While most mainstream media coverage of the publishing industry devotes itself to reviews of trade titles from major commercial publishing houses, the Huffington Post has recently devoted several articles to plumbing the depths of the publishing world to bring to light some of the hidden gems independent and university publishing houses have to offer. Following up on their recent spotlight of independent literary presses, the HufPo‘s Anis Shivani has penned a new article “devoted to the most exciting university presses in the country” the best of which, Shivani writes, “combine profound scholarship with accessible language, to present books that are both of the moment and can claim a place in the canon.…” Shivani continues, “the misimpression should be removed: university presses do not publish boring or excessively weighty or arcane books. They may not be into showmanship and high-stakes publicity maneuvers, but their steady, unrelenting focus on particular subject areas creates vast bodies of new knowledge that the mainstream reviewing community makes a great mistake in ignoring.”
Case in point, check out some of our most recent general interest offerings on our website. From Roger Ebert’s The Great Movies III to Robert K. Elder’s Last Words of the Executed to Harvey G. Cohen’s Duke Ellington’s America, almost no matter what your interest, it would be hard to deny that university presses (and especially this one) constitute an essential resource by offering some of the most edifying, entertaining, and insightful books available.
Read the complete article on the Huffington Post website, and don’t forget to scroll down the page to vote for your top 5 university presses.
(Not to sing our own praises but as of 2:00 pm Monday it looks like we’re in the lead! Go UCP!)