Mission
The University of North Carolina Press advances the research, teaching, and public service missions of a great public university by publishing excellent work from leading scholars, writers, and intellectuals and by providing publishing services to support sustainable scholarship.
Vision
To be recognized as the nation’s premier public university press while remaining a progressive force in the state and region.
From Our Original Charter
“To publish periodicals devoted to the advancement of learning and produced at the University of North Carolina by or under the direction of the faculty of that University. To publish, so far as may be agreed between the corporation and authorities of the University of North Carolina, catalogs, bulletins, and other documents pertaining to that University or to any department thereof. To promote generally, by publishing deserving books, the advancement of the arts and sciences, and the development of literature. . . . The stimulus to the intellectual life of the university and of the entire South is, in itself, sufficient argument for undertaking the project.”
About the Press
The University of North Carolina Press is a nonprofit publisher of both scholarly and general-interest books and journals. We also provide services to support the publishing needs within the statewide university system as well as to other campus-based publishing entities. The Press has earned a distinguished reputation by publishing excellent work from the nation’s leading scholars, writers, and intellectuals and by presenting that work effectively to wide-ranging audiences.
Established in 1922, UNC Press was the first university press in the South and one of the first in the nation. Our regional publishing program—aimed at general readers and offering engaging, authoritative work on all aspects of the region’s history and culture, its natural and built environment, its music, food, literature, geography, plant and animal life—has been widely adopted in other parts of the country. Over the years, Press books have won hundreds of prestigious awards including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and those of many national scholarly societies. Today, the imprint of UNC Press is recognized worldwide as a mark of publishing excellence—both for what we publish and for how we publish. Because of our respected authors who rely on the Press to connect readers with important ideas, the name of the University is carried on Press books and journals across the country and around the globe, in both print and digital formats.
History of UNC Press
Publishing Excellence Since 1922
For almost one hundred years, the University of North Carolina Press has earned national and international recognition for high quality books and the thoughtful way they are published. A fundamental commitment to publishing excellence defines UNC Press, made possible by our community of publishing professionals, authors, and advisors. We are also strengthened by support from the state of North Carolina and the generous contributions of individual and institutional donors who created our endowment.
In 1922, on the campus of the nation’s oldest state university, thirteen distinguished educators and civic leaders met to charter a publishing house. Their creation, the University of North Carolina Press, was the first university press in the South and one of the first in the nation. While established as an independent not-for-profit business, the Press is an affiliate of the 16-campus UNC university system, and its purpose remains to advance scholarship and to serve the people of the state and the region. From the start, UNC Press took a different, pioneering approach for a university press, not only focusing on the publication of scholarly works but also creating one of the earliest and strongest regional publishing programs in the country. UNC Press books on varied topics have helped shape a cultural legacy and preserve it for future.
UNC Press books explore important questions, spark lively debates, generate ideas, and move fields of inquiry forward. They illuminate the life of the mind. With more than 6,000 titles published and more than 4,500 titles still in print, UNC Press produces books that endure.
The independence of the Press allows it to take on the controversial issues of the day, adopting the principle that our books should not merely observe but should seek to understand, to explain, and thereby to improve our world. We publish books that challenge personal and public thinking and books that enlighten and delight us.
For example, the UNC Press was the first scholarly publisher to cover issues like poverty, lynching, and social justice, and to develop an ongoing program of books by and about African Americans, beginning in the late 1920s.By 1950, nearly 100 such volumes had appeared under its imprint, including famed historian John Hope Franklin’s first book, The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790–1860, published in 1943 and Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery, published in 1944. In the 1970s, the UNC Press was again in the vanguard, recognizing the emerging interdisciplinary field of women’s studies, taking an early lead in publishing feminist literary and historical works of distinction. Both African American studies and gender and women’s studies remain cornerstones of our publishing program today. And more recently, UNC Press’s publishing program has helped foster the growing significance of Native American and Indigenous studies, a field of national and global interest that has flourished over the last decade with the establishment of new scholarly associations and academic departments.
Scholars and archivists have lauded our multi-volume documentary editions—such as The Papers of John Marshall, The Papers of General Nathanael Greene, The Black Abolitionist Papers, and The Complete Works of Captain John Smith. Acclaimed reference works such as the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture and A New History of the American South broke new ground and led to the publication of other city, state, and regional encyclopedias. Books about the state like North Carolina Architecture, the Encyclopedia of North Carolina, Edible North Carolina, and The Art of the State: Celebrating the Visual Art of North Carolina have set a standard for regional reference works that other publishers now follow.
If the measure of a publishing house is the quality of its books, then the UNC Press holds an enviable record. Over the past 100 years, the Press has received virtually every important book award, including the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the top prizes given by leading scholarly societies and respected organizations like the American Bar Association; the American Institute of Architects; the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers; and the Royal Society of Canada. In the past decade, the Press has published three [have AB ck] Bancroft Prize winners, two Pulitzer Prize finalists, and [xx] James Beard Award winners. UNC Press titles have won literally hundreds of major prizes in American and world history, religious studies, Latin American and Caribbean studies, American studies, gender and women’s studies, literary studies, music, architecture, human rights, and legal studies.
The Press partners with a variety of other leading institutions and public groups. From our long-standing relationship with the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, to more recent partnerships with the Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University and the North Carolina Office of Archives and History, the Press seeks to support other not-for-profit centers and institutions reach their readers in the most efficient and cost-effective ways possible.
Looking to the future, innovation continues to flourish at the Press—both in identifying emerging areas of scholarship and in harnessing technology to better disseminate and provide access to our publications. Through its wholly owned not-for-profit subsidiary, Longleaf Services, the Press is providing much-needed economies of scale in back-end services for a growing group of university presses. The Office of Scholarly Publishing Services is expanding our role within the 16-campus UNC System to support publishing originating at our diverse universities. The Press is committed to making publishing more efficient in order to lower the barriers to access that limit readership.
UNC Press values equity and inclusivity in word and deed. The work we publish reflects a commitment to engaging a broad range of voices and experiences and bringing them to the widest possible audience. Similarly, we value a workplace that welcomes different perspectives to enhance the quality of our decision making as we carry out our work. We are strategically engaged in creating and enhancing policies and practices that will build upon our past efforts to attract, retain, and develop a staff that represents many dimensions.
As the Press enters its second century, we will always emphasize the highest standards in book publishing—from selection to presentation. The craft of publishing, where the Press has earned widespread recognition for its entrepreneurial spirit, its thoughtful editorial work, and awards-winning typography and design, makes UNC Press a benchmark against which many other university presses are measured.