Yoknapatawpha Press is pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of Powerhouse: The Meek School at Ole Miss, by Ronald Farrar, a history of the journalism department at the University of Mississippi from its humble beginnings in 1946 to the present Meek School of Journalism and New Media. In these pages we see how a worthy academic and professional program came to be. We meet Gerald Forbes, the man who founded it, and the men and women who nurtured it, and Ed Meek, an alumnus and benefactor who did much to propel it toward the top tier in its field. It's a remarkable story, told authoritatively and graced with traces of humor along the way.

A former newspaper man and a native of Arkansas, Dr. Ronald T. Farrar is the author of eight books and numerous articles for academic and professional publications. He helped the Ole Miss Journalism Department become accredited, surving as chairman from 1973-77. When he retired in 2001, he was Reynolds-Faunt Memorial Professor and Interim Dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina.