Accessibility Tools

Annual Report 2017-2018

darrin2In 2017–2018, the University Press of Colorado and Utah State University Press produced forty-one new titles and editions in the fields of anthropology, composition, folklore, history, and natural history, and seven of our publications won awards. These awards include the Council for Writing Program Administration Best Book Award (Reclaiming Accountability) and the International Writing Centers Association Outstanding Book Award (The Working Lives of New Writing Center Directors). We also copublished Basic K'ichee' Grammar: Thirty-Eight Lessons, Revised Edition (IMS Monograph Series) with the Institute for Mesoamerican Studies at the University of Albany and Navajo Textiles: The Crane Collection at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science with the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and the latter was awarded the Southwest Book of the Year.

In addition, we also published, copublished, or distributed other important publications from member faculty and departments. Faculty publications included Archaeological Persectives on Warfare on the Great Plains (Douglas B. Bamforth, University of Colorado Boulder), Circulation, Writing, and Rhetoric (Laurie E. Gries, University of Colorado Boulder) Class in the Composition Classroom (Genesea M. Carter, Colorado State University), The Last Stand of the Pack, Critical Edition (Andrew Gulliford, Fort Lewis College), and Writing and School Reform (Joanne Addison, University of Colorado Denver). We also copublished the following titles with the WAC Clearinghouse:

International Exchanges on the Study of Writing series

Emerging Writing from the Middle East-North Africa Region

Perspectives on Writing series

Acknowledging Writing Partners

Contingency, Exploitation, and Solidarity

Practice & Pedagogy series

A Writer's Guide to Mindful Reading

Writing Pathways to Student Success

Finally, we distributed Collecting on the Edge: Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art for the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University and Women of the West (Volume 6, Manifest West series) for Western Press Books at Western State Colorado University as well as the following titles from the Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University:

Instead of Dying (2017 Colorado Prize for Poetry)

The Lapidary's Nosegay (Mountain West Poetry Series)

We Remain Traditional (Mountain West Poetry Series)

The Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University's Beautiful Flesh: A Body of Essays edied by Stephanie G'Schwind also won the 2018 Colorado Book Award in the anthology category.

During fiscal year 2017–2018 we raised $281,000 in contributed revenue from a combination of member dues, title subsidies, and individual donations. We also increased the balance of our endowment fund with The Denver Foundation by just over fifty percent to $61,000. We still have some way to go before meeting our near-term goal or raising $250,000 before we start using earnings and interest for operations, but raising funds annually for the endowment, however modest the amount, is important to the long-term sustainability of our publishing operation. 

In June 2018, I completed my term on the Board of Directors of the Association of University Presses, although I will continue to serve the Association on a newly created committee that will be reviewing its annual operating statistics program. We live in a data and metric-driven world, a world in which humanities and social science departments and, yes, university press publishing programs, increasingly must rely on analytics and statistics to prove their value. Evaluating the Association's data collection program for its relevance to making the case for university presses is consequently a very important charge. I am glad to have some ongoing part supporting not just the essential work done by University Press of Colorado and Utah State University Press, but also that of our peers around the globe.

—Darrin Pratt, Director

University Press of Colorado University of Alaska Press Utah State University Press University of Wyoming Press