University of North Carolina Press



The University of North Carolina Press (or UNC Press), founded in 1922, is a not-for-profit university press associated with the University of North Carolina. It was the first university press founded in the southern United States. It is a member of the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) and publishes both scholarly and general-interest publications, as well as academic journals, in subjects that include southern/US history, military history, political science, gender studies, religion, Latin American/Caribbean studies, sociology, food studies, and books of regional interest. It receives some financial support from the state of North Carolina and an endowment fund. Its office is located in Chapel Hill.

History
The University of North Carolina Press was chartered in 1922 by a thirteen-member board of directors, with independence from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, focused on publishing scholarly works of its constituents. It was the first university press in the United States. The press still remains affiliated with the 17-campus UNC System that strives to advance scholarship and serve its regional and state communities.

In the late 1920s, UNC Press was the first scholarly publisher to develop a book series focused on African American history. By 1950, nearly 100 such volumes had appeared under its imprint, including historian John Hope Franklin’s first book, The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790–1860, published in 1943. In the 1970s, UNC Press championed published books in Native American and Indigenous studies, a field of national and global interest that has grown significantly in recent years.

UNC Press partners with a variety of other leading institutions and public groups, including for more than 50 years the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, the Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University, and the State Archives of North Carolina.

In 2006, UNC Press started the distribution company Longleaf Services as an affiliate. Fulfillment for Longleaf is provided by Ingram Content Group. Through this wholly owned not-for-profit subsidiary, Longleaf Services provides economies of scale in back-end editorial, production, and design services for more than twenty university presses.

UNC Press's Office of Scholarly Publishing Services (OSPS) provides access to a range of sustainable, mission-driven publishing models and solutions for UNC system libraries, research centers, institutes, and departments to lower the cost of producing and disseminating educational and scholarly publications. OSPS also selectively works with other nonprofit institutions seeking to publish scholarly or general-interest work that will benefit the people of North Carolina.

Output
Since its founding, UNC Press has focused on the publication of scholarly works while also creating one of the earliest and strongest regional publishing programs, focused on North Carolina and the South, in the US.

As of 2022, UNC Press has published more than 6,000 books and maintains an in-print backlist of over 4,000 titles.

UNC Press has won many book awards, including the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, Frederick Douglass Prize, and the top prizes given by leading scholarly societies and respected organizations like the American Bar Association; the American Institute of Architects; the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers; and the Royal Society of Canada. Over the years, UNC Press titles have won hundreds of major prizes in American and world history, religious studies, Latin American and Caribbean studies, American studies, gender and women's studies, literary studies, music, architecture, human rights, and legal studies.

Notable UNC Press authors include historians such as John Hope Franklin, Gerda Lerner, Gordon Wood, Mary Kelley, Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, Nell Irvin Painter, Glenda Gilmore, Timothy Tyson, Gary W. Gallagher, William A. Darity Jr., Tiya Miles, Laurent Dubois, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Cedric J. Robinson, Robin D. G. Kelley, Kelly Lytle Hernández, and Louis A. Pérez Jr.; scholars of American and world religions including Carl W. Ernst, Catherine Brekus, and Anthea Butler; literary writers and critics such as Elizabeth Lawrence, Cleanth Brooks, Phillis Wheatley, Thomas Wolfe, Paul Green, and Wilma Dykeman; prominent scholars of the American South including Howard Odum to William Ferris; and North Carolina celebrities including David Stick, Bill Neal, Mildred (Mama Dip) Council, and Bland Simpson.

The press has published many multi-volume documentary editions, such as The Papers of John Marshall, The Papers of General Nathanael Greene, The Black Abolitionist Papers, and The Complete Works of Captain John Smith.

Notable published works of reference include the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, North Carolina Architecture, and the Encyclopedia of North Carolina.