A Regina Andrews' Children's Picture Book

I was recently awarded a Public Works grant from my institution, the University of Wisconsin's Center for the Humanities. The grant is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and is designed to "support faculty who wish to rethink their research in order to reach a broader public." The workshop will bring together experts in children's books to review my manuscript and to offer feedback. The goal is to publish a children's book about Regina Andrews and to introduce her story to a whole new audience.

Amazon and Barnes & Noble

I just discovered that my book is now available for pre-orders on both amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. Very exciting!

The Cover!

On Monday I received the image of the cover from the art director at the university press.

Jacket copy for the book

Regina Anderson Andrews, Harlem Renaissance Librarian

Ethelene Whitmire 

The first African American to head a branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL), Regina Andrews led an extraordinary life. Allied with W. E. B. Du Bois, Andrews fought for promotion and equal pay against entrenched sexism and racism and battled institutional restrictions confining African American librarians to only a few neighborhoods within New York City. 

Andrews also played a key role in the Harlem Renaissance, supporting writers and intellectuals with dedicated workspace at her 135th Street Branch Library. After hours she cohosted a legendary salon that drew the likes of Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, and Zora Neale Hurston. Her work as an actress and playwright helped established the Krigwa Players and Harlem Experimental Theater, where she wrote plays about lynching, passing, and the Underground Railroad.

Ethelene Whitmire's new biography offers the first full-length study of Andrews' activism and pioneering work with the NYPL. Andrews established her career at a time when librarianship had just been recognized as a profession. Whitmire's portrait of her sustained efforts to break down barriers reveals Andrews's legacy and places her within the NYPL's larger history.

Ethelene Whitmire is an associate professor of library and information studies at the University of Wisconsin.

Black Studies

"[A] much-needed, essential study. By placing Regina Andrews' life and work in historical and familial context, the author provides insight into Andrews' significant contributions to the twentieth century and the Harlem Renaissance."

--Verner Mitchell, coauthor of Literary Sisters: Dorothy West and Her Circle, A Biography of the Harlem Renaissance 

ISBN 978-0-252-03850-1

Page proofs

Last week I received the page proofs from the university press. Now the book has been formatted and looks like the final version. I have to check for errors. I am allowed to find up to 16 (based upon the size of the book) at no cost to me. I also have to create an index for the book. Some authors pay someone and other authors like to create their own. I decided to do my own after looking at other examples in biographies. I came up with categories this summer per instructions from the press and now I can add the page numbers from the proofs. Initially the press thought the proofs would be ready in November but they were done quite early. Very exciting to see the whole book manuscript as proofs! Below is the title page.

Marketing the book

This week I received the copy from the marketing department that will appear on the book's jacket, the website of the press, in the catalog, etc. I also have a great blurb from a Harlem Renaissance scholar and my own ISBN numbers for both the cloth and e-book versions of Regina Anderson Andrews, Harlem Renaissance Librarian. I can't wait to see the cover.

Hyde Park High School (Chicago, Illinois), 1918

Regina Andrews, Harlem Renaissance Librarian

I recently received feedback from the copy editor. I have a month to review the suggested changes and either accept them or suggest my own. After that, the manuscript will be typeset. 

The book

More news from the University of Illinois Press. The goal is to include the book in the spring 2014 catalog. The book should be out late spring or early summer. Tentatively the title will be Regina Anderson Andrews, Harlem Renaissance Librarian in a jacketed hardcover for $55! The manuscript has been sent to a copy editor and I should get feedback mid-August and will have a month to make the changes. I received marketing information from the press and an author marketing questionnaire. So exciting. Actually feel like an author. I hope to use the image in this post as the cover. Any suggestions for possible conferences, bookstores, possible prizes and awards to submit the book for would be welcomed in order to complete the questionnaire. I also have to come up with keywords, a  description of the book, a brief biographical sketch of me and author photo.  

Good news about the book

The book manuscript has passed another milestone at the University of Illinois Press and should officially go into production soon. I've been informed that this step should take about a year. I'm excited about finishing work on this project as a I start on my new project with a new blog, The Audre Lorde was a Librarian Project.

                                                                   

Regina Andrews                                                                                  Audre Lorde

Re: A new biography

I am currently reading Barbara Ransby's new biography, Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson (Yale University Press). Evidence suggests that Regina Andrews knew the Robesons and they definitely moved in the same circles in Harlem in the 1920s.