University Press of Florida

• 1. Introduction

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  Since 1945, the University Press of Florida has published books from Gainesville without interruption. It is the oldest book publisher in the state. That longevity alone would be worth noting. But the press has not simply endured. It has been rebuilt from the ground up twice, each time under pressure from a changing university system. Today it speaks for all twelve of Florida's public universities. How did a single campus press grow into the scholarly voice for an entire state? And what did it take to hold that institution together through decades of change?

• 2. Florida's Opening Chapter

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  Rembert Patrick's Florida Under Five Flags, a centennial history of the state, was the first title the press ever published. That choice was not random. The press was founded with an explicit commitment to books about the region, and Patrick's history embodied that purpose from the outset. As the University of Florida Press, it built a program that placed it among the largest university presses in the Southeast. Other public universities in the state watched that program grow and decided they wanted one of their own.

• 3. A Decentralized Solution

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  In 1973, the Florida Board of Regents created a formal structure to coordinate public university publishing across the state. Rather than expand the original press, it established a decentralized consortium called University Presses of Florida. All nine campuses of the state university system were brought into the arrangement. Each campus retained its own editorial authority and its own financial controls. The idea was to extend the benefits of academic publishing throughout Florida without forcing every institution to defer to a single editorial center. That autonomy worked for decades. Eventually, a different kind of pressure would force another redesign of the entire system.

• 4. One Press Emerges

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  By the early 1990s, it had become clear that a multi-campus consortium without central leadership was losing coherence. The Florida university system responded by collapsing the arrangement into a single institution. What emerged was University Press of Florida, governed by one editorial board, operating under one imprint, and accountable to a single budget. The director became responsible for that budget in full. Today the press serves universities across the state, including Florida A&M, Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast, and Florida International. New College of Florida is among them, as is Florida State. The University of Central Florida, the University of North Florida, the University of South Florida, and the University of West Florida are also members. As is the University of Florida. The decades that followed that consolidation produced a record that would attract national media attention and scholarly awards far beyond Florida.

• 5. National Recognition

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  In 2006, the Gainesville Sun called the press a publishing powerhouse. That designation reflected a catalog that had grown to almost 2,500 volumes, produced by a staff of just 41. Close to 100 new titles appear each year across fields that include international studies, archaeology, dance, history, literature, and political science. Among member presses of the Association of University Presses, UPF ranks in the top third for sales. It holds the same position for new title production. Books from the press have earned Choice Outstanding Book designations and Association of University Presses design awards. Some have appeared on Amazon's best-seller list. Publishers Weekly has given starred reviews to UPF titles, and a featured essay appeared in the New York Times Book Review. The New York Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, and Village Voice have all covered UPF works. So have The Nation, Playboy, and Oxford American.

  Orange Grove Texts Plus is the press's open-access textbook initiative. It makes course materials freely available through a repository powered by SobekCM open source software. Materials from press publications and their authors are also archived in the University of Florida Digital Collections. Romi Gutierrez, who became director in 2019, leads the press into a period when the barriers to accessing Florida scholarship have never been lower.