Kudos to U-Press

Since its founding in 2001, the Southeast Missouri State University Press has produced an impressive list of nine titles that include professor Robert Hamblin's book of London poems titled "Mind the Gap," Linda Busby Carter's award-winning civil rights novel "Seven Laurels" and Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle's Civil War novel "The Gold of Cape Girardeau."

Last year, "The Gold of Cape Girardeau" won the Missouri Humanities Council's Governor's Book Award. Now another University Press book, Edward "Ned" Matthews III's "Matthews: The Historic Adventures of a Pioneer Family," has won the award this year.

Matthews is a Sikeston, Mo., businessman and member of the university's board of regents. Last year his book won the Fred Kniffen Award from the Pioneer America Society, a national award recognizing a book about material culture, the study through artifacts that reveal the beliefs of a society at a given time.

The Governor's Book Award is one of four Governor's Humanities Awards conferred every year by the Missouri Humanities Council. The Community Heritage Award recognizes contributions to a community's understanding of its heritage. The Public Involvement Award goes to an individual or group shown to develop exemplary public interest in a museum or historic site or historical society. The award also may be made for developing public interest in history or literature. The Excellence in Secondary Education Award recognizes one or more teachers of English, history, languages or social studies in public or private schools.

Congratulations to the Southeast Missouri State University Press.