To celebrate our 85th anniversary, UNP staff members reflect on some of their favorite books published in our history.

“I am always glad to work on any book UNP acquires in the realm of wildlife conservation. One of my recent favorites, Starlings: The Curious Odyssey of a Most Hated Bird (Bison Books, 2025) by Mike Stark is a whimsical, well-researched narrative that blends human folly with bird ecology.” -Kari Andresen

“Matthew Frank’s Barolo (Nebraska, 2010) was one of the first books I handled as an acquisitions editor. I learned a lot about Italian wine and food while editing the text! UNP published Frank’s first two books, and it’s been a joy to watch his writing career flourish over the last fifteen years.” -Bridget Barry

“My favorite UNP book that I worked on as an assistant to Bridget is Elliot West’s Continental Reckoning (Nebraska, 2023). Even before it won the Bancroft in 2024, we knew it was going to be something special. Although it was a beast to format, it was truly an honor to work on such a wonderfully written book by one of the great American West historians. My favorite, and first, UNP book that I read is Empress San Francisco (Nebraska, 2014) by Abigail Markwyn. It is such a well-researched and fascinating book on the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915 with a focus on race, women, and class. I’ve since worked with the author as a peer reviewer for other UNP books and appreciate being able to connect with the author of this great book.” -Emily Casillas

“I was first drawn to Deer Season (Nebraska, 2021) by Erin Flanagan because of its wonderful cover design—the darkness of the trees hinting at mystery, along with the unusual type choice for the title, immediately caught my attention. Then I heard it had won an Edgar Award and I knew I had to read it. It completely lived up to my expectations. The mystery pulled me in, but it was the complicated, memorable characters that really stayed with me. I recommend this book whenever I get the chance.” -Jana Faust

“My pick is The Blue Tattoo (Nebraska, 2009). In graduate school in the early 2000s, I stumbled into the study of captivity narratives, took a few classes, and was, well, captivated. Olive Oatman’s story was one of the classics I encountered then and one that stayed with me. So when I happily joined the Press in 2021, I loved discovering Margot Mifflin’s The Blue Tattoo on our list—a fascinating return to a story I’d first come across years before.” -Jane Ferreyra

“One of my favorite books from UNP is Eric Schnall’s I Make Envy on Your Disco (Nebraska, 2024). Alan Cumming’s blurb on the front cover really moved it up in the queue for me, and I recommend (and gift) it to friends and family all the time. I love reading stories set around the world, and Schnall convinced me I was following right on the heels of his protagonist through Berlin’s streets, clubs, and cafés as he loses and finds himself.” -Taylor Gilreath

“The Collected Poems of Weldon Kees (Bison Books, 2003), which was first published by the University of Nebraska Press in 1962, has been an important collection of poetry to me for a long time. As the editor of the volume, Donald Justice, writes in the Preface, ‘Kees is original in one of the few ways that matter: he speaks to us in a voice, or rather, in a particular tone of voice which we have never heard before.’ In compact, powerful poems like ‘Turtle,’ ‘The Darkness’ and ‘The Base,’ Kees uses the lantern light of that particular tone of voice to illuminate dark tunnels and passageways that withstand the test of time.” -Clare Jones

“I’m sharing two of my favorites since it’s so hard to narrow it down with all of our great books! B.J. Hollars’s Midwestern Strange (Nebraska, 2019) will always hold a special place in my heart. It was gifted to me by Rosemary when I first started as a student worker at the press and combines my love for flyover country and folklore. A more recent favorite would be Jill Christman’s memoir, The Heart Folds Early (Nebraska, 2026). I had the pleasure of working with Christman on publicity alongside her fantastic outside publicist earlier this year. It’s a beautifully written memoir on motherhood and the importance of reproductive rights; one that I would consider an essential read in our post-Roe world.” -Sarah Kee

“My favorite book that I’ve worked on will probably forever be There I Go Again (Potomac Books, 2017) by William Daniels aka Mr. Feeny. I was a huge Boy Meets World fan growing up and the chance to work on that book early in my publicity career was so fun and is still something I love to mention in conversation. It was an exciting memoir for our Potomac list and got a lot of cool coverage in pop culture outlets. I love to keep up with @mrbilldaniels and his wife Bonnie Bartlett on social media, would absolutely recommend a follow.” -Tayler Lord

“First, Black Elk Speaks (Bison Books, 2014) will always be near and dear to my heart. My dad shared this book with me while I was growing up. Even as a young reader, I found the language accessible and both dad and I have read and discussed this book countless other times in our lives. My dad even named his Little Free Library “Wings of the Air” in reference to a quote from this book, to honor his love of literature and our winged friends. Secondly, Tiffany Midge’s Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s (Bison Books, 2019) was published a few years after I started at UNP. This collection was funny, thoughtful, and filled with the sort of slice-of-life pieces I love to read.” -Lacey Losh

“It’s so hard to narrow down favorites when I’ve worked on so many great books since I’ve begun at the Press, not to mention our extensive backlist. I do have two books that came to mind because they were so interesting to work on: Nancy Marie Mithlo’s Red Skin Dreams (Nebraska, 2026), and Nicholas Villanueva, Jr.’s Rainbow Cattle Co (Nebraska, 2024). Red Skin Dreams is a reflection of Mithlo’s time spent curating an exhibit at the Venice Biennale of contemporary Indigenous artists that recalls the challenges and triumphs of coordinating such a major event and features beautiful color images of the people and art featured during the twenty years Mithlo worked on the project. Rainbow Cattle Co. examines the history of gay rodeos, which thrived in the West and in rural communities across America and is such an interesting study of the gay liberation movement outside of major cities. I am incredibly proud to have worked on both of these books!” -Taylor Martin

“My favorite UNP reads are Erin Flanagan’s Deer Season (Nebraska, 2021), an atmospheric missing-girl mystery set in small-town Nebraska, and Ted Kooser’s Cotton Candy: Poems Dipped Out of the Air (Nebraska, 2022), a collection of poignant poems for the changing of the seasons. Each has stuck with me for years.” -Kayla Moslander

“Erin Flanagan’s Deer Season (Nebraska, 2021) was one of the first books that I acquired for the Flyover Fiction series. An unassuming mystery set on the Great Plains, the book went on to win the 2022 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel. Erin’s a fantastic author and to be able to work with her and her book at that early stage in my career was really exciting and memorable.” -Courtney Ochsner

“A pair of books I love: Strategy Strikes Back: How Star Wars Explains Modern Military Conflict (Potomac Books, 2018) and Winning Westeros: How Game of Thrones Explains Modern Military Conflict (Potomac Books, 2019), both edited by Max Brooks, John Amble, MLA Cavanaugh and Jaym Gates. Both are perfectly situated for a military audience but also the general public (nay, Star Wars fans and/or Game of Thrones fans who are also conscientious citizens) who want to understand military movements and some of the politics that go along with it. And both are perfect representations of our Potomac Books imprint and Winning Westeros was perfectly timed for a splashy showcase at the former BookExpo (RIP) and the finale of the Game of Thrones HBO series.” -Rosemary Sekora

“One of my favorite UNP books is Suzanne Roberts’ Almost Somewhere: Twenty-eight Days on the John Muir Trail (Bison Books, 2023). It’s wonderfully descriptive travelogue/adventure story and at the same time, a tragicomic memoir of 20-somethings navigating the hardships of the trail and their own, sometimes difficult lives. It’s an immensely engaging book.” -Annie Shahan

“One of my favorites is publishing Alou (Nebraska, 2018) with Felipe Alou and Peter Kerasotis. Acquiring that book was a milestone for the press as up to that point, I never really imagined UNP publishing with an important MLB player and manager whose story was so deserving of being told. When the book was published in the spring of ’18, it was released right before the Nine Conference and spring training was just under way. Felipe, as he still is now, was working for the Giants and still made time to help promote the book with a signing outside Scottsdale Stadium. By virtue of being there with Peter, I got an all-access media pass for a couple of spring training games. I’ll always remember being in the Giants dugout a few hours before the game while players practiced and then later being shown around the front office and then watching the game from the press box suite. A lot of hard work across departments went into making Alou such an attractive book that the authors loved and it sold very well—I so appreciated getting an up-close and privileged view into the world of MLB which was only made possible because of the book.” -Rob Taylor

“It’s tough to narrow it down, but one of my favorite UNP books is I Make Envy on Your Disco (Nebraska, 2024) by Eric Schnall. I picked it up after applying for the EDP manager job at UNP and read it while I was traveling to Lincoln for the interview! I loved the book, and the fact that UNP publishes such a wide variety of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry is part of what drew me to this role in the first place. As a bonus, I was lucky enough to visit Berlin a few months after reading it and I got to experience the city that Schnall describes so wonderfully in his novel. A close runner-up is The Fenway Effect (Nebraska, 2024) by David Krell; Rosemary gave me a copy after learning that my husband and I are big Red Sox fans. The cover, which Lindsey designed, features the iconic Green Monster with a hint of the CITGO sign and was selected as part of the 2025 AUPresses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show. It showcases some of the incredible design talent we have in-house!” -Katrina Vassallo

“One of my favorite UNP books in my 13 years here has been If This Were Fiction (Nebraska, 2022) by Jill Christman. I really enjoyed designing the cover, with googly eyes! There is so much heart, humor, and unflinching humanity in her work. I have both laughed out loud and sobbed alone in my office while reading her essays. As a new mom of a 2-year-old now, the essay from If This Were Fiction, ‘The Googly Eye’ is especially resonant.👀” -Lindsey Welch

“My favorite UNP book is any that has the Bison logo on it. Seeing that Bison logo lets readers know they’re where they belong. The Bison logo is a country picnic with lemonade so sour and sweet you smile and pucker all at once; a well worn t-shirt that seems to put itself on; an old pickup with well-worn tires and a stick shift whose true value can’t be measured by Blue Book; a bamboo flyrod that casts the fly where you want it every time; a sunset so glorious you end up know where the West is without opening your eyes. Bisons are the books where you know the authors by their first names—hey Kat hey, Joe, hey Dale and Mildred and Paul and John and Ralph and Osborne and all of my old friends (some of whom I’ve never met) who have righteously kept me awake with their thoughts and words. Montana may pride itself on being the last best place, but Bison encapsulates all the best places.” -Clark Whitehorn

“My favorite UNP book I’ve read (so far) is Under My Bed and Other Essays (Nebraska, 2022) by Jody Keisner. Her writing is incredible, and each essay was captivating and visceral. I also love the cover!” -Madison Wigley