Lisa Watts, editor of the Ohio University Press /Swallow Press anthology "Good Roots: Writers Reflect on Growing Up in Ohio," has earned the Ohioana Library Association's Ohio Legacy Citation.

Nineteen writers -- poets, essayists, humorists, reviewers, novelists and editors -- contributed to "Good Roots," including Ohio University alumnus Dale Keiger. Among the contributors were some of America's most recognized writers, including Rita Dove, P. J. O'Rourke, Susan Orlean, Ian Frazier, Michael Dirda and Anthony Doerr -- all chosen by Watts for their Ohio roots.

The array of perspectives and voices in "Good Roots" has made it one of Ohio University Press' most successful regional publications in recent years.

In response, Ohio University Press recently created a "Good Roots" reading guide and is marketing it to libraries and bookstores with active reading programs.

The book also has found its way into the classroom.

"The essays in 'Good Roots' are tender and funny and poignant," said Ohio University English instructor Robert Kinsley. "They speak to all of us, as we are all students of our pasts and our childhoods. Even if you're not from Ohio, these essays will call to you. And by the end of this book, you might just wish you were."

The Ohioana Library Association recognizes and encourages the creative accomplishments of Ohioans, in part through its annual Ohioana Awards.

For more information on "Good Roots," visit: www.ohioswallow.com/book/Good+Roots

Other recent Ohio University Press titles:

• "Africa Writes Back: The African Writers Series and the Launch of African Literature" by James Currey. An insider's account of an exciting and historic episode in world literature. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart," which was the impetus for Heinemann's African Writers Series.
  
  www.ohioswallow.com/book/Africa+Writes+Back
  
  
  
  
• "Kant and the Role of Pleasure in Moral Action" by Iain P.D. Morrisson. The 35th title in Ohio University Press' Series in Continental Thought offers an original theory of how pleasure works in Kant's theory of action. www.ohioswallow.com/book/Kant+and+the+Role+of+Pleasure+in+Moral+Action
  
  
  
  
• "Bessie Potter Vonnoh: Sculptor of Women," by Julie Aronson. This large-format, copiously illustrated book is the first to consider the life and work of a significant American sculptor of the 19th and early 20th centuries, a pioneering female artist best known for works depicting daily life and American womanhood.
  www.ohioswallow.com/book/Bessie+Potter+Vonnoh

Other Ohio University Press notes:

In recent weeks, Ohio University Press titles have been reviewed by the International Review of Social History; Journal of Material Culture; The Historian; Journal of British Studies; Sage Race Relations Abstracts; Traditional Building Magazine; Business Day (South Africa); Anchorage Daily News; American Life in Poetry blog; Environment and History; African Studies Review; Art Dail; Ohioana Quarterly;  Blätter für Technikgeschichte; Regulation: The Cato Review of Business and Government; Sacred Sites; International Journal of African Historical Studies;  Lusotopie; The Overseas Pensioner and Journal of Social History.