Defining the Pacific Northwest: Publishing at OSU Press

November 13th, 2013 , Posted by reamanm

We are pleased to welcome OSU Press Acquistions Editor Mary Elizabeth Braun as a guest on our blog as part of the University Press Week blog tour! The tour continues today at Texas A&M University Press. A complete blog tour schedule is available here.

UP Week logo   There are many ways to define a region, yet no single definition can completely capture its essence. The diverse books published by university presses help define and describe the complexity of various regions, covering everything from a region's history, culture, flora and fauna, geography, natural history, ecosystems, watersheds, and political history, to its folklore, literature, and art. They may include reprint editions of out-of-print regional classics, as well as newly written books. Such books are usually written for general readers as well as scholars and students, with an emphasis on good writing and accessibility, and published in attractively designed, well-illustrated editions. Increasingly, such books are available electronically—some with digital ancillaries—as well as in print.

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Regional books from the Oregon State University Press focus on the Pacific Northwest. Some of our authors define the Pacific Northwest strictly by political boundaries, others define it by watersheds and landforms. Some include northern California, or Alaska, or western Canada, or western Idaho and Montana, while others are adamant that the region comprises only Oregon and Washington. Of course, the definition of the region has shifted over time. Our books include an atlas of the Pacific Northwest and an atlas of the state of Oregon; several regionally-based scientific reference books and field guides, such as Dragonflies and Damselflies of Oregon and Field Guide to the Sedges of the Pacific Northwest; and books about land-use planning, natural resource management, wildlife policy, Oregon viticulture, and cheesemaking in the Pacific Northwest. We recently published our first children's book and an accompanying teacher's guide, Ellie's Log: Exploring the Forest Where the Great Tree Fell, which was inspired by research done at the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest in the Oregon Cascades. 

Our literary books include the anthology Long Journey: Contemporary Northwest Poets, edited by noted poet David Biespiel; the six-volume Oregon Literature Series created by the Oregon Council of Teachers of English; many memoirs by women and men who have lived and worked in the Pacific Northwest at different points in time; and our first novel, Brian Doyle's Mink River, which has sold more than thirty thousand copies since its publication in 2010.  Books in the Northwest Photography Series present the finest Pacific Northwest historical and contemporary photographs in book form, complemented by an online digital archive, curated exhibitions at museums, schools, and libraries, and education programs. 

We continue to expand our list in Native American and Indigenous Studies, which includes titles such as Teaching Oregon Native Languages and Oregon Archaeology and the forthcoming books To Win the Indian Heart: Music at Chemawa Indian School and "Salmon Is Everything": A Community-Based Play from the Klamath Watershed. Our political books include a series by Pacific Northwest women politicians; To the Promised Land: A History of Government and Politics in Oregon, written by Tom Marsh, a long-time Oregon high school history teacher and state legislator; and A Force for Change: Beatrice Morrow Cannady and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Oregon, 1912-1936. Other recent books include titles about slavery in the Oregon Territory, the first authoritative account of the unsolved murder of more than thirty Chinese gold miners on the Oregon side of Hells Canyon, and noted historian Richard Etulain's cross-continental history about Abraham Lincoln's strong connections with the Oregon Country on various political issues. Glenn May's book Sonny Montes and Mexican American Activism in Oregon is a major contribution to Oregon and Chicano history, along with Mexicanos in Oregon: Their Stories, Their Lives. We have published books about two WWII conscientious objector camps in Oregon, and our reprint edition of Oregon poet laureate William Stafford's book Down In My Heart: Peace Witness in War Time continues to sell well.   

The regional books we publish create an identity for the Oregon State University Press, as well as the region about which we publish. We help our parent institution fulfill its mission as a comprehensive public, research-extensive university, one of only two land-, sea-, space-, and sun-grant institutions in the country. We contribute to the economic, social, cultural, and environmental progress of people in Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, and beyond.

The bottom line? We publish well-written and engaging books for readers eager to learn more about the place in which they live or visit, and to facilitate their exploration, entertainment, and enjoyment of the region.

—Mary Elizabeth Braun, Acquistions Editor, OSU Press

Related Titles

To Win the Indian Heart

Since 1879, Indian children from all regions of the United States have entered federal boarding schools—institutions designed to assimilate them into mainstream society. Chemawa Indian...

| paperback | $22.95

Ellie's Log

After a huge tree crashes to the ground during a winter storm, ten-year-old Ellie and her new friend, Ricky, explore the forest where Ellie lives...

| paperback | $17.95

Land Snails and Slugs of the Pacific Northwest

Terrestrial mollusks, the second largest phylum in the animal kingdom, are vitally important to the earth’s ecology. With the publication of Land Snails and Slugs...

| paperback | $35.00

To the Promised Land

A comprehensive political history of Oregon, To the Promised Land examines the social and economic changes the state has pioneered over almost two hundred years...

| paperback | $29.95

Mexicanos in Oregon

This important volume sheds new light on the stories and lives of mexicanos in Oregon: why migrants come to Oregon fields, construction sites, and warehouses...

| paperback | $22.95

Oregon Archaeology

Oregon Archaeology tells the story of Oregon’s human history beginning more than 14,000 years ago with the earliest evidence of human occupation and continuing into...

| paperback | $29.95

Life Histories of Cascadia Butterflies

David G. James and David Nunnallee present the life histories of the entire butterfly fauna of a North American geographic region in exceptional and riveting...

| paperback | $35.00

A Force for Change

A Force for Change is the first full-length study of the life and work of one of Oregon’s most dynamic civil rights activists, African American...

| paperback | $24.95

Dragonflies and Damselflies of Oregon

Growing interest in watching and identifying dragonflies and damselflies has sharpened the need for an authoritative resource like Dragonflies and Damselflies of Oregon, a definitive...

| paperback | $24.95

Sonny Montes and Mexican American Activism in Oregon

With Sonny Montes and Mexican American Activism in Oregon, Glenn May makes a major contribution to the literature on Oregon and Chicano history. On one...

| paperback | $24.95

Mink River

2011 Foreword Reviews' Editor's Choice Prize for Fiction Lake Oswego's Everyone Reads selection Brian Doyle on Live Wire, taped at the live radio show on...

| paperback | $18.95

Teaching Oregon Native Languages

In a world where over half of the remaining 6000 languages will most likely disappear by the end of the century, attention has finally begun...

| paperback | $24.95

Long Journey

Winner of the PNBA 2007 William Stafford Memorial Poetry Award Long Journey showcases work by over 80 of the Pacific Northwest's leading poets. Of the...

| paperback | $22.95

Down in My Heart

From 1942 to 1946, William Stafford was interned in camps for conscientious objectors after refusing to be inducted into the U.S. Army. As a pacifist...

| paperback | $15.95

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