Reference Point

Annual event recognizes CMU authors and editors by Melissa Beauchamp There's one event Pamela Grudzien anticipates in the spring every year. The University Libraries' Head of Technical Services says she looks forward to the reception honoring CMU's authors and discovering where their research and creative interests have taken them at the annual Book Recognition Event. "I'm excited to see all of the submissions this year," Grudzien says. "It's a great event where faculty receive recognition for their recently published works and continuous professional achievements." The event will celebrate and recognize staff, faculty and emeriti who have authored, coauthored, edited, co-edited and illustrated books published in the preceding calendar year. Among the submissions in next semester's event, Grudzien is predicting English Language and Literature faculty members Jeffrey Weinstock and Ari Berk – both who have published recent books – will be recognized. This would mark the 14th book for Weinstock and the 12th book for Berk to be recognized at the annual event. 8 Weinstock's recently published monograph "The Vampire Film: Undead Cinema," published by Columbia University Press, offers an analysis of the enduring appeal of the cinematic vampire. It received the 2013 International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts Lord Ruthven Assembly Award for Best Nonfiction Title. Books that Weinstock hopes to be honored at future events are his 15th book, "The Work of Tim Burton: From Margins to Mainstream" and his 16th book, "The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters."  "My understanding is that my record of publication places me among the most productive researchers – if not the most productive – in CMU history," he says. Weinstock says he utilizes the Libraries' resources with all of his research-intensive projects. He uses the Libraries' books and periodicals, online databases like the Modern Language Association's bibliographic database and JSTOR, and the Documents on Demand service. Jeffrey Weinstock Berk's recently published book, "Mistle Child," digs more deeply into the haunting world of ghosts, ancestors and eldritch lore in the second series in The Undertaken Trilogy published by Simon and Schuster. The novel is what Publisher's Weekly calls a "thought-provoking gothic fantasy" in which the main character must right an ancient wrong and deal with a home haunted by ghosts. Berk also uses the Libraries' resources to work on several current book projects, including "Lych Way," the final novel in The Undertaken Trilogy, as well as three illustrated children's books, a new novel and a film screenplay. Berk says it's rewarding receiving accolades from peers and the university, and he looks forward to the Book Recognition Event each year. "Published books are a universal language that speak across the various university cultures as well as out to the world at large," he says. The spring 2014 event will be the Libraries' 10th annual such event. Ari Berk

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