Rutgers University Press Joins Partnership to Create Publishing Opportunities in Underserved and Emerging Areas of the Humanities

The American Literatures Initiative opens doors for younger scholars

If two heads are better than one, five university presses must be off the charts, especially when their partnership produces up to 125 books by emerging scholars whose works might not otherwise have seen the light of day.

That’s the thinking behind the American Literatures Initiative, a collaborative book-publishing project in which Rutgers University Press is playing a key role.

“Imagine Home Depot and Lowe’s coming together to work on a project – it just doesn’t happen,” says Marlie Wasserman, director of the academic publishing house celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.

But that’s exactly what is happening with Rutgers, Fordham, Temple, New York University, and the University of Virginia, whose presses are taking advantage of a $1 million, five-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation designed to create new opportunities for manuscripts dealing with underserved areas of the humanities.

Facing the one-two punch of declining revenues and increasing production costs, university publishing

houses have struggled in recent years, in many cases scaling back annual lists and turning away qualified first-time authors. At Rutgers, Wasserman says, one consequence was veering away from a once-lively American literature program in favor of health, medicine, sociology, environmental and New Jersey studies, as well as film studies and American studies.

She credits the Mellon initiative, launched in 2008, not only with revitalizing the interest in literature and literary studies, but also with allowing individual presses in the consortium to devote greater resources to marketing and publicity.

The innovative partnership also allows participants to offer royalty advances to authors whose manuscripts are accepted for publication – a boost for junior-level professors juggling teaching duties, research and writing on often-stretched budgets, Wasserman notes, and a perk almost unheard of with first-time books.

Under the program, launched in 2008, each press acquires and develops titles according to its own needs and rigorous editorial standards. The common aim is to seek out outstanding scholarly work about the English-language literatures of Central and North America and the Caribbean.

Mellon’s vision calls for each house to produce five books per year over the life of the grant.

 “We are eager to find titles that offer fresh views of the varieties of American experience among ethnic and racial minority groups, across lines of gender and sexuality, and within rural and urban communities,” Rutgers Press Editor-in-Chief Leslie Mitchner writes in the initiative’s brochure. “We are looking for manuscripts that open up discussion beyond particular identity groups and that are focused on the post-Civil War period.”

With six books in the series already completed, Rutgers Press has concentrated on such topics as New York women writers and the modern magazine culture; bonds of nation and race in 19th-century America; Jewishness and African-American identity; and the “ethnic  enclaves” of Asian-American communities, among other topics.

“We’ve gotten superior books we might not have gotten otherwise, and all of them have been very well received,” Wasserman says. “The feedback has been excellent.”

Being part of the cooperative with other presses – two others at public universities like Rutgers, two at private ones – has given her insight into publishers’ best practices, and has encouraged participants to think in terms of economies of scale, Wasserman adds.

The savings produced through joint purchasing has allowed the presses better access to posters, mouse pads, tote bags, and other vehicles to boost their products’ visibility – and also has had the bonus of attracting what Wasserman describes as “superior manuscripts” from authors who see and appreciate the added effort on their behalf.

Katie Keeran, an assistant editor at the press who is involved in the acquisitions process, believes the partnership is a healthy response to an ailing industry.

“Publishing is in crisis right now, which puts pressure on presses – including Rutgers’ – to look for books that will sell very well. The Mellon initiative allows us to bring forth some exciting books that might not otherwise find a home right away,” notes Keeran, who received her bachelor’s degree in history from Rutgers in 2003 and her master’s from Montclair State University in 2008.

“We look for books that go beyond narrow, close readings to carry larger cultural implications – those are the ideal books,” she adds.

Neither Fugitive Nor Free: Atlantic Slavery, Freedom Suits, and the Legal Culture of Travel by former Rutgers English professor Edlie L. Wong fits that category. NYU Press published the book in 2009; it examines legal petitions filed by slaves for freedom in the United States and its territories through a critical and historic lens.

Although Rutgers University Press has not yet carried the work of any Rutgers professors as part of the ALI, Wasserman urges university scholars to look no further than their own back yard when shopping around a manuscript appropriate for the series.