University of Hawaiʻi Press

• 1. Introduction

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  The University of Hawaiʻi Press, a university press that is part of the University of Hawaiʻi, weighed about 1,300 manuscripts and proposals during its 2007 fiscal year. Its editorial board accepted 60. That narrow gate guards a list founded in 1947 and aimed at Asia and the Pacific. Its subjects span the humanities and the natural and social sciences. The press issues scholarly monographs, but it also produces dictionaries, language texts, classroom readers and atlases. How did a press in Hawaiʻi come to publish mostly about Asia? What happens to a manuscript before it earns a place on the list? And how do the books and journals reach readers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and across the Pacific?

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• 2. Early Classics

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  Gregg M. Sinclair, the president of the University of Hawaiʻi, was the person who pushed for the press to exist. Its first publications included a reprint of The Hawaiian Kingdom by Ralph Kuykendall. They also included Insects of Hawaii by Elwood C. Zimmerman. Both have since become classics.

  Two later titles earned the same standing. The Hawaiian-English Dictionary, by Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel Elbert, first appeared in 1957. Its last revision and enlargement came in 1986, and it has been reprinted 16 times since.

  Shoal of Time: A History of the Hawaiian Islands, by Gavan Daws, reached readers in the Press edition in 1974. That book has been reprinted 19 times. These titles came from a press whose name would change twice over the following decades.

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• 3. Two Names, One Focus

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  In 1971, the press combined operations with the East-West Center Press and renamed itself the University Press of Hawaiʻi. The merger added greater coverage of Asia to a list that was already strong in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific.

  A decade later, in 1981, the East-West Center withdrew its subsidy. The name went back to University of Hawaiʻi Press. The turn toward Asia continued anyway.

  Today at least half of the press's titles focus on Asia. Hawaiʻi accounts for 30 percent of the list, and the Pacific for the remaining 20 percent. Books were not the only thing the press made, though. A scientific journal had already appeared in its founding year.

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• 4. Journals Take Root

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  Most of the press's inaugural budget appropriation went to a single journal, Pacific Science. Even so, it did not carry the UH Press imprint until 1953. By then Philosophy East and West had already made its debut from the press, two years earlier.

  The list kept growing. Oceanic Linguistics was acquired in 1966, in volume V, and Asian Perspectives followed in 1969, in volume XII.

  Then came journals founded at the University of Hawaiʻi itself. Korean Studies launched in 1977 and Biography in 1978. Buddhist-Christian Studies arrived in 1981, and Asian Theatre Journal in 1984. The late 1980s would bring a burst of new titles, paid for by generous state budgets.

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• 5. Budgets and Survival

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  The literary journal Mānoa and The Contemporary Pacific, a journal of island affairs, both made their debut in 1989. The Journal of World History followed in 1990, and China Review International in 1994. Other campus departments had launched these titles while state money flowed freely.

  Then severe budget cutbacks eliminated every university subsidy to the Journals Department. Production struggled along, with some editorial offices carrying more of the burden themselves. Press subsidies were partially restored in 1998, and the department was restaffed.

  In 2000 and 2001, all 12 journals then on the list debuted in Project MUSE, a database of journals in the humanities and social sciences. Pacific Science took a different route in 2008 and moved to BioOne, a collection of natural science journals.

  New titles kept arriving. The Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers began publishing with the press in 2000, in volume 62, and reached Project MUSE in 2004. The Asia Society's Archives of Asian Art joined in 2007, in volume 57.

  The department now handles production, manufacturing, fulfillment and delivery for sixteen journals. It also distributes two more. Azalea serves the Korea Institute at Harvard University, and the Journal of Korean Religions serves the Institute for the Study of Religion at Sogang University.

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• 6. Judging Manuscripts

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  Two external readers, both specialists in the subject, decide whether a manuscript ever reaches the press's editorial board. Before that, an in-house editor makes a preliminary evaluation. Only manuscripts that show promise move on to the outside readers.

  Those that win two positive peer reviews are presented to the academic editorial board. The board makes the final determination. In the 2007 fiscal year, 122 books were in press.

  East Asia is an especially important focus. From 2000 to 2005, the press published 184 academic monographs on the region. China accounted for 82 of them, Japan for 81 and Korea for 21.

  Three subject areas dominated. Language and literature produced 23 books on China, 25 on Japan and 7 on Korea. Religion and philosophy produced 21, 13 and 2. History and fine arts produced 20, 20 and 7.

  The press's monograph series mark out the areas where its attention is most concentrated.

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• 7. Series and Partners

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  Victor Mair edits the ABC Chinese Dictionary Series, and Bruce Fulton edits Modern Korean Fiction. Joshua Fogel edits The World of East Asia. The press lists more than twenty such series, and many are tied to outside institutions.

  Buddhism is a strong thread. Kuroda Classics in East Asian Buddhism comes with the Kuroda Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Human Values. The Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture comes with the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture in Nagoya. Pure Land Buddhist Studies comes with the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley.

  Korean language teaching has its own shelf. KLEAR Textbooks in Korean Language is produced with the Korean Language Education and Research Center. The Pacific appears through the Pacific Islands Monograph Series and South Sea Books, both with the UH Center for Pacific Islands Studies.

  Some series reach well beyond Hawaiʻi. Intersections is run with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. The Center for Southeast Asian Studies monographs are made with the Kyoto University Center for Southeast Asian Studies. Writing Past Colonialism is produced with the Institute for Colonial Studies in Melbourne.

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• 8. Selling Across Oceans

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  East-West Export Books, known as EWEB, is the press's sales subsidiary for the Pacific and Asia. It also represents 55 other university presses and scholarly publishers in those regions. Independent commission sales representatives cover North America and Hawaiʻi. London-based Eurospan Publishers Group handles Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

  Stock sits in warehouses in Pennsylvania, Honolulu, Canada and England. The press also distributes for over 50 other publishers and several individuals. It provides sales, marketing, promotion, warehouse and business services on a commission basis.

  Each year the press displays new books and journals at professional meetings and trade shows around the world. Together they draw about 700,000 attendees. The annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies is its most important academic exhibit. Other scholarly venues include the American Academy of Religion, the American Historical Association and the College Art Association. Trade venues have included the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Taipei International Book Fair and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

  The 2007 fiscal year offers a snapshot of what sold. By dollar revenue, the top five were the revised and enlarged Hawaiian Dictionary by Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel H. Elbert, and Beginning 1 of the Integrated Korean textbook series from KLEAR. Broken Trust by Samuel P. King and Randall W. Roth came next, followed by the 4th edition of Japanese Culture by Paul Varley. The Atlas of Hawaiʻi, by Sonia P. Juvik, James O. Juvik and Thomas R. Paradise, closed the list in its 3rd edition. A book about the islands where the press began still ranked among its best sellers.

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