If you've never read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but always wanted to, rejoice, for the folks at Quirk Books have a new one out—Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls. This is a prequel that takes us a little further back with the Bennet sisters in the English countryside. When corpses spring from the soft English soil, it seems only one family can stop them. Elizabeth Bennet must pick a suitor and battle zombies.

The new novel, by Jane Austen and Steve Hockensmith, comes out March 23. Until then, amuse yourselves with the Quirk book trailer. See more book trailers from Quirk here.

"The U.S.-Mexico Border: Living and Writing on the Edge," from 1 to 2 p.m., Saturday, March 13, at the Student Union Gallagher Theater, will be moderated by local author Tom Miller (Revenge of the Saguaro). The panel will be broadcast nationwide on C-SPAN and a booksigning will follow.

Anna Mirocha has details on the festival in this week's TW:

This year's festival, to be held Saturday and Sunday, March 13 and 14, at the University of Arizona, will feature workshops, poetry readings, panels, book reviews, writing contests, book sales (of course) and children's activities. Hundreds of authors—including many best-selling ones—will flock to Southern Arizona from across the country to give lectures, interviews and book signings.

Tucson Weekly arts editor Margaret Regan talked yesterday about her new book, The Death of Josseline, on NPR's Talk of the Nation. Listen here.

Tucson Weekly Arts Editor Margaret Regan talked about her new book, The Death of Josseline, with Bill Buckmaster on KUAT-TV's Arizona Illustrated tonight. Watch it after the jump.

We have an excerpt from The Death of Josseline in TW this week. Read it, and buy the book.

Margaret has just published The Death of Josseline: Immigration Stories from the Arizona-Mexico Borderlands, which expands on reporting that she did for TW and other publications over the last decade.

Check out what the critics are saying:

"Most border ‘experts’ and immigration writers are mere tourists. This writer is not one of them. In Margaret Regan’s The Death of Josseline, you have a writer who lives the story, reports from the heart of the killzone, and works the territory on a regular basis. The many admirers of Enrique’s Journey will find much to admire, and fear, in this powerful report."
—Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Devil’s Highway

"The Death of Josseline is a humane, sensitive, and informative perspective on a current and controversial topic. It also testifies to the fastest growing international criminal activity today: body trafficking. We all must pay attention."
—Ana Castillo, author of The Guardians

"The Death of Josseline is a border reality check. It tells searing stories of those who’ve died crossing the Sonora/Arizona desert, of young people sent to prison in Tucson for the crime of working, and of the courageous people of conscience who stand up for the rights of migrants. Read it, and see why our deadly immigration policies need to be changed."
—David Bacon, author of Illegal People

"This book should be required reading for everyone—from President Obama and the director of Homeland Security to the Border Patrol agents, the vigilantes, and migrant rights activists. If people on both sides of the immigration issue picked up this book instead of arms, we would come to a peaceful resolution; it gave me inspiration."
—Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street

"In The Death of Josseline, Margaret Regan stands midpoint between immigration’s push and pull . . . her clear and sympathetic eyes watching the south on its treacherous slog north."
—Tom Miller, author of The Panama Hat Trail

"There may be no better way to understand the muddle that is U.S. immigration policy than by reading these portraits of people who cross the border in hopes of a better life. . . . The Death of Josseline is an excellent way to understand—on a human level—the ebb and flow of human labor across political boundaries."
—Ted Robbins, Southwest correspondent, National Public Radio

“Regan…has compiled a compelling chronicle of the flow of migrants from northern Mexico into the “Tucson Sector” of Arizona, distilling the many facets of this phenomenon into an enlightening account.”
—Booklist

“Regan puts a human face on the multiple problems created by desperate, poverty-stricken people entering the United States illegally to look for work.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Buy your copy now! Or visit one of our local bookstores. They could the use the money, and the gov't could use the tax revenue.

We'll have an excerpt in TW next week.

I've been reading Margaret's work for close to two decades now. She's blessed with a sharp eye, a good heart and spine of steel. Her border stories have captured the complexity and heartache that runs so deeply in our borderlands. Would that we had more of her in the biz.

• Glenn Boyer

One of the authors present will be Tucsonan Glenn Boyer. His recent release, Where the Heart Was, is touted as "the great American novel." Here's more info from a press release:

A voice came in the night and said, ‘Write the biography of the Republic. Carve it in autobiographical vignettes, deeply etched cameos that picture the lives of one pioneer American family. Recall the lives of sacred ancestors, recall our debts owed to them, owed to the Republic of Mankind, too, the Human Race. Listen by the Waters.’”

And that is just was historian and celebrated author Glenn Boyer did. Intertwining his own family history with his experience growing up during the Great Depression, he has truly written the Great American Novel.

Get lost in time as Boyer’s novel takes you through the hardships and rich history of what forever changed the face of America. He traces the events of the American Republic from the Revolution, the Civil War, and Great Depression. Catch a glimpse into the past as Bennie, the main character, grows from a little boy to a man in the midst of those major events where he eventually comes to serve his country.

Fittingly, the novel is dedicated to Abraham Lincoln, whose presence haunts every page, and who, in his moving address at Gettysburg, labeled America, “The last best hope of earth.”

Boyer captured his own childhood years during the Depression, paid homage to his ancestors, and sealed the Soul of the Republic all inside of his novel, Where the Heart Was (Legendary Publishing, $34.95).

Jefferson Carter will read from his new book, My Kind of Animal, during KXCI's Poet's Moment. Air times are Wednesday, Nov. 25, at 3 and 10 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 28, at 8 a.m.; Sunday, Nov. 29, at 2 p.m.; and Monday, Nov. 30, at 10 a.m.

My Kind of Animal is Carter's eighth collection and is published by local Chax Press. Carter has read at the 2008 Tucson Poetry Festival and participated in the Tucson Festival of Books.

A book launch takes place from 6 to 9 p.m., Friday, Dec. 4, at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St. A portion of the proceeds from book sales that evening will be donated to the Sky Island Alliance, where Carter volunteers. He explains their work: "Sky Island is an alliance of scientists and environmental activists who protect the flora and fauna of Southern Arizona and northern Sonora. Among their many activities, they close down illegal roads in wilderness areas, try to protect jaguars and ocelots, keep intact the wildlife corridors between the mountain ranges, and generate data and advise government agencies on ways to keep the national forests healthy."

Call 870-6487 for more information.

In the Oct. 1 issue, we included an event listing indicating Diana Gabaldon would be in Tucson on Oct. 2. That was incorrect. She will be discussing her novel An Echo in the Bone on Saturday, Oct. 10, at 2 p.m., at Barnes and Noble, 5130 E. Broadway Blvd.

Then on Sunday, Oct. 11, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., an educators' reception will be held to kick off the Educator Appreciation Week. Teachers can sign up for a free educators' discount card. Performances, food and free giveaways will be offered.

Here's a release we received announcing a new KJLL program for authors.

A new weekly program, produced by Literary Partners Group (LPG) is hosting On the Book Shelf. This hour-long, live listener call-in program airs Saturday mornings from 11 a.m. to noon on radio station KJLL 1330 AM.

On the Book Shelf appears to be the first local radio program for local authors, and is produced and directed by the LPG staff to exclusively promote the writing craft, enabling local authors to publicize their current works. The program will also enable LPG consultants to give writing tips in helping authors publish their manuscripts. Other topics will include editing/proofing, script doctoring, query letter and book proposals.

Future programs will include suggestions from the listeners, along with a wide range of marketing services including media relations, literary reviews and publishing options. This program is open to all authors, not exclusively LPG clients. We look forward to featuring local book stores and other local writing groups as principal program guests.

For more info, contact Andrew T. Greeley at 880-1872.

The UA Press brought home a half-dozen awards from the Arizona Book Awards.

Here's the press release from UA Press:

(May 13, 2009. Tucson, AZ) From poetry collections to outdoor recreation titles, University of Arizona Press books were a big hit with judges at the eighth annual Arizona Book Awards, sponsored by the Arizona Book Publishing Association. The Press left the ceremony with a total of six awards, including two honors in the poetry category. Neil Miller’s Kartchner Caverns won first place in the regional category, as well as the Judges’ Choice for Best Book Award—chosen for its excellence among more than a hundred titles submitted in this year’s competition.

Best Book and Best Regional Book - Kartchner Caverns: How Two Cavers Discovered and Saved One of the Wonders of the Natural World, Neil Miller

Go beyond the guidebooks with Miller’s delightful and revealing look at this unspoiled natural wonder and the science of cave conservation. With as much depth and colorful detail as the caverns themselves, this account will captivate anyone interested