Fifth Avenue Press and U-M Press Book Cinema Ann Arbor Shortlisted for The Alice Award

Thu, 07/27/2023 - 2:56pm by richretyi

The Ann Arbor District Library’s Fifth Avenue Press publishing imprint and the University of Michigan Press are excited to announce that their recent book Cinema Ann Arbor: How Campus Rebels Forged a Singular Film Culture by Frank Uhle is one of five books that have been included in the Alice Award Short List from Furthermore grants in publishing, a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund.

Ann Arbor, long known for its political and cultural activism, has an equally compelling history of engagement with film and media. Delving into almost 100 years of rarely glimpsed history, Cinema Ann Arbor melds interviews, deep archival research, and over four hundred images into a vivid history of film in one extraordinary town. These stories, told with urgency and exquisite detail, are firsthand accounts of the unforgettable people who created Ann Arbor’s magnificent twentieth-century film scene. This beautiful, full-color book was designed by Fifth Avenue Press and published and distributed by the University of Michigan Press. 

Featuring interviews with filmmaker Ken Burns, Oscar-nominated editor Jay Cassidy, producer John Sloss, and more, this masterpiece provides insights into how a Midwestern college town developed a robust underground art film community that inspired those across the country. Variety’s Owen Glieberman says, “Frank Uhle has captured the moment when cinema became, for a new generation, a kind of religion, with its own rituals and sacred texts and a spirit of exploratory mystery that has all but vanished from the culture.”

THE PUBLISHERS:

The Ann Arbor District Library founded Fifth Avenue Press in 2017 as a locally-focused and publicly-owned publishing imprint to support the writing community in Washtenaw County and promote the creation of original content. The Library invests in the production of the finished work in exchange for permanent digital distribution of the completed work to AADL cardholders via the Library's website. For more information on Fifth Avenue Press visit fifthavenue.press.

The University of Michigan Press is a vital component of UM Library’s Michigan Publishing, which is the academic publishing division of the University of Michigan. In partnership with authors and series editors, the Press publishes in a wide range of humanities and social science disciplines as well as the Michigan and the Great Lakes region.

THE ALICE AWARD:

The $25,000 Alice Award, $5,000 for short listed books, will be announced on Tuesday, September 5 on the Furthermore website (www.furthermore.org). The Alice Award is being presented in a program at the Strand Book Store, Tuesday, October 24 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.  The presentation of the awards will be streamed through the Strand Bookstore. 

Joan Davidson in announcing the 2023 short list, commented: “In 1995 I established Furthermore, the grants in publishing program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund to support books and other publication projects. Last year we celebrated the first decade of the Alice the award I established to celebrate well-made illustrated books and the commitment of writers, editors, designers, illustrators and publishers to create these books. Our cultural history is passed down through written text and visual illustrations. This year’s shortlisted books reflect a range of topics, institutions, and design that reflect the diversity of our culture.”