Happy University Press Week! Help us celebrate university presses November 13-17. Since 2012, members of the Association of University Presses have participated in an annual celebration of University Presses. Following the example of the first University Press week, proclaimed by US President Jimmy Carter in the summer of 1978, this event recognizes the impact that a global community of university presses has on every one of us.

This year’s theme for UP Week is “Speak UP.” This is meant to provide an opportunity for presses and their supporters to shout to the rooftops about the value of the essential work of university presses: giving voice to the scholarship and ideas that shape conversations around the world.

The #UPweek blog tour today features “HOW does your press #SpeakUP?” Posts on today’s topic, highlighting new approaches and formats that boost authors’ voices, come from Princeton University Press, Duke University Press, Lever Press, University of Notre Dame Press, University of Illinois Press, Gallaudet University Press, Purdue University Press, University of Toronto Press, University of Pennsylvania Press, University Press of Mississippi, University Press of Kentucky, Bristol University Press, John Hopkins University Press, University of British Columbia Press, State University of New York Press, and the University of Washington Press.

For our contribution, acquisitions editor, Courtney Ochsner, will be discussing Zero Street Fiction, as we celebrate the publication of the first book in the series, Hilary Zaid’s Forget I Told You This.

UNL’s History with LGBTQ+ Literature

When Timothy Schaffert, bestselling author of The Perfume Thief and director of creative writing at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL), and SJ Sindu, author of Blue-Skinned Gods, approached the University of Nebraska Press with the idea for an LGBTQ+ fiction series, we quickly saw the need for, and importance of, such a series. Zero Street Fiction launched in September 2021 and the series is committed to LGBTQ+ literary fiction, providing marginalized authors opportunities for a wide readership in the trade fiction market. The series editors, both alumni of UNL, and whose writing careers were influenced by the University’s LGBTQ+ programming, seek LGBTQ+ literary fiction of all kinds, from stories of modern life to innovations on traditions of genre, with a particular interest in BIPOC authors, trans authors, and queer authors over the age of fifty.

People may be surprised to learn that the University of Nebraska Press publishes a queer fiction series but given the rich history of LGBTQ+ literature and teaching at the University of Nebraska, the partnership and home for the series was a natural fit. UNL holds the distinction of offering the longest continuous LGBTQ+ programming of an institution of higher education in the country. In 1970, UNL English professor Louis Crompton established an interdisciplinary LGBTQ studies course—the first to be taught at a university by an openly gay scholar. Compton also served on the editorial board of the Arno Press “Series on Homosexuality,” which was one of the first queer publishing endeavors in history. With Zero Street, Timothy Schaffert, SJ Sindu, and UNP are building on this tradition, working to bring LGBTQ+ stories to the fore.