Happy University Press Week! Help us celebrate university presses November 11-15. Since 2012, members of the Association of University Presses have participated in an annual celebration of University Presses.

This year’s theme for UP Week is “Step UP.” This is meant to provide an opportunity for presses and their supporters to explore the myriad ways our community’s publications and platforms give context to current issues and events, offer solutions to global challenges, and present diverse voices in a broad range of disciplines.

The #UPweek blog tour today answers “WHEN does your press #StepUP?” Posts on today’s topic come from Harvard Education Press, Columbia University Press, University of Pennsylvania Press, and University of Illinois Press.

For our contribution Marketing and Sales Manager Rosemary Sekora, will discuss UNP’s role in Nebraska’s revamped book Festival—the Nebraska Celebration of Books (N.COB)—which took place in October.

Building Community through N.COB

Last month, UNP was an organizational sponsor for a new book festival that took place in our university’s campus union. The intention was to combine two different long-standing book events—the Nebraska Book Awards and the Nebraska Book Festival—into a one-day celebration of books.

Let’s back up to December 2023. A few UNP staff along with colleagues from the Nebraska Center for the Book, Nebraska Library Commission, Lincoln City Libraries, Omaha Public Libraries, and Francie & Finch Bookshop met to discuss what this event might look like, who it would be a service to, and, of course, what to call it. Previous festivals had taken different forms; indoor vs outdoor, children’s programming vs adult writing workshops, and some a combination of all the aforementioned. The book awards ceremony is a staple Lincoln annual event, known as the Celebration of Nebraska Books. So, could these two events work together? If people were already traveling to the book awards ceremony, could we build on that award-winning excitement and offer more? With a slight flip of a couple words, the Nebraska Celebration of Books (N.COB!) was born. We are celebrating Nebraska books and authors, of course, but wanted to broaden the focus to be a celebration of literature overall.

The planning committee met about once a month until the event was held on Oct. 12, 2024. With financial support from various organizations and a lot of dedicated volunteer time, we planned and executed a full day’s schedule of bookish events and vendors, plus literary trivia the evening before to kick everything off with a nerdy bang.

What I love about this community endeavor for UNP is how we were able to step up and offer our connections and expertise to be of service to fellow local literary organizations and provide this free event to our Nebraska community. It was a lot of work—on top of our other important publishing work—but gratifying when you can watch readers discover new authors and books in an inclusive, book-loving environment. Thank you to all the readers, authors, vendors, and book lovers who attended. And my heartfelt gratitude to all the host sponsors and supporting sponsors. In no particular order: