people say, “I know what my first word was" because that's what their parents tell them, but in fact their first word could have been addressed to a teddy bear, or to themselves, or to a rocking chair. 

To really know about your own early language, I think your parents have to record it.  So I would recommend that any parent who has the time — both of my parents had full-time jobs, but somehow they were able to make this list — try to record their baby's earliest language, as it will mean as much to their children as what my parents did meant to me.

The first page of the list, featuring letters A-D

SDSU Press: Right right, so this list of 200 words — obviously very extraordinary for an 18 month old. Now that you sort of have a couple years into your life, do you see any words in that list that represent you as a person, or you look at that and say, "Oh, of course, I said that!" Anything like that?

Dr. Cole: Well, just to be silly, three-syllable words are very hard for a baby, and I only have one which is banana. 

SDSU Press: (laughs) Did you like bananas? Do you still like bananas?  

Dr. Cole: I don't think I did! But now, as an adult, I have a banana every morning.  (laughs)

One word that isn't there is love. I saw love, I felt it, but the word love is not there in the list, and that's what's extraordinary to me, that that word is not there. 

SDSU Press: You felt it as a kid you felt your parents’ love, but you never actually verbalized it.

Dr. Cole: Apparently, I was not able to say that word. We have to wait till our vocal equipment is ready to make certain sounds, and that may have been a difficult sound for me to make. Also,  linguists have pointed out that sometimes babies just have preferences. Maybe the word wasn't as interesting to me as "tummy," which apparently I loved to say (smiles).

SDSU Press: It is a very interesting list of words. I can't remember all of them, but I think the most fun I would have as a kid is just saying the word apple, which is one of the first words on that list.

Dr. Cole: Oh, I'm so glad you said that! Yes, I love apples. I used to watch my grandfather, when he would come from New York to our northern Virginia house, cut his apples with a knife. He would cut the skin of the apple all in one long strip and it fascinated me, and the taste fascinated me, and applesauce fascinated me. I'm so glad you love the word apple.

SDSU Press: The sound it makes — apple — it's a very "front of the mouth" kind of word.

Dr. Cole: Oh, that's wonderful! I wonder if it could have been my first word.

 

SDSU Press: It's possible! On the similar but opposite side of that, are there any words that surprised you that were on the list?

Dr. Cole: I'm not sure that any actually surprised me but… well, yes, there was the word "otto.” Not any person that I can remember. I'm not quite sure why I was saying otto! Don't have a relative named Otto, no friend named Otto, I don't even think there was a children's book with the word "otto" in it. 

SDSU Press: Interesting!

Dr. Cole: Yes, so that surprised me. What shouldn't have surprised me was the word Susan — I  didn't realize that at 18 months, I could say my own name. My brother said "Su Sa" for a while, but I guess I could pronounce Susan, so that surprised me a bit.  It was a surprise that I could say toothbrush! (smiling)

SDSU Press: That's a pretty good word for an 18 month old to say! 

Dr. Cole: Uh huh! (laughs) 

SDSU Press: Now, this is obviously a book very focused on linguistics besides the memoir and language as a whole. What was the research process for this book like? Was it any more challenging or less challenging than your other books?

Dr. Cole: Every book I've written has required research into what I didn't know. But this book  required more, so I'm looking at linguistics, quantum physics, ethology, primatology, psychology, anthropology… On the one hand, They Made a List required more research than any other book I've written. But at the same time, all of that research was simply fascinating. Not just that I was learning new fields, but the kinds of research I was able to explore. Let me give you an example of something that I hadn’t known about birds. Science increasingly views human speech and birdsong as products of convergent evolution, given that songbirds and humans share at least 50 genes specifically related to vocal learning. That is fascinating and it's the kind of thing that my research, in this case, produced. I'm not sure if I'm answering your question, but the research in itself became so interesting that I loved doing a lot of it.

SDSU Press: It was sort of like reading and writing. It became its own beast, basically.

Dr. Cole:  That's nice, what you just said.  Yes, reading and writing were interwoven.

SDSU Press: That's beautiful. Speaking of writing, this book — as far as I've seen from the manuscript — was written in a sort of anthology format. You had the title, and then you had the paragraph, and after you flip to the next page, it'd be a new memoir. A new memory, so to speak. Is there a reason you chose to write in this format? Is that what you're just comfortable with? Tell me about that. 

Dr. Cole: The book is really a series of mini-chapters, and that's the way it happened. I would have a moment of meditation, or a sort of burst of light, and then it would be over, and it would be written. And then later, there would be another burst, and I would write it, and it would be over. Because that's the way the bursts of light came to me, that's the way the meditations came to me, that's the way I presented them in the book. The book is a series of reflections on a process that I think is universal, which has to do with trying to understand how language first comes to us as humans– and how language may come to non-human animals as well.  The  different mini-chapters are different lenses for looking at the same subject.

SDSU Press: Like a kaleidoscope.

Dr. Cole: Yes! Exactly. So they had to be separate.

SDSU Press: I think it's a wonderful way. I think it really is reminiscent of what looking back in your childhood feels like: these little moments you remember very vividly, but you have no context for, almost.

Dr. Cole: I would like to have what you just said be a part of what we're doing. I love that! I hadn't thought about that, but it is like what happens to us in childhood. That's great.

SDSU Press: Is there anything else you want to say or touch upon? Any closing remarks?

Dr. Cole: I think those are wonderful, wonderful questions.  I would like to add that the job of a baby is to learn. To learn about a new world, a new place outside the womb. In They Made a List: A Memoir Beyond Memory, of course I cannot remember what it was like to be 18 months old. 

I do think that the book would appeal to anyone interested in the relation of parents and children, the problematic nature of human communication, the development of voice and selfhood. And I think it would be of interest to anyone who has helped or watched a child find a way to language or, as a child, been helped toward language – that is, to any of us.