How the University of Texas Press StepsUP to work with partners across UT and bring literature to life.
As part of the Association of University Presses’ UP Week, the University of Texas Press is highlighting the work we do across UT, Austin, and the literary world at large to show how we StepUP. Although the University of Texas Press is known for our work publishing established and emerging scholars in fields like Latin American studies, comic book studies, and Texas history, we also have two distinct partnerships in the UT system that we’d like to highlight: our Tower Books Imprint and our work with UT Austin’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Read on to learn more about these partnerships, and click here to learn more about how other university presses StepUP!
Tower Books is an imprint of the University of Texas Press, named after the distinctive landmark on UT Austin’s campus. Acting as a consultant and publisher, UT Press partners with colleges, schools, and other divisions of the university to produce institutional histories, commemorative anniversary editions, exhibition catalogues, and similar volumes. This wide range of books—from a recent exhibition catalogue for the Visual Arts Center to a narrative essay collection gathered by the Spanish Creative Writing Initiative, a biography of a significant Texas politician and Judge in conjunction with the Briscoe Center, and informational deep-dives about campus art for Landmarks, the public art program at UT—brings more than just information about UT programs to its affiliates. It brings the culture and art of UT Austin into the wider world, and makes it available beyond UT’s campus.
The nature of the publishing business is that we have to say “no” a lot . . . Tower Books allows UT Press to say “yes.”
Robert Devens, director
The imprint began as an idea at the Press over ten years ago “as a way to share more broadly our publishing expertise with our community at the University of Texas,” says Robert Devens, our director. He continues, “Over the years, we have partnered with most of the museums and archives on campus, as well as major schools and departments like engineering and Black studies. In all cases we have assisted our partners in realizing their vision for their books and later served as their distributor.”
As for why this partnership has meant more than just business for the Press, Devens adds that “The nature of the publishing business is that we have to say ‘no’ a lot; we cannot take on everything. Tower Books allows UT Press to say ‘yes’ much more frequently, which has given us the opportunity to develop many new institutional friendships we might otherwise have missed out on, while enriching our offerings with many different kinds of books.”
The University of Texas Press also frequently collaborates with UT Austin’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies to bring literature written by and about the Middle East to Texas and beyond. Jim Burr, senior editor and liaison for CMES books, says that the partnership, which began in 1976, has helped the Press’s own Middle Eastern Studies list grow: “We originally distributed a monograph series and a series of translated literature for them, while also copublishing other monographs. This jump-started our own list in Middle Eastern studies. The two monograph series with them eventually ended, but we continue to distribute translated fiction and poetry for them in a couple of different series—The Modern Middle East Literatures in Translation Series and Emerging Voices of the Middle East. We’re also about to start distributing a third series for them, focused on translations of Hebrew poetry.”
[CMES] books reach students and general readers and allow them to better understand the peoples and countries of the [Middle East] through their literatures.
Jim Burr, senior editor
The Press’s partnership with CMES has given us a unique opportunity: to publish translated literature, and in particular fiction, which we normally wouldn’t have the chance to get on our list, and which can reach both adult and young adult readers. “We’re unable to manage the logistics of publishing translated fiction ourselves,” Burr says, “so this allows us to include such titles on our list and reach readers who might not be interested in our scholarly monographs but do want to learn more about the Middle East. These books reach students and general readers and allow them to better understand the peoples and countries of the region through their literatures.” Books like Seviyye Talip, I Saw Her in My Dreams, and the Thunderbird series have all been published by UT Press in association with CMES. In all, UT Press has sold over 50,000 copies of translated novels, short stories, and poetry collections around the world, and given new life to translated works from the Middle East.
Through these partnerships, the University of Texas Press brings new knowledges to the fore, allowing literature that might otherwise be hidden to become readily available to the public. We’re proud to partner with friends at the University of Texas, and feature unique cultural work from Texas to Turkey and beyond in our lists each season!
