Beautiful Clay by John Burrison examines the aesthetic dimensions of what is essentially a traditional utilitarian craft, the ancient clay-based craft of pottery, from earliest times to the present. Burrison is Regents' Professor of English at Georgia State University and an AFS Fellow.
Recent Releases
The Kitchen God and His Wives is a modern folk epic on the origin of the Stove God, widely venerated across China. This tale offers a valuable look at Chinese folk culture and traditional storytelling. The book is annotated and translated by Wilt Idema, Professor Emeritus of Chinese Literature at Harvard University.
What does comedy look like when the wrong punchline can land you in jail? Timothy Thurston's Satirical Tibet (University of Washington Press) offers the first-ever look at zurza, the Tibetan art of satire. Focusing on the region of Amdo, Thurston introduces the vibrant and technologically innovative comedy scene that took shape following the death of Mao Zedong and the rise of ethnic revival policies. This book is available as an open access edition.
Now available, the latest JAF raises important ethical concerns in an article about “angry folklore” in wartime and a discussion forum on how to respond to the professional legacies of colleagues who have harmed others through sexual discrimination or harassment.
This book includes 42 songs collected from tradition bearers in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. While it was created with music educators and their students in mind, it is also a valuable resource for anyone looking to explore some of the songs Helen Creighton collected from a wide range of peoples.
Through March, you can freely access Traci Cox’s essay in JAF’s Special Issue on Folklore Studies and Disability that received the "Best Article of the Year" Award from the Brothers Grimm Society of North America.
The second edition of the Folklore Advocacy Toolkit, produced by the Media and Public Outreach Committee, is now available for download from the AFS website. The Folklore Advocacy Toolkit is a guide to promoting and sustaining folklore work in the United States, including tips and case studies specific to nonprofit organizations, higher education, independent folklorists, and community scholars.
NASAA, in collaboration with NEA, released Cross-Sector Strategies for Health and Community Well-Being, which documents the strategies of seven state arts agencies with innovative programs connecting the arts sector and health care sector.
The latest issue of Folklorica, the journal of the Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Folklore Association, has been released. Folklorica is a fully open access journal. No subscription is required.
In The Medical Carnivalesque: Folklore among Physicians (Indiana University Press), folklorist Lisa Gabbert demonstrates that the occupational corpus of folklore, humor, and backstage talk found among physicians in hospital contexts reveals remarkable similarities to Bakhtin's descriptions of medieval carnival.