Tag Archives: AAUP

#ReadUP in Your Community: Day 1

Download your own UPK #ReadUP Bookmark!

The University Press Community as a whole has collected their works that best exemplify this year’s theme in a gallery where you can find a great new read (click below):

You can also explore other University Press’s efforts to empower and inform their communities via our yearly blog tour. Today’s posts highlight the people in our neighborhoods, read more on their blogs:

Northwestern University Press

http://northwesternup.tumblr.com/

Rutgers Unviersity Press

Sneak a peek at Rutgers’ 250th anniversary celebrations and the press’s role in them (with lots of pictures!)

Fordham University Press

Featuring Professor Mark Naison, co-author of Before the Fires: An Oral History of African American Life in the Bronx from the 1930s to the 1960s.

University of Toronto Press

Our history editor recounts her experiences running lectures at a nearby Jewish Community Centre in Toronto on Why History Matters Today, featuring a string of our higher education authors.

University of Toronto Press Journals

Featuring one of our journal editors and the work they are doing in their own communities related to the journal they are responsible for.

Seminary Co-op Bookstores

Curated book list of favorite University Press titles from Haun Saussy, University of Chicago faculty and Columbia University Press and Fordham University Press author.

Athabasca University Press

We will be featuring members of our editorial committee.

University Press of Florida

An introduction to our “neighborhood” of readers, authors, bookstores, sales reps, staff, and more.

Surprise! It’s UP Week: Guess the Press with our #ReadUP Quiz

4 Replies

Every year the Association of American University Press holds University Press Week to highlight the amazing work of scholarly nonprofit publishers and their contributions to culture, the academy, and an informed society. In the spirit of tradition, the University Press of Kentucky will be participating in blog tour, allowing university presses to collaborate on a series of posts highlighting the value of collaboration. This year’s theme: “Surprise!”

With over a century of university press history, it is no shock that many university presses have an interesting backstory filled with wonderful accomplishments. Following the theme, we’re exploring our history and testing how well you know the history of our fellow university presses.

Now, a little about us: The University Press of Kentucky is the scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and was organized in 1969 as successor to the University of Kentucky Press. Bruce F. Denbo, then of Louisiana State University Press was appointed as the first full-time professional director. Denbo served as director of UPK until his retirement in 1978, building a small but distinguished list of scholarly books with emphasis on American history and literary criticism. Since the formation of the consortium, the press has broadened its appeal to readers in and outside of Kentucky with a wide array of publications.

Test your knowledge on other AAUP member presses by taking the quiz below:

See what’s happening during #UPWeek from other #AAUP Member Presses who are blogging today:

University Press of Florida, University of New England, University Press of Mississippi, University Press of Kansas, University of Nebraska Press, University of California Press, University of Wisconsin Press

His Life on the Blacklist, or How Communists Brought Us the “Cran-stache” #UPWeek

3 Replies

Fans of the hit television show Breaking Bad have grown accustomed to seeing Bryan Cranston donning a mustache to play Walter White. But, at this year’s Emmy Awards, the “Cran-stache” came out for a different reason. . .

. . . for his starring role as blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in the forthcoming film Trumbo, directed by Jay Roach. The new mustache was perhaps just as memorable as Cranston’s Emmys makeout session with Best Actress-winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Trumbo made a name for himself as a screenwriter, playwright, and author, but he is also remembered as one of the Hollywood Ten who opposed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Refusing to answer questions about his prior involvement with the Communist Party, Trumbo sacrificed a successful career in Hollywood to stand up for his rights and defend political freedom.

Roach’s screenplay for Trumbo is based on the book Dalton Trumbo by Bruce Cook. Cook’s 1976 biography was largely based on a series of interviews with Trumbo himself, in which Cook admitted he was too “embarrassed” to ask the writer about his Communist Party affiliations.

Forthcoming in January 2015, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical, builds on Cook’s previous work through extensive research by Trumbo’s son, Christopher, and coauthor Larry Ceplair, primarily through the reams of carefully-worded letters Trumbo wrote throughout his life. Trumbo wrote thousands of letters that served as a journal of sorts, keeping track of the important events and people in his life and the battles he fought.

According to Christopher Trumbo, “That he was writing humorous and graceful letters at the same time as he was handling all that other stuff gave the audience a larger picture of what he was like.”

With regard to all “that other stuff,” Trumbo’s political beliefs continually evolved. He joined (and later left) the Communist Party twice in his life. But, in the anti-Communist boiler that was mid-century Hollywood, Trumbo’s membership in the party told them all they need to know about his politics. In a cover letter that accompanied several dozen boxes of his papers sent to the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research in 1962, Trumbo wrote:

I’ve always thought of my life as a series of conflicts, each a separate battle, segregated in my mind under the heading, “My fight with these guys” or “My fight with those guys.” In thinking back I now realize I have regarded each fight as distinct and unrelated to the other, and have sometimes marveled how one man could have so many of them. I now realize it was all one fight; that the relation of each to the other was very close; and I am really no more combative than any other man. It just happened in my case that the original fight once undertaken, expanded marvelously into what seemed like many fights and the most recent in a sequence of fights is actually no more than the current phase of the primary engagement.

The blacklist ended for Trumbo in 1960, when he received screen credits for Exodus and Spartacus. Just before his death, he received a long-delayed Academy Award for The Brave One, and in 1993, he was posthumously given an Academy Award for Roman Holiday (1953).

And as for Bryan Cranston’s faithful display of facial hair for the upcoming biopic?

From the introduction:

He almost always wore a mustache. . . . He periodically changed the shape and style of his mustache, going from a pencil-thin one in the 1930s to one that was bushier, carefully shaped, and, of course, whiter. He was very fastidious about his mustache. “He shaved every morning,” Mitzi [his daughter] said, “and he had a little comb for his mustache. Once, he became annoyed that nobody had noticed a change he had made in his facial hair.”

Dalton Trumbo writing in his bath tub. Photo by Mitzi Trumbo.

Bryan Cranston at the 2014 Emmy Awards

See what’s happening for #UPWeek from other #AAUP Member Presses:

Princeton University Press on their book Alan Turing: The Enigma and the new, highly-acclaimed movie tie-in starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
Georgetown University Press has built an impressive list of espionage titles. You may have noticed quite a few spy thrillers (Turn, Sleepy Hollow, The Assests) on your DVR of late.
The University Press of Mississippi highlights their book, Walt Before Mickey. Now a major motion picture opening Thanksgiving weekend.
University Press of Wisconsin‘s blog is Ripped from the Headlines! Featuring timely, newsbreaking titles.
University of Pennsylvania Press features some of their books that appeal to a general audience. But they’re also trying to find ways to speed up the publishing process and release books that address topical issues as they are happening. University Presses aren’t simply places where dry tomes on minutiae get into print; they are places where all the world’s knowledge finds a voice.

#UPWeek Day 2: Your University Press in Pictures

1 Reply

It’s day 2 of the University Press Week 2014!

First off, a big thanks to everyone who’s been sharing, tweeting (#upweek), and learning with us as well as the rest of the UP community. Today’s theme is Your University Press in Pictures and the bloggers have gone all out!

UPF in Pictures through the Years

University Press of Florida: This post looks at UPF in pictures through the years.

We’ve Come A Long Way Since 1907! #UPWEEK Blog Tour

Fordham University Press: A photo collage featuring FUP events and memorable moments over the years.

#UPWeek blog tour: A brief history of IU Press in pictures

Indiana University Press: A fun look at the history of Indiana university Press as they celebrate their 65th anniversary next year.

Celebrating University Press Week: JHUP in Pictures

Johns Hopkins University Press: Q&A with JHUP Art Director Martha Sewell and short film of author and marine illustrator Val Kells in her studio.

TO MAKE A BOOK (CIRCA 1960)

Stanford University Press: A post featuring old B&W photos of the press and its printing facilities as they existed in the ’50s and ’60s that really highlight the artistry and crafstmanship that goes into print publishing.

The quality of posts so far this year for #upweek have been incredible. We’re hoping to continue that trend when it’s our turn as we tackle tomorrow’s theme: University Presses in Popular Culture.

Until then, take a #UPShelfie!

Ready, Set, Go: University Press Week 2014

1 Reply

It’s that time of the year again!

The University Press of Kentucky will be celebrating the third annual University Press Week along with our friends at more than 120 other member presses of the American Association of University Presses. This week we’ll be rounding up the news and accomplishments of university presses across the country (and the world), and sharing more of what makes university presses so special.

What is University Press Week exactly? We’re glad you asked. The AAUP breaks it down this way:

In the summer of 1978 President Jimmy Carter proclaimed a University Press Week “in recognition of the impact, both here and abroad, of American university presses on culture and scholarship.” That influence continues today, as does the increasing vitality of university press publishing programs, the many ways and means by which works are now produced and distributed, and the urgent need for articulate discourse in times pervaded by sound bites. Today, a renewed University Press Week highlights the extraordinary work of nonprofit scholarly publishers and their many contributions to culture, the academy, and an informed society.

We hope you discover more about us, about university presses as a whole, and some of the great books and people that make our jobs so wonderful. As always, we love to hear from you too! Feel free to leave us a comment here, on Facebook, or chat with us on Twitter (#upweek) if you want to learn more about our unique and influential community.

Additionally, 32 university press blogs (including our own!) have joined together to highlight our history, our books, our staffs, and our specialties. Individual presses will blog on a different theme each day, including Collaboration, Your University Press in Pictures, University Press in Popular Culture, Throwback Thursday, and Follow Friday. Click here for the full blog tour schedule.

Today’s Theme: Collaboration

University of California Press: Featured authors Dr. Paul Farmer and Dr. Jim Yong Kim discuss the collaborative work they are doing to fight the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

University of Chicago Press: A post on the first year of the Turabian Teacher Collaborative, featuring guest content from one of the University of Iowa professors helming the endeavor

Duke University Press: Author Eben Kirksey on collaboration at the intersection of anthropology and biology, including his own recent collection, “The Multispecies Salon.”

University of Georgia Press: A look at the New Georgia Encyclopedia (NGE) partnership, which includes the Georgia Humanities Council, UGA libraries, GALILEO, and the Press. The NGE is the
state’s award-winning, on-line only, multi-media reference work on the people, places, events, and institutions of Georgia.

Project MUSE/Johns Hopkins University Press: Project MUSE is the poster child for collaboration in the university press world, resulting from collaboration between a university press and university library. A rumination on collaboration in the university press world in general, drawing on specific instances of collaboration among university presses from MUSE’s history.

McGill-Queen’s University Press: An elaboration on the title submitted for the online gallery: Landscape Architecture in Canada — a major national project with support from scholars across the country and published simultaneously in French and English by two University Presses. Followed by cross-Canada book tour, “CONVERSATIONS”, in partnership with the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects.

Texas A&M University Press: A post focusing on a new consumer advocacy series launched earlier this year with the Texas A&M School of Public Health, whose mission is to improve the health of communities through education, research, service, outreach, and creative partnerships.

University of Virginia Press: An account of a collaboration between the Press and the Presidential Recordings Project at the Miller Center to create ‘Chasing Shadows,’ a book on the orgins of Watergate, with a special ebook and web site allowing readers to listen to the actual Oval Office conversations.

Yale University Press: Mark Polizzotti, director of the publications program at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, will contribute a guest post to our ‘Museum Quality Books’ series. The series consists of guest posts from the knowledgeable, erudite, witty, insightful, and altogether delightful directors of publishing at the museums and galleries with whom we collaborate on books.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s theme: Your University Press in Pictures. See you then!

#UPWeek The Importance of Regional Publishing: Because Nobody Understands Kentucky Like We Do

3 Replies

All week, we’ve been celebrating University Press Week and sharing with all of you what it means to be a University Press and what makes UPs so great. One of the subjects we’re best known for is a subject closest to all of our hearts: Kentucky. Our regional books editor, Ashley Runyon, is a born-and-bred Bluegrass Girl. For University Press Week, we asked her to share why Regional Publishing is so important both to her and to the Press. Herewith, Ashley’s take on UPK’s regional publishing program, and a few reasons why we love our state.

Kentucky is home. As a toddler, I was first pictured in my University of Kentucky Wildcats cheerleading outfit rooting for the Big Blue. But the Bluegrass State is more than just basketball. Or bourbon. Or horses. It is the experiences and stories of people and places throughout the region that define what makes Kentucky great.

As a publisher of regional books, we are in a unique position to offer an exciting and inviting look at Kentucky’s history, heritage, and community. Offering more than just a chronicle of Kentucky’s past, we have the opportunity to engage, enlighten, and entertain. In the past year alone, we have shown Kentuckians the best places in the state to travel to for barbecue, bourbon, gems, and ghosts, revealed one of the best but forgotten jockeys, taught our readers how to make the perfect Old Fashioned cocktail, and offered a comprehensive look at the inner workings of government and politics in Frankfort and beyond. The tradition of the Bluegrass State is wide and far-reaching. Every week I learn something new about my home state and I hope we also offer that to our readers.

Regional publishing showcases the many truths of our region and community, whether it be The Good: A vibrant writing community, love and appreciation of the land. The Bad: The Louisville Cardinals (Go Big Blue!). And the Ugly: Poverty, prevalent drugs, and a poor education system. It is our job to tell the stories of our state.

The heritage of Kentucky is rich and it has been our privilege to enrich our community for the past 70 years.