What is a university press? For the 160 academic publishers that make up the Association of University Presses (AUPresses), the base commitment is to serious scholarship. But, of course, university presses are much more than that. As Jane F. Bunker, director of Cornell University Press, says these publishers not only dedicate themselves to scholarship but also aim to disseminate “ideas that shape global conversations.” And, perhaps just as crucially, they do so outside the ecosystem of trade publishing. In a moment riven by personal divisions and global crises, university presses occupy a particularly important space. Bunker, who is also president of AUPresses, puts it succinctly: “We are not commercial enterprises primarily motivated by profit, but rather by mission.”
Those missions are on display during University Press Week, an annual event that AUPresses has been hosting since 2012. Introduced in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter and revived by the association during its 75th anniversary year, University Press Week, which this year runs November 13–17, will give book lovers the chance to connect with these publishers in myriad ways. There are, among other things, a reading list, a blog tour, virtual presentations, and live author events at bookstores in cities across the country, from New York to Chicago to Seattle.
Each year, University Press Week is assigned a theme that supports AUPresses’ vision of a world enhanced by intellectual discovery. This time, AUPresses has chosen #SpeakUP—a theme of significance in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to end affirmative action in college admissions and the record level of books being banned in libraries and schools. “At this contemporary moment in the U.S., where there is an escalation in censorship of the books and ideas explored in K–12 classrooms and on college campuses, the work of university presses to ensure diversity—of authors, ideas, business models, and more—has taken on a new urgency,” Bunker says. “University presses are, quite simply, helping to create the next generation of scholars and thought leaders who will ‘speak UP.’”
A critical part of the scholarly and literary ecosystem, university presses are a trusted source of information in a fast-changing world. “As the number of commercial publishers shrinks through mergers and consolidation, it’s important to recognize that university presses keep a diverse network of quality publishing alive, one that is often willing to cultivate new scholars or locally important authors,” says AUPresses executive director Peter Berkery.
University Press Week is the annual party that pays tribute to the ways that scholarship enriches humanity—and, in doing so, showcases the spirit of collegiality that defines this community. “For university press professionals, every week is UP Week!” Bunker says. “We dedicate ourselves to the shared mission of publishing excellence.”
Who are some of the AUPresses participating in University Press Week? Here, a look at some of the organization’s members and their publishing programs.
Brandeis University Press
Based in Waltham, Mass., Brandeis University Press—led by Sue Ramin—was founded in 1971 and was an imprint of the University Press of New England until it closed its doors at the end of 2018. It became an independent press within Brandeis University in 2019. The core of the press’s list is Jewish studies, but it has moved into publishing in various subject areas in the humanities and social sciences. The press has also expanded into publishing books for a general trade readership, as well as books for students and academic monographs. In January 2021, the press acquired the UPNE backlist, which has increased its backlist to more than 600 titles.
A nonprofit publisher, BUP is dedicated to publishing “innovative, high-quality books for a general audience, as well as scholarship that advances knowledge and promotes dialogue in the humanities, arts, and social sciences around the world,” Ramin says. The list primarily comprises nonfiction books and covers a variety of subjects, including nature and the environment, sociology, history, New England, and art and architecture.
While Jewish studies remains a standout category, the press recently launched a new series called Law & Society, whose diverse offerings include When Freedom Speaks: The Boundaries and the Boundlessness of Our First Amendment Right by Lynn Greenky and We’re Here to Help: When Guardianship Goes Wrong by Diane Dimond. The press is also publishing art books and books about Boston, like the award-winning Boston’s Oldest Buildings and Where to Find Them by Joseph M. Bagley. Moreover, it has a great backlist in nature and the environment, thanks to UPNE, and is actively reissuing and publishing new editions of titles.
Over the years, the press has had many big successes, including The Second Half: Forty Women Reveal Life After Fifty by photojournalist Ellen Warner, which sold out of its first printing in the first ten days and has continued to sell well ever since, and The Beauty of the Hebrew Letter: From Sacred Scrolls to Graffiti by Izzy Pludwinski, “one of the first art books to showcase Hebrew calligraphy.” Looking ahead to 2024, the press is delighted to be publishing Books Like Sapphires: From the Library of Congress Judaica Collection by Ann Brener, which “showcases a wide range of Hebraic treasures;” the new edition of historian Louis P. Masur’s acclaimed The Soiling of Old Glory: The Story of A Photograph That Shocked America; and Freshwater Fish of the Northeast by David A. Patterson, with a foreword by Sy Montgomery.
Ramin reports that BUP is in an exciting growth phase and that it has more than doubled its title output. “We are looking forward to working with bookstores all over the country on our vibrant backlist and exciting new books in 2024,” she says.
Bristol University Press
Located in the southwest of England, in the city famous for Banksy and Brunel’s suspension bridge, is Bristol University Press. With the imprint Policy Press under its umbrella, Bristol is a publisher of international books and journals in the social sciences with a focus on global social challenges. Policy Press was established in 1996 to publish social research with a social justice stance and in 2016, with the support of the University of Bristol, became Bristol University Press to broaden its reach.
The press focuses on social, economic, political, and environmental issues at a global level, with Policy Press specializing in social policy and social change. Led by director Alison Shaw, it puts “integrity before profit” as it provides a platform for the scholarly community to publish work across subjects including law, business and management, politics and international relations, science, technology and society, and public policy. Successful books from the press include Radical Empathy: Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides by Terri E. Givens; The Class Ceiling: Why It Pays to Be Privileged by Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison; and Uncomfortably Off: Why the Top 10% of Earners Should Care about Inequality by Marcos González Hernando and Gerry Mitchell, which received wide media coverage earlier this year and was selected to appear in the Summer Reading List for Parliamentarians.
In 2022, the press launched the online platform Bristol University Press Digital. This home for books, journal articles, and collections that address global social challenges includes the nonprofit Open Access Global Social Challenges Journal, which, the press says, is the first such journal to be based in the social sciences and to engage with research from the humanities, arts, and STEM. The press also recently launched the What Is It For? series, which, Shaw says, “examines the purpose of the most important aspects of our contemporary world for a wide audience.” The series’s first four titles cover war, philanthropy and cybersecurity, and animal rights, and titles slated for 2024 will cover the Olympics, prisons, veganism, and anthropology and museums. Other upcoming offerings include Extinction Equilibrium by Jefferson Frank and Racial Justice and the Limits of Law by Bharat Malkani, which will examine “law’s troubled relationship with racial justice,” Shaw says.
The press supports the global scholarly community and aims to create work that will have reach beyond academia and will serve “all our communities,” Shaw says. “These include those most affected by social injustice and those helping to address global social challenges, ignite debate, and instigate social, environmental, and cultural change.”
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is proud to be part of the University of Cambridge, a storied institution with an esteemed history and an ethos of excellence. In 1534, Letters Patent were granted to the university—which was established in England in 1209—by King Henry VIII to print “all manner of books,” and in 1584 the press published its first title, Two Treatises of the Lord His Holie Supper. “Today we combine publishing excellence with innovation to meet the needs of our customers, authors and partners,” the press says. “Our publications, research, and higher education solutions spread knowledge, spark curiosity, and aid understanding around the world.”
CUP’s publishing program includes landmark works such as Isaac Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, alongside the latest thinking on global issues, including Mike Berners-Lee’s There Is No Planet B and Jen Manion’s Female Husbands. The press produces award-winning books for a mainstream audience, as well as academic titles, including reference works, research books, course books, and textbooks. It also publishes books that are used by professionals to do their jobs, particularly in areas related to medicine.
CUP maintains strong lists in science, technology, and medicine and has leading programs in subjects such as mathematics and physics, in which it has published the work of many Nobel laureates. It also publishes in emerging areas such as machine learning and AI, around which the press has built an influential list of textbooks and reference volumes. Books in the humanities and social science form the largest part of the press’s portfolio, and notable subjects include history, classics, philosophy, and political science. Other exciting offerings include Cambridge Companions Online, Cambridge Histories Online, and Cambridge Elements, a “dynamic reference resource,” published in both print and digital formats, that has exceeded the press’s growth targets in its first five years.
The press is always looking at ways to get its books into as many hands as possible, “whether that be by launching an award-winning digital platform for our books and journals, our recently launched digital platform for textbooks, innovative new publishing formats like Elements, or our Flip It Open initiative to make more of our books Open Access,” it says. Its upcoming titles include Byron: A Life in Ten Letters by Andrew Stauffer, which is being published to mark the bicentennial of the Romantic poet’s death; Bring Judgment Day: Reclaiming Lead Belly’s Truths from Jim Crow’s Lies by Sheila Curran Bernard; and To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power by Sergey Radchenko.
CUP may be the oldest English-language university press in the world, “but being old doesn’t mean we’re old-fashioned,” the press says. “We’ve been around for 500 years, and we aim to be around for at least another 500!”
Harvard Education Press
A leader in educational publishing since 2002, Harvard Education Press is a book publishing imprint of the Harvard Education Publishing Group and is based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Mass. Helmed by executive director Jessica Fiorillo, it publishes books by scholars, thought leaders, and seasoned practitioners that aim, it says, to “influence and inform education practice and administration, explore ongoing policy debates, and report on important research in the field.”
The first book published by HEP two decades ago was Racial Inequity in Special Education, edited by Gary Orfield and Daniel Losen of Harvard’s Civil Rights Project, which sparked a dialogue around special education and racial justice. Since the release of that title, the press’s list has expanded dramatically and now features books on education reform, school leadership, climate science, youth development, innovation and entrepreneurship, STEM education, learning and teaching, race and equity, higher education, trauma/learning loss, education management and finance, and numerous other fields. The press has also published groundbreaking works for school leaders and teachers and influential books on education policy.
Books on diversity, equity, and inclusion are among the press’s strongest offerings. H. Richard Milner IV, the former president of the American Educational Research Association, has published two major works with HEP—Rac(e)ing to Class: Confronting Poverty and Race in Schools and Classrooms, and Start Where You Are, But Don’t Stay There: Understanding Diversity, Opportunity Gaps, and Teaching in Today’s Classrooms (now in its second edition)—that provide teachers “with a deeper understanding of how to best serve and teach students of color.” HEP is also making strides in the category of higher education, with titles like A Dream Defaulted: The Student Loan Crisis Among Black Borrowers by Jason N. Houle and Fenaba Addo and America’s Hidden Economic Engines: How Community Colleges Can Drive Shared Prosperity by Robert B. Schwartz and Rachel Lipson.
Since its founding, the press has published a number of bestsellers, such as Instructional Rounds in Education: A Network Approach to Improving Teaching and Learning by Elizabeth A. City, Richard F. Elmore, Sarah E. Fiarman, and Lee Teitel and The Behavior Code Companion: Strategies, Tools, and Interventions for Supporting Students with Anxiety-Related or Oppositional Behaviors by Jessica Minahan. This fall, the press is thrilled to be publishing “Whatever It Is, I’m Against It”: Resistance to Change in Higher Education by Brian Rosenberg, “a frank and brutal examination of the academy’s pervasive intransigence to postsecondary reform.” And, in 2024, it will publish Delivering Promise: Equity-Driven Educational Change and Innovation in Community and Technical Colleges by Xueli Wang and Radical Brown: Keeping the Promise to America’s Children by Margaret Beale Spencer and Nancy E. Dowd, among other titles that will impact conversations and policies around education.
Indiana University Press
Established in 1950, Indiana University Press is recognized as a leading publisher specializing in the humanities and social sciences that produces more than 100 new books each year and has 38 journals and a backlist of approximately 3,500 titles. The mandate of the press, led by director Gary Dunham, is to serve the world of scholarship and culture and to publish both academic works and trade and reference titles.
In 1961, IUP launched its list in African studies to support the African Studies Program at Indiana University, and, for decades now, African studies has remained one of the press’s strongest categories. Other areas of note are Jewish and Holocaust studies, Middle Eastern studies, Russian and Eastern European studies, gender and sexuality, film and media, folklore and ethnomusicology, music, paleontology, and philosophy, as well as cooking, gender, lifestyle, the Midwest and Indiana, and railroads and transportation.
The press’s most successful scholarly titles to date include Crow Killer, New Edition: The Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson by Raymond W. Thorp Jr. and Robert Bunker, about American Old West mountain man John Johnson; Mexicanos, Third Edition: A History of Mexicans in the United States by Manuel G. Gonzales; and Introduction to Documentary, Third Edition by Bill Nichols, which provides “an up-to-date introduction to the most important issues in documentary history and criticism.” New trade titles include How to Be a Bourbon Badass by Linda Ruffenach, a primer on bourbon; Modern Cast Iron by Ashley L. Jones, a guide to cooking with cast iron; and the guidebook Good Sex by Catherine M. Roach.
In 2024, the press will publish an array of scholarly works, including Land of Refuge: Immigration to Palestine, 1919–1937 by Gur Alroey; Independence and Politics: Crossroads in the Shaping of Israel’s Political System by Meir Chazan; and Beekeeping in the End Times by Larisa Jašarević. It will also release a number of trade titles, such as Across the Aisle: Why Bipartisanship Works for America by Jill Long Thompson, a look at the two-party system in the U.S.; and The Grim Reader: A Pharmacist’s Guide to Putting Your Characters in Peril by Miffie Seideman, a resource for storytellers who want to craft convincing scenes involving medical scenarios that will empower “writers (and editors) with the background and authenticity necessary to develop plausible plotlines.”
Johns Hopkins University Press
Holding the distinction of being the oldest continuously operating university press in the U.S., Johns Hopkins University Press began as the Johns Hopkins Publication Agency in 1878, was renamed the Johns Hopkins Press in 1891, and became the Johns Hopkins University Press in 1972. The press’s mission is “to bring the benefits of discovery to the world” by connecting people to trusted knowledge from global researchers, scholars, and educators. Led by executive director Barbara Kline Pope, the press annually publishes some 130 new books—in health and wellness, higher education, public health and policy, the life sciences, American history and current events, literary studies, and the history of science, technology, and medicine—as well as more than 100 journals across a variety of disciplines, from literature, language arts, and public health to health care, democracy, and international affairs.
Books on higher education, covering shifts in the education landscape and in college admissions, among other topics, are some of the press’s bestselling, as are books on health and wellness, which include one of the world’s bestselling volumes on Alzheimer’s, The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for People Who Have Alzheimer Disease and Other Dementias by Nancy L. Mace and Peter V. Rabins, which has sold nearly four million copies. Other bestsellers are Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational by Michael Shermer, a close look at conspiracy theories, and The Great Upheaval: Higher Education’s Past, Present, and Uncertain Future by Arthur Levine and Scott Van Pelt, about how American colleges adapt to technological and economic change. New and forthcoming titles include The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science: A Scientist’s Warning by Peter J. Hotez, Wrong: How Media, Politics, and Identity Drive Our Appetite for Misinformation by Dannagal Goldthwaite Young, Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning by José Antonio Bowen and C. Edward Watson, and Math in Drag by math educator and TikTok star Kyne Santos, who aims to prove that math can be fun and rewarding.
The press prides itself on being one of the few university presses that publishes in public health and health policy and in health and wellness, offering books geared toward patients, caregivers, and general readers. It also boasts a portfolio of businesses that, in addition to its books and journals divisions, includes Project MUSE, an online aggregation of 800 journals and 90,000 books from 400 publishers, and a book distribution arm. The press points out that while there are other university presses that have a wide portfolio of businesses, it is “the only publisher with a leading digital aggregation platform” and that by providing publishing services to other, smaller presses, it helps to ensure that the university press community can thrive.
Mercer University Press
Located in Macon, Georgia, Mercer University Press, founded in 1979, seeks to acquire manuscripts that contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the humanities. The press has published more than 1,700 books and currently has 700 titles in print. Its small, industrious staff of five, led by director Marc A. Jolley, have a collective 90 years working at the press and pride themselves on providing personal service to its customers and authors.
The press, which supports the work of Mercer University and aims to make its books available to a worldwide community of readers, publishes works in the philosophy of religion, theology, history, and literary criticism; essays and works of fiction and poetry; and books that contribute to the understanding and appreciation of the American South, including memoirs and food and music books. In its early decades, the press established a reputation for publishing excellent material in the areas of religion, biblical studies, theology, and philosophy of religion. While it still publishes in those categories, over the past 20 years it has found increased success in the field of Southern studies.
Among the press’s most successful books are The Craftsmanship of Jimmy Carter by Jimmy Carter, which offers information about the handcrafted furniture that Carter designed and built in his woodshop in Plains, Georgia, after his presidency; America’s Historically Black Colleges & Universities: A Narrative History, 1837–2009 by Bobby L. Lovett, which provides a comprehensive history of America’s historically Black colleges and universities; and Andrew Young and the Making of Modern Atlanta by Andrew Young, Harvey Newman, and Andrea Young, which “tells the story of the decisions that shaped Atlanta’s growth from a small, provincial Deep South city to an international metropolis impacting and influencing global affairs.”
Looking ahead to 2024, the press is excited for the release of A Year of Birds: Writings on Birds from the Journal of Henry David Thoreau, edited by Geoff Wisner, a collection that features 150 color illustrations by renowned bird artist Barry Van Dusen and a foreword by celebrated naturalist Peter Alden and that “showcases Henry David Thoreau’s unparalleled descriptions of birds in a way never seen before”; Reading Van Gogh: An Amateur’s Search for God by Elizabeth Barks Cox, a memoir that “plunges into the ideas of psychologists, artists, poets, physicists, and fiction writers who combine reason, imagination, and experience in a way that might enlarge, or even change, the definitions we live by”; and Elizabeth Oakes Smith: Selected Writings; Feminist Editorial and Public Activism, 1850–1854, Volume II, edited by Timothy Scherman, which “documents a literary celebrity’s decision to commit herself to the cause of woman’s rights.”
Penn State University Press
Since the publication of its first book in 1956—Penn State Yankee, the autobiography of Penn State University scholar Fred Lewis Pattee, who has been called “the first professor of American Literature”—Penn State University Press has grown to publish approximately 100 books a year across three imprints and has a portfolio of more than 80 journals. The impressive growth of the press, which is led by director Patrick Alexander and assistant director and editor-in-chief Kendra Boileau, includes the 2017 acquisition of biblical studies and ancient Near Eastern archaeology publisher Eisenbrauns and the 2021 launch of the graphic novel imprint Graphic Mundi, which Boileau says has helped to put the press “at the forefront of university presses publishing comics a graphic novels on serious topics.”
The publishing arm of Penn State University and a division of the Penn State University Libraries, the press is a vital member of the university community, one that strives to reflect the university’s academic strengths in the liberal arts and that collaborates with alumni, faculty, and staff to produce works about aspects of university life and history. It publishes rigorously reviewed works of scholarship and books of regional and contemporary interest, with a focus on the humanities and social sciences. Areas of specialty include art history, medieval and Early Modern history, rhetoric and communication, religious studies and religion, animal studies, German studies, history, Jewish studies, literary studies, biblical studies, ancient Near Eastern archaeology, regional interest books, and graphic fiction.
Among the press’s most successful books to date are Field Guide to Wild Mushrooms of Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic by local mushroom expert Bill Russell, which remains a bestseller year after year; Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice by Jessica Gordon Nembhard, a “classic in the field” that will soon be released in a second edition; and COVID Chronicles: A Comic Anthology, edited by Kendra Boileau and Rich Johnson, a volume of more than sixty short comics by a diverse set of creators and the book that launched the press’s imprint Graphic Mundi. Upcoming titles of note include An Uncommon Woman: The Life of Lydia Hamilton Smith by Mark Kelley, a biography of the prominent African American businesswoman; With Darkness Came Stars: A Memoir by photorealist artist Audrey Flack; and Where the Grass Still Sings: Stories of Insects and Interconnection by Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award winner Heather Swan.
The press says it has a special responsibility to develop publications about Pennsylvania that “enhance interest in the region and spread awareness of the state’s history, culture, and environment.” It further notes that its internship program offers vital experience for Penn State students who are exploring careers in publishing.
Princeton University Press
Founded in 1905 by Princeton University alumnus Whitney Darrow, Princeton University Press started as Princeton Alumni Press, a modest operation that published the Princeton Alumni Weekly in an office above a drugstore in New Jersey. With backing from Charles Scribner II, of the New York publisher Charles Scribner’s Sons, the press was reincorporated as a nonprofit in 1910 and became an established book publisher. Now helmed by director Christie Henry, the press has three global offices, in Princeton, Oxford, and Beijing, and publishes 300 new works annually, with more than 9,000 works published to date.
The press publishes primarily nonfiction titles across a range of subjects, from poetry, philosophy, art history, anthropology, and comparative literature to nature, neuroscience, computer science, and physics. The humanities, social sciences, and sciences are among its strongest categories. “We believe the humanities are essential to navigating our present and future and to providing a framework for engaging technology,” the press says.
Books released by the press have won numerous awards, including six Pulitzer Prizes, five Bancroft Prizes, three National Book Awards, and hundreds of awards from academic organizations, and its authors have been awarded academic prizes including the Nobel Prize in Economics, Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature. Past titles of note include Career and Family by Claudia Goldin, Twelve Caesars by Mary Beard, and Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism by Anne Case and Angus Deaton.
Bringing scholarly ideas to the world is a mission of the press, which recently saw the expansion of its publishing program to include an audiobook imprint, Princeton Audio; an in-house speaker’s bureau, PUP Speaks; and an online magazine, Ideas. It has also initiated a multimodal equity, inclusion, and belonging initiative that includes book proposal grants and publishing fellowships.
In 2024, the press will publish Puerto Rico: A National History by Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, a book that will launch its new partnership with Editorial Planeta, aimed at Spanish-speaking audiences in the U.S. and Latin America. Other upcoming titles are Slouch: Posture Panic in America by Beth Linker and Father Time: A Natural History of Men and Babies by Sarah Hrdy. The press is also keen to publish work by experts at the forefront of artificial intelligence, and one of its most anticipated books in the space is AI Needs You: How We Can Change AI’s Future and Save Our Own by Verity Harding.
The press believes in the enduring importance of the book and the artistry of book making. “Books should transcend global and political boundaries, forge new partnerships and understanding, and expand horizons of the mind,” it says.
Stanford University Press
Stanford University Press, founded in 1892, was the brainchild of Stanford’s first president, who wanted to create a space to showcase the works of professors and graduate students. This goal coincided with the opening of a printing shop on the school’s campus that also served as a powerhouse and printed the student newspaper and, later, the press’s books. The California-based press is one of the oldest university presses in the U.S. and the first on the West Coast. It publishes more than 130 books each year across the humanities, social sciences, law, and business and has more than 4,000 books in print. “Our books inform scholarly debate, generate global and cross-cultural discussion, and bring timely, peer-reviewed scholarship to the wider reading public,” says its mission statement. “SUP is a publisher of ideas that matter, books that endure.”
The press’s flagship imprint publishes works for scholars and general readers in the humanities and social sciences, most notably in history, literary studies, critical theory, anthropology, and sociology. SUP has a long-standing international profile, with significant publishing in Middle East studies, Jewish studies, Asian studies, and Latin American studies, and is currently investing in expanding its publishing in international affairs, environmental politics, sustainability, and climate studies. Stanford Business Books publishes books with an emphasis on innovation, entrepreneurship, and social engagement, capitalizing on the press’s proximity to the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the innovation hubs of Silicon Valley. Stanford’s general trade imprint, Redwood Press, focuses on creative nonfiction.
Over the past 131 years, the press has built an eclectic backlist. “It was SUP that brought Jacques Derrida, Giorgio Agamben, Theodor W. Adorno, among other great thinkers to English-language readers,” says director Alan Harvey. While Stanford University Press takes pride in the national and global scope of its publishing program, one of its most successful books reflects its regional roots, Between Pacific Tides, a classic work of marine biology originally published in 1939 and still in print today, with a foreword by John Steinbeck added for the second edition. “In 2019 we published the two-volume The American Yawp,” Harvey says, “which is exactly what the subtitle describes, A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook, and is a perennial bestseller.”
The press’s standout 2023 books include In the Nation’s Service: The Life and Times of George P. Shultz by Philip Taubman, the first full-length biography of the statesman, and Who Wrote This? How AI and the Lure of Efficiency Threaten Human Writing by Naomi S. Baron. Looking ahead to 2024, anticipated titles include Blood and Lightning: On Becoming a Tattooer by Dustin Kiskaddon, a sociologist who writes about his apprenticeship at an Oakland tattoo establishment, and Field Guide to the Patchy Anthropocene: The New Nature, in which Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, the anthropologist author of The Mushroom at the End of the World, collaborated with Jennifer Deger, Alder Keleman Saxena, and Feifei Zhou, the team that produced one of the most elaborate Mellon-granted digital projects produced by Stanford in 2020, Feral Atlas: The More-Than-Human Anthropocene.
Texas Tech University Press
A literary jewel in the Lone Star State, Texas Tech University Press has been the publishing arm of Texas Tech University since 1971 and an AUPresses member since 1987. Headed by Faculty director Katie Cortese, the press, located in Lubbock, publishes twenty to twenty-five new titles each year and has approximately 450 titles in print. The primary goal of the press is to “disseminate the fruits of original research by publishing rigorously peer-reviewed works that compel scholarly exchange and that entertain and enlighten the university’s broadest constituency throughout the state, the nation, and the world.”
Always connected to its region, the press specializes in the history and culture of Texas, the Great Plains, and the American West, as well as natural history, border studies, and peace and conflict studies. It also publishes select titles in biography and memoir and books in the young adult and children’s space. In 2022, the press established the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN) series, which publishes Vietnamese and Southeast Asian American memoirs, novels, poetry, graphic novels, and experimental works, seeking “to foster dialogue and understanding by supporting contemporary authors whose rich and complex stories need to be championed and heard.” The press also publishes the annual winners of three literary prizes in poetry and prose. In 2022, the press was honored to publish Sing with Me at the Edge of Paradise: Stories by Joe Baumann, the inaugural winner of the Iron Horse Prize for a First Book of Collected Prose—a yearly prize for a first book of short stories and essays.
Among the press’s most successful books to date are the story collection Hà Nội at Midnight by Vietnamese author Bảo Ninh, considered to be a foremost chronicler of the Vietnam War, and Bad Smoke, Good Smoke: A Texas Rancher’s View of Wildfire by John R. Erickson, which chronicles the popular author’s firsthand experience with the destructive, yet restorative, power of wildfire. The press’s upcoming books include The Birthright of Sons by Jefferey Spivey, a collection of stories centered around the experiences of marginalized people, namely Black and LGBTQ+ men; Going to Seed: Essays on Idleness, Nature, and Sustainable Work, the inaugural winner of the Sowell Emerging Writers Prize; and The Belly of the Whale: The Bilingual Edition, a novel-in-verse, presented in Spanish and English, that creates a poetics of rural Patagonia.
University of California Press
Established in 1893 as a publisher of monographs, University of California Press became a leading publisher in the 1950s and is currently one of the six largest university publishers in the U.S. and the only one of those six associated with a public institution. The publishing arm of the University of California system, UC Press, led by director Erich van Rijn and deputy director Kim Robinson, is not associated with any single university campus. It considers itself “a bridge connecting the academic world and curious readers worldwide,” one that “amplifies bold, diverse perspectives and inspires critical thought and action.”
UC Press publishes books and journals in the arts, sciences, humanities, and social sciences, with a focus on social justice. Its notable titles include Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s final book, Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue: A Life’s Work Fighting for a More Perfect Union, coauthored with her former law clerk Amanda L. Tyler; America, Goddam: Violence, Black Women, and the Struggle for Justice by Treva Lindsey; Rebecca Solnit’s trilogy of city atlases—Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas, Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas, and Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas; The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail by MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Jason De León; and Ovid’s Metamorphoses: A New Translation, translated by C. Luke Soucy. The press has also received the Best New Journal Award from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals three years in a row, for Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture; Global Perspectives; and Journal of Autoethnography.
In 2024, the press will publish Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question: Deciding Whether to Have Children in an Uncertain Future by Jade S. Sasser; Fighting Mad: Resisting the End of Roe v. Wade, edited by Krystale E. Littlejohn and Rickie Solinger; May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit Our Biases—And What We Can Do About It by Alex Edmans; The Random Factor: How Chance and Luck Profoundly Shape Our Lives and the World around Us by Mark Robert Rank; and The Wannabe Fascists: A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Democracy, the concluding volume of Federico Finchelstein’s trilogy of books about fascism.
UC Press believes that scholarship has the power to change how people think, lead, and live and is proud of its FirstGen Program, which supports those who are the first in their family to receive a college degree. This program promotes first-generation scholars with the goal of making publishing a more equitable process for everyone.
University of Regina Press
Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, University of Regina Press is located in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, on Treaty 4 Territory, the traditional lands of the nêhiyawak (Cree), Anihšinapêk (Saulteaux), Dakota, Lakota, and Nakoda Nations, and the homeland of the Métis/Michif peoples. It produces “books that matter in the contemporary Canadian context,” the press says, and seeks to tackle “the compelling questions of our day, give voice to marginalized cultures and experiences, and provoke thought and debate that can address the needs of the many communities whom we strive to engage.”
The press takes inspiration from the motto of the University of Regina: “as one who serves.” Coled by Marcel DeCoste, director of publications, and James Patterson, director of operations, it covers subjects that range from personal memoir, lyric poetry, and language resource materials to more academic texts of historical, sociological, and cultural significance, with lists revolving around a core set of topics and concerns: Indigenous studies, stories, and languages; social justice and justice studies; regional and national politics and history; environmental studies; health studies; and fine arts and performance.
Indigenous studies is a focal point for the press, which is proud to have made “significant contributions not just to the Canadian literary and publishing scene, but to the larger cause of Truth and Reconciliation in Canada.” This coming January, the press will release Blair Stonechild’s Challenge to Civilization: Indigenous Wisdom and the Future, the third book in Stonechild’s trilogy that highlights “the importance of Indigenous Knowledge as a tool to guide us in this new age of climate change.”
Since its founding a decade ago, the press has published eight national bestsellers. Its most successful books include Clearing the Plains by James Daschuk, with a foreword by Elizabeth A. Fenn, “the bestselling scholarly book in Canada, and the catalyst for sparking widespread public awareness and recognition of Canada’s history of genocide,” and In My Own Moccasins by Helen Knott, an “emotionally searing account of overcoming generational trauma and addiction” that was longlisted for the RBC Taylor Prize. In the social justice space, there’s Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada, edited by Rodney Diverlus, Sandy Hudson, and Syrus Marcus Ware, and #BlackinSchool by Habiba Cooper Diallo, with a foreword by Awad Ibrahim—two works that, the press says, have garnered significant media attention and sales and have fostered meaningful discourse. Looking ahead, the press is buzzing about Trust the Bluer Skies by paulo da costa, a “portrait of fatherhood and homecoming set in rural Portugal,” to be released in March 2024.
Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa | University of Ottawa Press
Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa | University of Ottawa Press is the publishing house of the University of Ottawa, which is the largest bilingual university in the world and one of Canada’s top 10 research universities. Founded in 1936, PUO-UOP has more than 1,400 active titles in print, published in English and French, with an annual output of around 25 to 30 titles. Led by director Lara Mainville, the press promotes “critical and ethical thought, first-class research and intellectual integrity, social responsibility, and innovation” and is committed to bilingualism, diversity, and inclusion and to supporting Franco-Ontarians and Francophones outside of Quebec.
PUO-UOP publishes in the social sciences and humanities—including in history, politics and public policy, health and society, international development and globalization, education, sociology, law, Canadian studies, Francophone studies, and Jewish studies—and copublishes, with the Canadian Museum of History, titles in Canadian archaeology and history, many of which contribute to a better understanding of Canadian First Nations. The press also has its 101 Collection, which aims to cover topics in 101 pages, and a program that features literary works authored and translated by Canadians and biographies spotlighting influential Canadians. A partially open-access (OA) publisher, PUO-UOP offers four new releases in OA every year, and its collection of OA works includes more than 100 essays.
The press is proud to publish outstanding books in literary studies, as well as top-notch critical editions and translations. These include works in Tolstoy studies by Andrew Donskov; the Canadian Literature Collection series of nineteenth- to mid-twentieth-century literary texts, which include editions of several Malcolm Lowry titles and Ruth Panofsky’s The Collected Poems of Miriam Waddington; and works in translation, such as They Divided the Sky by Christa Wolf, translated by Luise von Flotow.
From September until June 2024, the press will publish 31 titles, 16 reeditions of literary works, and 10 audiobooks; highlights include The Top Ten Diseases of All Time by Stacey Smith?, “which counts down in a highly entertaining and witty way the worst epidemics to plague humanity,” and Canada’s Best by Andrew Irvine, Edmond Rivère, and Stefanie Tolman. Called a labor of love by the press, Canada’s Best is the final installment of a three-volume history of Canada’s premier literary prize, the Governor General’s Literary Awards, and features excerpts from winners of the award. The press further notes that many of its upcoming releases will feature original works of art, as part of an artist program launched a few years ago to support working artists.
A move is also afoot. In December, the press will open in a new location in downtown Ottawa that boasts “an accessible, sustainable, ground-floor studio and welcoming events space and boutique”—one that will showcase an array of artists’ works.
University of South Carolina Press
Exploring the vibrant history and culture of South Carolina and the American South is a focal point of the University of South Carolina Press, which seeks to tell “compelling stories that explore human experience, engage teachers and learners, contribute to academic disciplines, and inspire conversations,” says associate editorial director Aurora Bell. Established in 1944, the press is one of the oldest and most distinguished publishing houses in the South, has more than 1,000 books available in print and digital formats, and publishes approximately 35 new titles annually, including scholarly works in Southern history, African American studies, civil rights studies, American Jewish studies, literary studies, and rhetoric and communication and trade books on Southern and South Carolina history and culture, memoirs, and other works of creative nonfiction.
Food studies is an area of particular interest for the press, which has published cookbooks and works on culinary history for decades. Since joining the press in 2019, Bell has expanded the number of culinary titles on offer, and its most recent release in the space is Kugels & Collards: Stories of Food, Family, and Tradition in Jewish South Carolina by Rachel Barnett and Lyssa Harvey.
The press aims to tell stories about the American South that will engage readers “and make them rethink their assumptions about the region,” said Bell’s colleague and fellow acquiring editor Ehren Foley. Its backlist includes bestselling titles like South Carolina: A History by Walter Edgar and recent award winners like What the Eyes Can’t See: Ralph Northam, Black Resolve, and a Racial Reckoning in Virginia by Margaret Edds. Its 2024 titles include Injustice in Focus: The Civil Rights Photography of Cecil Williams by Cecil Williams and Claudia Smith Brinson; A Deeper South: The Beauty, Mystery, and Sorrow of the Southern Road by Pete Candler, with a foreword by Rosanne Cash; and Liberty Street: A Savannah Family, It’s Golden Boy, and the Civil War by Jason Friedman. Within the coming years, the press plans to expand its trade music list and add a scholarly list in veteran studies, which will feature interdisciplinary works in the social sciences.
It takes teamwork to produce books of merit, and Bell credits the press’s staff as well as outside partners, including faculty members who evaluate each title, series editors, and peer reviewers, for their ongoing contributions. A recent initiative that speaks to its spirit of collaboration is Open Carolina, an OA repository, launched in September 2023 in partnership with USC Libraries, that features books and reference works, including the South Carolina Encyclopedia, and will expand to include other content that will support education, scholarship, policy discussion, and public discourse.
University of Toronto Press
Canada’s leading academic publisher, the University of Toronto Press has been publishing expert scholarship since 1901 and currently publishes approximately 180 new books each year, under the guidance of Jessica Mosher, who is the president, publisher, and CEO. UTP releases titles in a wide range of subjects in the humanities, social sciences, and business, covering everything from anthropology to urban studies, and boasts a journals division with a reputation for excellence in editing, production, and customer support.
Over the decades, UTP—whose core strengths include Canadian history, Canadian politics, Indigenous studies, and medieval and Renaissance studies—has significantly expanded its publishing reach. In 2008, in partnership with the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, it launched the business imprint Rotman-UTP Publishing, and that same year acquired independent publisher Broadview Press’s history and social science lists, establishing a dynamic course book division. In 2019, UTP acquired New Jewish Press and the following year launched the first titles from its new trade imprint, Aevo UTP, which publishes books on current events. The press also boasts a distribution arm, UTP Distribution, that provides fulfilment services to smaller publishers and today represents more than 70 book imprints for distribution in Canada, the U.S., and around the world.
UTP’s eclectic offerings include the cookbook Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well by Pellegrino Artusi, a perennial bestseller that’s been name-checked by connoisseurs of Italian cuisine, including actor Stanley Tucci; Lissa: A Story about Medical Promise, Friendship, and Revolution by Sherine Hamdy and Coleman Nye, a book that kicked off the press’s ethnoGRAPHIC series of graphic novels based on anthropological research and one that continues to sell in record numbers; and the call-to-action book Solved: How the World’s Great Cities Are Fixing the Climate Crisis by former Toronto mayor David Miller, which “outlines a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale” and will be rereleased in 2024 in a new, updated edition. Also out in 2024 is Sticky, Sexy, Sad: Swipe Culture and the Darker Side of Dating Apps by sex-positive feminist and anthropologist Treena Orchard, which poses the question: “Can true love thrive in the murky realm of digital dating?”
UTP has been publishing books for well over a century and remains at the top of its game. The imprint Aevo UTP, the press says, is widely recognized in Canada as a platform for academics who want to reach a trade audience, and the press’s many books are now being made available in new formats, such as podcasts and audiobooks, as the publisher works to fulfill its mission to connect bold ideas to make a better world.
University of Utah Press
Recognized as Utah’s oldest university press, University of Utah Press was started with an annual budget of $15,000 in 1949, the same year it released its debut title, Victor Sears’s dental book New Teeth for Old. In 1961, the press hired its first full-time director, Russell Mortensen, who expanded the press’s publishing program to include many of the subjects it focuses on today. Now under the leadership of director and editor-in-chief Glenda Cotter, the press, which is based in Salt Lake City, publishes scholarly books as well as other materials of significance to Utah, the region, the country, and the world, in the areas of anthropology, archaeology, Mesoamerican studies, American Indian studies, linguistics, natural history, nature writing, environment and sustainability studies, Utah and Western history, and Mormon studies, as well as local guidebooks and other regional titles.
Well-known as a publisher of New World archaeology and anthropology, the press is home to four recipients of the Society for American Archaeology’s Lifetime Achievement Award—Don D. Fowler, George C. Frisson, Linda Cordell, and W. Raymond Wood—and to Jesse D. Jennings, a prominent University of Utah professor and the recipient of the Alfred Vincent Kidder Award for Eminence in the Field of American Archaeology. A champion of anthropological study, the press also sponsors the Don D. and Catherine S. Fowler Award, which is given each year to the best book-length, single-author manuscript in anthropology submitted to the press.
Some of the press’s most successful publications to date are the multivolume Florentine Codex (General History of the Things of New Spain), compiled by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún in the sixteenth century and translated by Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J. O. Anderson, which is among the most important historic sources on ancient Mexico; and the perennial favorite A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings by David Salo, who was a linguistic consultant to Peter Jackson during the filming of the Lord of the Rings movies.
Run by a “small but mighty” editorial team, the press is excited to publish an array of titles in 2024 that include Sustainability for the Forgotten by Gary E. Machlis and Sustainable Capitalism: Essential Work for the Anthropocene, edited by Inara Scott. In partnership with the University of Utah’s Wallace Stegner Center, the press is also set to publish a series of short books about Great Salt Lake, the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere. “The implications of the shrinking lake on the environment, especially hazardous toxic dust and the loss of critical bird habitat, are of huge significance to Utah and the region,” the press says.
University of Rochester Press/Boydell & Brewer
The University of Rochester Press was founded in 1989 as part of a collaboration between the 175-year-old University of Rochester, a leading research university in Rochester, N.Y., and British academic publisher Boydell & Brewer, whose roots are in medieval studies and whose subjects now extend to the humanities and social sciences. Led by editorial director Sonia Kane, URP publishes works in musicology and music theory, African studies, European history, and the history of medicine. URP is also actively building lists in interdisciplinary fields including ethnomusicology, gender and race, and medieval political thought. Other titles, published under the Meliora Press imprint, focus on topics related to the history and contributions of the University of Rochester and its staff.
The University of Rochester is home to the Eastman School of Music, one of the country’s top music conservatories, making music an important focus of URP’s list. The Eastman Studies in Music series, launched in 1994, is approaching 200 titles—a huge milestone that the press will soon be celebrating—and is committed to publishing quality works focused on music scholarship. URP’s bestselling music titles include Gay Guerrilla: Julius Eastman and His Music edited by Renee Levine-Packer and Mary Jane Leach, about the life of the gay, Black composer who brought a new voice to postwar American New Music, and Inside Conducting by renowned British conductor Christopher Seaman, which offers insights into that rarefied field. Other top sellers include the Handbook of Self-Determination Research edited by Edward Deci and Richard M. Ryan, which explores the subject of human motivation, and The Universe Behind Barbed Wire: Memoirs of a Ukrainian Soviet Dissident by Myroslav Marynovych, the honorary president of the Ukrainian chapter of PEN International, with a foreword by celebrated historian Timothy Snyder, who is also a series editor at URP. And forthcoming titles of note include Black Woman on Board: Claudia Hampton, the California State University, and the Fight to Save Affirmative Action by Donna J. Nicol and Verdi and the Art of Italian Opera by Steven Huebner, an overview of what makes Italian composer Verdi’s operas so beloved, even today.
Giving readers free access to academic works is important to URP, which has long championed OA publishing. Making scholarship, especially in African studies, available to the widest possible readership is a key value of both URP and its longtime partner Boydell & Brewer, whose publishing program complements URP’s own.
University Press of Florida
The University Press of Florida, headquartered in sunny Gainesville, is the only university press in Florida and one of the largest in the South, with a reputation for publishing distinguished works by important global and local voices. Since its founding in 1945, it has released more than 3,000 books and currently puts out about 70 new titles each year, for students, scholars, and general readers.
Overseen by director Romi Gutierrez, UPF publishes nonfiction titles in history, literature, Latin American studies, African American studies, archaeology, space studies, sustainability, dance, gardening, cooking and foodways, Florida history and culture, and more. “We are known for producing books on topics that resonate with readers in Florida and the broader US South, from history to the arts to current social issues,” Gutierrez says. “Many of these books have been important both to our local communities and to national conversations about climate science, environmental conservation, politics, and culture.”
Over the past decade, UPF has put out a number of well-received titles that include Picturing Apollo 11: Rare Views and Undiscovered Moments by J. L. Pickering and John Bisney, which was released on the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing, offers a unique photographic history of the Apollo 11 mission, and features never-before-seen photos; Coconuts and Collards: Recipes and Stories from Puerto Rico to the Deep South by Von Diaz, a recipe-packed memoir of growing up Latina in the South that celebrates Puerto Rican cooking and tells “a moving story about discovering our roots through the foods that comfort us;” and Walking St. Augustine: An Illustrated Guide and Pocket History to America’s Oldest City by Elsbeth “Buff” Gordon, a handbook for Florida residents and tourists alike that “takes readers on a tour of over 450 years of history in the spellbinding city of St. Augustine” and features information on points of architectural and historic interest and the multicultural families that have made the city home.
Looking ahead to 2024, UPF is buzzing about Dancing the Afrofuture: Hula, Hip-Hop, and the Dunham Legacy by Halifu Osumare, a book from the dancer and activist that details her dynamic career, which began during the 1960s Black Arts Movement, and offers reflections on how that career has influenced her growth as a scholar. UPF says it’s always searching for new, diverse stories, particularly those centered on Florida and the South, as well as books on natural history, the environment, and sustainability, especially those with a regional bent. It welcomes both historical writings and works of creative nonfiction and invites writers to submit their book ideas to the press for consideration.
Wesleyan University Press
One of the nation’s leading scholarly publishers of interdisciplinary work in the humanities and poetry, Wesleyan University Press, founded in 1957 and based in Middletown, Conn., has published more than 1,500 books, nearly 1,000 of which are still in print, and has more than 3.5 million books in circulation across the world. Specializing in poetry, music, dance, and the arts, the press, run by director Suzanna Tamminen, is committed to academic and creative inquiry and seeks to discover work that speaks “to a diverse community of readers who value independence of mind and generosity of spirit.” It prides itself on championing experimental writers such as John Cage and groundbreaking artists like Eiko Otake, Liz Lerman, and Ralph Lemon.
Poetry is an integral component of the press’s list—of the approximately 20 new books put out each year, six to eight are collections of poems. The press is home to numerous important poets—James Tate, Joy Harjo, and Brenda Hillman, among them—and has received national and international accolades for its poetry books, including six Pulitzer Prizes, three National Book Awards, two National Book Critics Circle Awards, three Griffin Poetry Prizes, and an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. It also hosts a poetry podcast called Life Lines: Poets in Conversation.
One of the press’s most celebrated titles is Versed by poet Rae Armantrout, which won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. “Our relationship with Rae spans decades,” the press says. “We truly value working with poets throughout the span of their career, which allows both the writer and the publisher to grow together.” Other foundational works released by the press include Silence by John Cage; Life Against Death by Norman O. Brown; Graven Images by Allen Ludwig; The Tennis Court Oath by John Ashbery; Dien Cai Dau by Yusef Komunyakaa; and Black Noise by Tricia Rose.
The press is thrilled by the recent success of suddenly we by Evie Shockley, which is a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award in Poetry. Its fall titles include Sukun: New and Selected Poems by Kazim Ali; Fierce Elegy by Peter Gizzi; contemporary prose poetry The Ruins of Nostalgia by Donna Stonecipher and mahogany by erica lewis; and Lisa Barg’s music book Queer Arrangements: Billy Strayhorn and Midcentury Jazz Collaboration. In 2024, the press will release Michael Veal’s Living Space: John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Free Jazz, from Analog to Digital, as well as poetry from Remica Bingham-Risher, fahima ife, Idra Novey, and torrin a. greathouse.
Yale University Press
Started in 1908 by writer and Yale alum George Parmly Day, Yale University Press was originally based out of a cubbyhole-sized office in Manhattan and moved to New Haven, Conn., in 1910 to be closer to the university. As Clarence Day—George Parmly Day’s brother and a partner in the establishment of the press—said in 1920: “The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man.” That sentiment has continued to drive the press, which is now led by director John Donatich.
The press aims to publish books that contribute to a global understanding of human affairs, with the goal of advancing scholarly investigation, stimulating debate, and enhancing cultural life. YUP’s editorial team acquires titles in history, religion, art and architecture, literature, science, business and economics, political science, international relations, law, and classical studies, among others. The press has had success with a wide range of books, among them winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Bancroft Prize. Its enduring hits include Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957 and became the fastest-selling title in YUP history, A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich, the first English translation of a classic history primer for children, which has sold more than one million copies, and Interaction of Color by Josef Albers, a landmark publication for art education.
During the 1960s and ’70s, the number of titles published annually by the press tripled, from 30 to 90, and would continue to grow as the press began to publish works in the burgeoning field of women’s studies, among other areas. These days, beyond its own publications, the press maintains copublication and distribution partnerships with some of the world’s top museums. One of its most popular museum collaborations was 2011’s Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty by Andrew Bolton, which was published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed by the press and which accompanied a major exhibition of the British designer’s work that was one of the most visited exhibitions in the Met’s history.
The press aims to continually extend its horizons in a quest to embody university publishing at its best and to celebrate the life of the book, as its founders intended. Among its recent successes is the critically acclaimed The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk, which is a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award in Nonfiction, and its anticipated 2024 titles include John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community by Raymond Arsenault, the first full-length biography of the civil rights hero, part of the press’s new Black Lives series, and The House of Being, a book about writing from Natasha Tretheway, the 19th poet laureate of the U.S.
