Stew Magnuson's Blog: Yellow Thunder Book Honored
March 29, 2012
The story behind The Song of Sarin
I was not a victim of the March 15, 1995 subway gas attack in Tokyo.
But I could have been.
At the time, I was an international vagabond, teaching conversational English in whatever Asian country looked interesting to me. I had returned to Japan for a third time to look for work, and ended up in a crummy little school owned by a crazed Singaporean woman who needed a native speaker of English to tutor her students.
I had Mondays off, and I wanted to leave teaching and get back to journalism, or some writing related profession. So I would often go into the center of Tokyo for job interviews. I lived and worked in Adachi Ward, the farthest district from the city center.
I didn’t have any interviews set up for that morning fortunately. But it was my habit to wait for the rush hour to die down, and to head off to the more interesting neighborhoods on my day off. Luckily, that morning I turned on the television.
What I saw was horrifying. Victims of some kind of gas were spilling out of subway entrances all over the center of Tokyo. I did not understand Japanese very well, but I had pretty good idea of what was happening. Only a few weeks before, I had read an in-depth article in the English-language Tokyo Journal about an alleged poison gas accident in the mountain town of Matsumoto the previous year. I had read that this incident may have been caused by the mixing of pesticides found in a garden shed that was owned by a retired chemical company salesman. Eight died and hundreds more injured. It was plausible, and like many in the public, I believed it, and didn’t give it much thought.
The article, though, said it was much more likely the work of a secretive cult, Aum Shinrikyo, which had a motive to attack the village. The alleged perpetrator simply did not have the chemicals and expertise to make sarin, a nerve gas first developed by the Nazis. While his wife was in coma as a result of the attack. The police made his life into a living hell as they continued to call him a suspect.
Now, gas had been released in multiple trains, suggesting a coordinated attack.
Needless to say, I wasn’t going into the city center that day. Instead, I watched TV all day as the reports of deaths and serious injuries mounted. The media coverage was nonstop. Many of my students commuted to jobs in Tokyo, and some of them caught whiffs of the gas. None of them were seriously injured. They all had stories of friends and family members who were victimized.
It turned out that the police had been letting the cult literally get away with murder for years. A partially blind guru, Shoko Asahara, had amassed a fortune, and managed to attract young, educated followers who believed in his apocalyptic vision of a future where everyone but members of the cult would perish, and they would remain to rebuild the world. This was an activist doomsday cult. It wasn’t waiting for the world to end. It wanted to make it happen. It had amassed enough chemicals to kill every man and woman on the planet. (It never devised a way to deliver them, though.)
The idea to write The Song of Sarin came to me several years later after I had retired as a world traveler and returned to journalism and the United States. You don’t live through something like that without it sticking in your subconscience.
Those who are familiar with the incident know that Aum Shinrikyo cultists released sarin in five subway lines as they were arriving at the seat of the Japanese government during rush hour. What isn’t as well known is that the cult intended to attack six trains, but it hadn’t mixed up a large enough batch of the nerve gas.
The Song of Sarin imagines that six trains were attacked. Junichi , or Siha, is the fictional sixth terrorist.
Other than the invented characters and the incidents surrounding them, The Song of Sarin is quite factual. The major cult figures in the novel are real people, and the horrific crimes they committed in the name of the guru in the novel actually happened. I wanted to get into the mind of an ordinary person who was brainwashed into murdering innocents. I read several academic studies. Among them: Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo by Ian Reader; Destroying the World to Save It by Robert Jay Lifton and Aum Shinrikyo and Japanese Youth by Daniel A. Metreax. The renown Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami wrote Underground, an excellent nonfiction book focusing on the victims of the attack rather than the perpetrators. Shoko Asahara wanted to spread his message to the world and had many books published in English. Just about every word of his dialogue in The Song of Sarin came from his own writings, which I tracked down on used book websites.
Finally, while writing the novel some five years after the incident, I was frustrated that I didn’t know the Chiyoda line or the neighborhoods where the attackers would have boarded and alit from the train if it had been attacked as originally planned. I informed my editor at the publication I worked for at the time that I was going to Tokyo for a vacation, and I would write him some articles if he would spring for the plane ticket and some expenses. He agreed, and so I was able to return to Tokyo to ride on the Chiyoda line and imagine what it would have been like to be in that car as nerve gas slowly overtook the passengers.
I self-published The Song of Sarin in 2003. I did little to find a traditional publisher. I had been working on novels in my grandmother’s basement off and on for years, and as she grew older, she hadn’t yet seen one of them in print. So I skipped the traditional publishing route and paid Xlibris to produce it. She was very happy to finally see a book with my name on the cover.
Some nine years later, I decided it was time to rerelease it on Kindle, Nook and other ereaders..
But I could have been.
At the time, I was an international vagabond, teaching conversational English in whatever Asian country looked interesting to me. I had returned to Japan for a third time to look for work, and ended up in a crummy little school owned by a crazed Singaporean woman who needed a native speaker of English to tutor her students.
I had Mondays off, and I wanted to leave teaching and get back to journalism, or some writing related profession. So I would often go into the center of Tokyo for job interviews. I lived and worked in Adachi Ward, the farthest district from the city center.
I didn’t have any interviews set up for that morning fortunately. But it was my habit to wait for the rush hour to die down, and to head off to the more interesting neighborhoods on my day off. Luckily, that morning I turned on the television.
What I saw was horrifying. Victims of some kind of gas were spilling out of subway entrances all over the center of Tokyo. I did not understand Japanese very well, but I had pretty good idea of what was happening. Only a few weeks before, I had read an in-depth article in the English-language Tokyo Journal about an alleged poison gas accident in the mountain town of Matsumoto the previous year. I had read that this incident may have been caused by the mixing of pesticides found in a garden shed that was owned by a retired chemical company salesman. Eight died and hundreds more injured. It was plausible, and like many in the public, I believed it, and didn’t give it much thought.
The article, though, said it was much more likely the work of a secretive cult, Aum Shinrikyo, which had a motive to attack the village. The alleged perpetrator simply did not have the chemicals and expertise to make sarin, a nerve gas first developed by the Nazis. While his wife was in coma as a result of the attack. The police made his life into a living hell as they continued to call him a suspect.
Now, gas had been released in multiple trains, suggesting a coordinated attack.
Needless to say, I wasn’t going into the city center that day. Instead, I watched TV all day as the reports of deaths and serious injuries mounted. The media coverage was nonstop. Many of my students commuted to jobs in Tokyo, and some of them caught whiffs of the gas. None of them were seriously injured. They all had stories of friends and family members who were victimized.
It turned out that the police had been letting the cult literally get away with murder for years. A partially blind guru, Shoko Asahara, had amassed a fortune, and managed to attract young, educated followers who believed in his apocalyptic vision of a future where everyone but members of the cult would perish, and they would remain to rebuild the world. This was an activist doomsday cult. It wasn’t waiting for the world to end. It wanted to make it happen. It had amassed enough chemicals to kill every man and woman on the planet. (It never devised a way to deliver them, though.)
The idea to write The Song of Sarin came to me several years later after I had retired as a world traveler and returned to journalism and the United States. You don’t live through something like that without it sticking in your subconscience.
Those who are familiar with the incident know that Aum Shinrikyo cultists released sarin in five subway lines as they were arriving at the seat of the Japanese government during rush hour. What isn’t as well known is that the cult intended to attack six trains, but it hadn’t mixed up a large enough batch of the nerve gas.
The Song of Sarin imagines that six trains were attacked. Junichi , or Siha, is the fictional sixth terrorist.
Other than the invented characters and the incidents surrounding them, The Song of Sarin is quite factual. The major cult figures in the novel are real people, and the horrific crimes they committed in the name of the guru in the novel actually happened. I wanted to get into the mind of an ordinary person who was brainwashed into murdering innocents. I read several academic studies. Among them: Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo by Ian Reader; Destroying the World to Save It by Robert Jay Lifton and Aum Shinrikyo and Japanese Youth by Daniel A. Metreax. The renown Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami wrote Underground, an excellent nonfiction book focusing on the victims of the attack rather than the perpetrators. Shoko Asahara wanted to spread his message to the world and had many books published in English. Just about every word of his dialogue in The Song of Sarin came from his own writings, which I tracked down on used book websites.
Finally, while writing the novel some five years after the incident, I was frustrated that I didn’t know the Chiyoda line or the neighborhoods where the attackers would have boarded and alit from the train if it had been attacked as originally planned. I informed my editor at the publication I worked for at the time that I was going to Tokyo for a vacation, and I would write him some articles if he would spring for the plane ticket and some expenses. He agreed, and so I was able to return to Tokyo to ride on the Chiyoda line and imagine what it would have been like to be in that car as nerve gas slowly overtook the passengers.
I self-published The Song of Sarin in 2003. I did little to find a traditional publisher. I had been working on novels in my grandmother’s basement off and on for years, and as she grew older, she hadn’t yet seen one of them in print. So I skipped the traditional publishing route and paid Xlibris to produce it. She was very happy to finally see a book with my name on the cover.
Some nine years later, I decided it was time to rerelease it on Kindle, Nook and other ereaders..
March 20, 2012
The Song of Sarin released as eBook
17 years ago today, I turned on the television in my Tokyo apartment and watched in horror as victims of a nerve gas attack spilled out of the city's subway entrances. You don't live through times like those and forget about it. A few years later, I wrote a novel based on the incident. It's available as an eBook. Download the book for $2.99 or a get a free sample here for Kindles. Or at Barnes and Nobles Nook website. Don't have a Nook or Kindle? Drop me a note and I'll let you know other ways to get a copy.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Song-of-Sar...Stew Magnuson
http://www.amazon.com/The-Song-of-Sar...Stew Magnuson
February 1, 2011
Yellow Thunder Book Released in Paperback
The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns was released in paperback Jan. 21, 2011. The new edition has been revised and updated with a new Afterward, and information that has emerged since the award-winning book’s release in 2008.
The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder was named the 2009 Nebraska Nonfiction Book of the Year. In addition, graphic artist Lindsay Starr won honors for her work on the book’s cover.
Those awards followed ForeWord Magazine’s bronze medal in the regional nonfiction category for books independently published, and nominations by the Writers’ League of Texas for its nonfiction book of the year and the Center of Great Plains Studies for its Great Plains Distinguished Book of the Year award.
It recounts the death of Lakota ranch worker, Raymond Yellow Thunder at the hands of four white men in 1972, and the subsequent involvement of the American Indian Movement in the case. Among the other stories is the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 and the border towns’ role in the incident, the life and death of Nebraska AIM Coordinator Bob Yellow Bird Steele and a comprehensive history of the town of Whiteclay, Nebr., a hamlet on the border that continues to sell millions of cans of beer per year to the dry reservation.
The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder is published by Texas Tech University Press under its Great Plains series, and is available at http://ttupress.org, amazon.com, and other online booksellers.
Reviews for The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder
“Stew Magnuson uses his considerable journalistic talents to chronicle the cross-cultural exchanges along the border between the Pine Ridge Reservation (which is located in South Dakota) and Nebraska … The book is a model of how local and regional history can and should be written.”
W. David Baird
Journal of American History
“From the long history of racial unrest in these towns to community efforts to overcome internal violence and strife, The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder is packed with powerful blends of history and cross-cultural conflict and interactions.”
Midwest Book Review
“This well-researched, excellently written, and informative book flows in and out of the history of the border of South Dakota and Nebraska. From readers looking for an informative read that flows like a well-written novel to researchers seeking information, this text is a valuable source.”
Jeanette Palmer
Studies in American Indian Literature
“In the classic sense of the literature of “true stories,” Omaha native and journalist Stew Magnuson expertly weaves together threads of sound historical research with social mythology and contemporary politics to produce an intriguing historical overview of the shared fate of Nebraska’s Sheridan County and the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota … This is an extremely well written and engaging work.”
Roger Davis
Nebraska History
“In terms of artistry, [The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder] is a grand sweep of history told in the best tradition of literary journalism. Border town inhabitants come to life and past and present merge seamlessly.”
Carol Berry
Indian Country Today
The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder was named the 2009 Nebraska Nonfiction Book of the Year. In addition, graphic artist Lindsay Starr won honors for her work on the book’s cover.
Those awards followed ForeWord Magazine’s bronze medal in the regional nonfiction category for books independently published, and nominations by the Writers’ League of Texas for its nonfiction book of the year and the Center of Great Plains Studies for its Great Plains Distinguished Book of the Year award.
It recounts the death of Lakota ranch worker, Raymond Yellow Thunder at the hands of four white men in 1972, and the subsequent involvement of the American Indian Movement in the case. Among the other stories is the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 and the border towns’ role in the incident, the life and death of Nebraska AIM Coordinator Bob Yellow Bird Steele and a comprehensive history of the town of Whiteclay, Nebr., a hamlet on the border that continues to sell millions of cans of beer per year to the dry reservation.
The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder is published by Texas Tech University Press under its Great Plains series, and is available at http://ttupress.org, amazon.com, and other online booksellers.
Reviews for The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder
“Stew Magnuson uses his considerable journalistic talents to chronicle the cross-cultural exchanges along the border between the Pine Ridge Reservation (which is located in South Dakota) and Nebraska … The book is a model of how local and regional history can and should be written.”
W. David Baird
Journal of American History
“From the long history of racial unrest in these towns to community efforts to overcome internal violence and strife, The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder is packed with powerful blends of history and cross-cultural conflict and interactions.”
Midwest Book Review
“This well-researched, excellently written, and informative book flows in and out of the history of the border of South Dakota and Nebraska. From readers looking for an informative read that flows like a well-written novel to researchers seeking information, this text is a valuable source.”
Jeanette Palmer
Studies in American Indian Literature
“In the classic sense of the literature of “true stories,” Omaha native and journalist Stew Magnuson expertly weaves together threads of sound historical research with social mythology and contemporary politics to produce an intriguing historical overview of the shared fate of Nebraska’s Sheridan County and the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota … This is an extremely well written and engaging work.”
Roger Davis
Nebraska History
“In terms of artistry, [The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder] is a grand sweep of history told in the best tradition of literary journalism. Border town inhabitants come to life and past and present merge seamlessly.”
Carol Berry
Indian Country Today
October 10, 2009
Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder Named Nebraska Book of the Year
Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder Named Nebraska Book of the Year
The Nebraska Center of the Book announced Oct. 9 that Stew Magnuson's "The
Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the
Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns" was the 2009 Nebraska Nonfiction Book of
the Year.
In addition, graphic designer Lindsay Starr won best cover illustration for her work on the book.
The award follows ForeWord Magazine's bronze medal in the book in the
regional nonfiction category for books independently published, and
nominations by the Writers' League of Texas for its nonfiction book of the
year and the Center of Great Plains Studies for its Great Plains
Distinguished Book of the Year award.
Says Magnuson: "As a native Nebraskan, I'm really grateful for this honor."
He will appear at the Nebraska Book Festival in Lincoln on Nov. 14 to accept
the award and discuss the work.
"The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder" is published by Texas Tech University
Press under its Great Plains series, which is edited by University of
Nebraska-Lincoln professor of history and journalism, John R. Wunder. It
traces 130 years of shared history between two communities, the Oglala
Lakotas of the Pine Ridge Reservation, S.D., and the border towns of
Sheridan County, Nebr.
It recounts the death of Lakota ranch worker, Raymond Yellow Thunder at the
hands of four white men in 1972, and the subsequent involvement of the
American Indian Movement in the case. Among the other stories is the Wounded
Knee Massacre in 1890 and the border towns' role in the incident, the life
and death of Nebraska AIM Coordinator Bob Yellow Bird Steele and a
comprehensive history of the town of Whiteclay, Nebr., a hamlet on the
border that continues to sell millions of cans of beer per year to the dry
reservation.
The Nebraska Unicameral is holding a series of hearings on Whiteclay this
month and next.
"I think this book can provide some historical perspective on the Whiteclay
controversy," says Magnuson, who visited the town dozens of times. In total,
he conducted more than 70 interviews for the book in addition to archival
research. To raise funds to live in Gordon, Nebr. for four months, he worked
in a salmon cannery in Ketchikan, Alaska, for a summer.
"I really want to thank Texas Tech University Press and John Wunder for
believing in this book when so many other publishers took a ," says Magnuson.
He is now managing editor of National Defense Magazine in Arlington, Va. He
is currently working on a second nonfiction book, The Last American Highway:
A Journey Through Time Down U.S. Route 83.
The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder is available in bookstores throughout
Nebraska, on amazon.com or can be ordered by phone from Texas Tech
University Press at 1-800-832-4042.
The Nebraska Center of the Book announced Oct. 9 that Stew Magnuson's "The
Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the
Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns" was the 2009 Nebraska Nonfiction Book of
the Year.
In addition, graphic designer Lindsay Starr won best cover illustration for her work on the book.
The award follows ForeWord Magazine's bronze medal in the book in the
regional nonfiction category for books independently published, and
nominations by the Writers' League of Texas for its nonfiction book of the
year and the Center of Great Plains Studies for its Great Plains
Distinguished Book of the Year award.
Says Magnuson: "As a native Nebraskan, I'm really grateful for this honor."
He will appear at the Nebraska Book Festival in Lincoln on Nov. 14 to accept
the award and discuss the work.
"The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder" is published by Texas Tech University
Press under its Great Plains series, which is edited by University of
Nebraska-Lincoln professor of history and journalism, John R. Wunder. It
traces 130 years of shared history between two communities, the Oglala
Lakotas of the Pine Ridge Reservation, S.D., and the border towns of
Sheridan County, Nebr.
It recounts the death of Lakota ranch worker, Raymond Yellow Thunder at the
hands of four white men in 1972, and the subsequent involvement of the
American Indian Movement in the case. Among the other stories is the Wounded
Knee Massacre in 1890 and the border towns' role in the incident, the life
and death of Nebraska AIM Coordinator Bob Yellow Bird Steele and a
comprehensive history of the town of Whiteclay, Nebr., a hamlet on the
border that continues to sell millions of cans of beer per year to the dry
reservation.
The Nebraska Unicameral is holding a series of hearings on Whiteclay this
month and next.
"I think this book can provide some historical perspective on the Whiteclay
controversy," says Magnuson, who visited the town dozens of times. In total,
he conducted more than 70 interviews for the book in addition to archival
research. To raise funds to live in Gordon, Nebr. for four months, he worked
in a salmon cannery in Ketchikan, Alaska, for a summer.
"I really want to thank Texas Tech University Press and John Wunder for
believing in this book when so many other publishers took a ," says Magnuson.
He is now managing editor of National Defense Magazine in Arlington, Va. He
is currently working on a second nonfiction book, The Last American Highway:
A Journey Through Time Down U.S. Route 83.
The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder is available in bookstores throughout
Nebraska, on amazon.com or can be ordered by phone from Texas Tech
University Press at 1-800-832-4042.
September 22, 2009
Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder Garners Third Award Nomination
Stew Magnuson’ s The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns was nominated this week by the Writers’ League of Texas as its nonfiction Book of the Year.
It’s the third award nomination for the work after being named a finalist for the Great Plains Distinguished Book of the Year. It won a bronze medal in ForeWord Magazine’s regional nonfiction category.
The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder is published by Texas Tech University Press. It traces the shared history the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and the border town communities of Sheridan County, Nebraska.
The winner of the award will win $1,000 and be invited to speak at the Texas Book Festival in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 31.
It’s the third award nomination for the work after being named a finalist for the Great Plains Distinguished Book of the Year. It won a bronze medal in ForeWord Magazine’s regional nonfiction category.
The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder is published by Texas Tech University Press. It traces the shared history the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and the border town communities of Sheridan County, Nebraska.
The winner of the award will win $1,000 and be invited to speak at the Texas Book Festival in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 31.
March 11, 2009
Yellow Thunder Book Named Finalist for Great Plains Book of the Year
Yellow Thunder Book Named Finalist for Great Plains Book of the Year
The Center for Great Plains Studies named Stew Magnuson’s The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns, one of six finalists for the 2008 Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize.
The winner will be announced on May 6.
The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder, published by Texas Tech University Press, spans 130 years in the history of two communities, the Oglala Lakotas of Pine Ridge, S.D., and bordering Sheridan County, Nebraska. It centers on the death of a Native American ranch worker Raymond Yellow Thunder at the hands of four white men in February 1972. The book provides the first, full account of the crime, the American Indian Movement’s march and occupation of Gordon, Nebraska’s city auditorium to demand justice for the death, and the sensational trial of the perpetrators in Alliance, Nebraska. The book also includes a history of Whiteclay, Nebraska, a controversial border town that sells millions of cans of beer per year to the “dry” reservation.
Magnuson will be making several regional appearances in April including Left Hand Books, Boulder, Colo., April 2 at 7 p.m.; Riverton (Wyo.) Branch Library, April 4 at 2 p.m.; Scottsbluff Public Library, April 6 at 6 p.m.; Chadron State University, April 7 at 7 p.m.; Dudek’s Christian Bookshelf in Gordon, April 8 at 11:30 a.m.; North Platte Public Library, April 9 at noon; and Kearney Public Library, April 9 at 7 p.m.
Among the finalists is University of California at Santa Barbara Associate Professor, Pekka Hamalainen, the author of Comanche Empire and writer of the forward to Magnuson’s book.
“I feel honored to be the only journalist selected among so many distinguished professors, including Pekka Hamalainen who wrote such a nice forward and who was an early champion of my book,” said Magnuson.
The center, based at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, created the prize to “emphasize the interdisciplinary importance of the Great Plains in today’s publishing and educational market,” according to its website.
Other finalists include: University of Alberta Professor Sara Carter for The Importance of Being Monogamous; Perdue University Professor R. Douglas Hunt, The Great Plains During World War II; Assistant Professor of History at Brigham Young University-Idaho Andrea Radke-Moss for Bright Epoch: Women & Coeducation in the American West; and Mark Scherer, Associate Professor of History, University of Nebraska at Omaha for Rights in the Balance: Free Press, Free Trial & Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart.
The author of the winning title will receive a $3,000 cash prize and will be invited to present a lecture at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
The Center for Great Plains Studies named Stew Magnuson’s The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns, one of six finalists for the 2008 Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize.
The winner will be announced on May 6.
The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder, published by Texas Tech University Press, spans 130 years in the history of two communities, the Oglala Lakotas of Pine Ridge, S.D., and bordering Sheridan County, Nebraska. It centers on the death of a Native American ranch worker Raymond Yellow Thunder at the hands of four white men in February 1972. The book provides the first, full account of the crime, the American Indian Movement’s march and occupation of Gordon, Nebraska’s city auditorium to demand justice for the death, and the sensational trial of the perpetrators in Alliance, Nebraska. The book also includes a history of Whiteclay, Nebraska, a controversial border town that sells millions of cans of beer per year to the “dry” reservation.
Magnuson will be making several regional appearances in April including Left Hand Books, Boulder, Colo., April 2 at 7 p.m.; Riverton (Wyo.) Branch Library, April 4 at 2 p.m.; Scottsbluff Public Library, April 6 at 6 p.m.; Chadron State University, April 7 at 7 p.m.; Dudek’s Christian Bookshelf in Gordon, April 8 at 11:30 a.m.; North Platte Public Library, April 9 at noon; and Kearney Public Library, April 9 at 7 p.m.
Among the finalists is University of California at Santa Barbara Associate Professor, Pekka Hamalainen, the author of Comanche Empire and writer of the forward to Magnuson’s book.
“I feel honored to be the only journalist selected among so many distinguished professors, including Pekka Hamalainen who wrote such a nice forward and who was an early champion of my book,” said Magnuson.
The center, based at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, created the prize to “emphasize the interdisciplinary importance of the Great Plains in today’s publishing and educational market,” according to its website.
Other finalists include: University of Alberta Professor Sara Carter for The Importance of Being Monogamous; Perdue University Professor R. Douglas Hunt, The Great Plains During World War II; Assistant Professor of History at Brigham Young University-Idaho Andrea Radke-Moss for Bright Epoch: Women & Coeducation in the American West; and Mark Scherer, Associate Professor of History, University of Nebraska at Omaha for Rights in the Balance: Free Press, Free Trial & Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart.
The author of the winning title will receive a $3,000 cash prize and will be invited to present a lecture at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Yellow Thunder Book Honored
The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns, by Stew Magnuson, won the bronze medal in the regional nonfiction category at ForeWord Magazine’s
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