University of Georgia Press
The University of Georgia Press has spent more than eight decades quietly becoming the oldest and largest publishing house in the state of Georgia. Founded in 1938 on the North Campus in Athens, it grew from a university division into one of the most significant scholarly presses in the American South. Its list now runs to more than 1,500 titles in print. How did a single press attached to a public land-grant university come to anchor the literary and scholarly life of an entire region? That question runs through everything the press has done, from its earliest years to the award-winning books it publishes today.
Two years after its founding, in 1940, the UGA Press joined the Association of University Presses, a membership it has held ever since. Within Georgia, only Mercer University shares that membership. The press employs 24 full-time publishing professionals and puts out 80-85 new books each year. It holds a particular distinction within the University System of Georgia: it is the only scholarly publisher serving all 31 institutions of higher education in the state. That reach gives it a role no other press in Georgia can fill, bridging research universities, regional colleges, and specialized institutions under one publishing roof.
The Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction was established in 1983 by Charles East, who was then the editor-in-chief of the UGA Press. The award was built to recognize gifted young writers, and it has made the press a long-standing home for creative writing. The press publishes books connected to several major literary competitions and series, including the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the National Poetry Series, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction, and Crux: The Georgia Series in Literary Nonfiction. Writers published by the press over the years include Rick Bass, Erskine Caldwell, Terry Kay, Barry Lopez, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Mary Hood, Harry Crews, Tom Wicker, Calvin Trillin, Roy Blount Jr., Eugene Genovese, Rebecca Solnit, and Catherine Clinton. In 2008, the press received the Governor's Award in the Humanities.
The UGA Press publishes 70-80 titles per year across scholarly, regional, and literary categories. American and Southern studies form the core of its editorial identity, but the press has also built recognized programs in African-American studies, civil rights history, and environmental studies. Its imprint Brown Thrasher Books focuses specifically on reprints of Georgia classics, keeping older regional titles available to new readers. In partnership with the Georgia Humanities Council and GALILEO, the press created the New Georgia Encyclopedia, an online resource dedicated to Georgia history. Domestic distribution is handled through Longleaf Services, the distribution arm of the University of North Carolina Press.
Documents uncovered by the website Foetry.com revealed that the 1999 University of Georgia Contemporary Poetry series prize had been awarded to Peter M. Sacks under compromised circumstances. The judge was Jorie Graham, a colleague of Sacks at Harvard University who later married him. Series editor Bin Ramke had insisted throughout that contest judges remain anonymous, and the conflict of interest stayed hidden until Foetry.com obtained the judges' names through the Open Records Act. Ramke resigned from the editorship of the series as a result. The press now publicly discloses the names of its poetry judges and instructs them to avoid conflicts of interest of all kinds. A separate episode unfolded on the 27th of October 2005, when the press rescinded the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction given to author Brad Vice and recalled copies of his collection The Bear Bryant Funeral Train. Vice was accused of plagiarizing sections of one story from Carl Carmer's 1934 book Stars Fell on Alabama, a charge that Vice and others dispute.
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Common questions
When was the University of Georgia Press founded?
The University of Georgia Press was founded in 1938 as a publishing division of the University of Georgia, located on the North Campus in Athens, Georgia. It joined the Association of University Presses in 1940.
What is the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction?
The Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction is a literary prize established in 1983 by Charles East, then the editor-in-chief of the University of Georgia Press. It was created to recognize gifted young writers and remains a central part of the press's creative writing program.
How many books does the University of Georgia Press publish each year?
The University of Georgia Press publishes 80-85 new books per year and has more than 1,500 titles in print. It employs 24 full-time publishing professionals.
What is the Brown Thrasher Books imprint from the University of Georgia Press?
Brown Thrasher Books is an imprint of the University of Georgia Press that focuses on reprints of Georgia classics. It keeps significant regional titles in circulation for new generations of readers.
What controversy surrounded the University of Georgia Press poetry prize?
In 1999, the University of Georgia Contemporary Poetry series prize was awarded to Peter M. Sacks, whose judge was Jorie Graham, a colleague at Harvard University who later married him. The conflict of interest was only revealed after the website Foetry.com obtained judges' names via the Open Records Act, leading series editor Bin Ramke to resign.
Why did the University of Georgia Press recall Brad Vice's book?
On the 27th of October 2005, the University of Georgia Press rescinded Brad Vice's Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction and recalled copies of his collection The Bear Bryant Funeral Train. Vice was accused of plagiarizing sections of a story from Carl Carmer's 1934 book Stars Fell on Alabama, though Vice and others disputed the charge.
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14 references cited across the entry
- 1UGA Press Transitions to Longleaf Services, Inc. for Customer Service and FulfillmentAmanda E. Sharp — July 7, 2016
- 3Our MembersAssociation of University Presses
- 4Client PublishersLongleaf Services
- 5Director, The University of Georgia PressUGA Libraries
- 6UGA Press: Who We AreUniversity of Georgia Press
- 14The literary lynching of Brad ViceJason Sanford — storySouth — November 4, 2005