READUP AND MORE
Although hashtags are used less frequently to boost visibility across a broad social media landscape these days, the exhortation to #ReadUP is still as relevant as ever. Born in University Press Week celebrations and on a single social media platform more than a decade ago, the invitation to read university presses’ insightful and wide-ranging work is always in style.
The AUPresses Bookshop.org shopfront continued to support our promotion of member work to readers. Through it, we once again expanded the reach of the UP Week Gallery, this year with the theme Team UP.
UNIVERSITY PRESS WEEK
University Press Week 2025 celebrated the collaborative work that is the heart of university presses. The week’s theme, Team UP, highlighted the many ways that authors and publishing professionals work together to advance knowledge, joining with a vast network of reviewers, booksellers, freelancers, translators, librarians, teachers, and students in the essential project of understanding the world. This year’s celebration included:
- 82 publications and projects in the Team UP Gallery and Reading List.
- More than 60 books in the Team UP Gallery on Bookshop.org.
- A wide variety of articles about university press publishing, including a sponsored Publishers Weekly feature highlighting books by 15 member presses (Cambridge, Delaware, Harvard, Kansas, MIT, MLA, North Texas, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Rutgers, Southern Illinois, Stanford, Wayne State, and Wesleyan). PW also interviewed directors of California, Colorado, Georgia, Johns Hopkins, and Michigan for a feature article, “University Presses Continue Their Missions” and spotlighted the making of But Where’s Home? by Toni Ann Johnson (Tennessee) in its “Endnotes” column.
- More than 60 inspiring Team UP blog tour posts.
- 41 in-person and virtual events during the week across the US and UK as well as in Montreal and Hong Kong.
University Press Week 2026 is scheduled for November 9-13.
STAND UP AWARD
The 2025 Stand UP Award was presented to digital humanities advocate and funding champion Brett Bobley, recognizing his vision and dedicated leadership as founding Director of the Office of Digital Humanities within the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for nearly 20 years. “Thanks to Brett’s steadfast commitment, university presses have benefited from increased capacity to explore digital scholarship, expand their reach, and push the boundaries of what is possible in academic publishing,” said AUPresses Executive Director Peter Berkery. Berkery, along with Barbara Kline Pope, director of Johns Hopkins University Press and a past president of the Association, presented the award to Bobley during the Coalition for Networked Information Fall 2025 Membership Meeting in Washington, DC, in December 2025.
Through the Stand UP Award, the Association celebrates people who have done extraordinary work in support of university presses, recognizing advocates who are not on staff at a member press but who stand up from within the communities that presses work with, speak to, and serve.
THE BOOK, JACKET, AND JOURNAL SHOW
Honoring the many design and production teams within our community whose work furthers a long tradition of excellence, the annual AUPresses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show recognizes achievement in the design, production, and manufacture of books, book jackets, and journals. Through a traveling exhibit and an acclaimed annual catalog of selected entries, the competition visually teaches the tenets of good design and fulfills its mission to “honor and instruct” while providing a source of discussion and creative and resourceful ideas.
The Book, Jacket, and Journal Show celebrated its 60th iteration in 2025. The 2025 show selections were announced in May 2025 via a virtual display on the AUPresses Design site. The show catalog was again produced, and the selections were widely promoted on the show’s Instagram account, @AUPressesDesign.
Judging for the 2025 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show had taken place at the AUPresses Central Office in New York City in January 2025, with jurors selecting 110 entries from 33 member publishers in 8 categories from among 575 entries.
The Book, Jacket, and Journal Traveling Show also returned with the 2025 selections appearing on display at 24 university presses across the US and Canada from September 2025 through June 2026. The show also made its return to University Press Redux, hosted by Liverpool University Press, appearing on display on March 17-18, in Liverpool, UK; and made its debut in Hong Kong with a joint display hosted by Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, City University of Hong Kong Press, and Hong Kong University Press, at the at the University Bookstore at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, on March 10-31, in conjunction with an annual sales promotion event—年度大減價 (“Annual Sale”).
The 2026 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show judging took place in the AUPresses Central Office in New York City on February 5-6. The selected entries will be announced via the AUPresses Design website on the UP Commons in late May 2026, and will debut with a live display at the AUPresses 2026 Annual Meeting, which will take place on June 13-15 in Seattle, WA.
