George Frazier: The University Press of Kansas must be preserved
By George Frazier
In late January, I received an email from my publisher, the University Press of Kansas, that an external consultant will conduct a review of the Press and put forward a recommendation to its trustees about how or if the Press will continue to operate. As a writer and armchair academic (I have a Ph.D. in computer science but work as a software architect rather than professor), this felt like one more 2020 pandemic-year kick in the gut.
Four years ago, the Press published my book “The Last Wild Places of Kansas: Journeys into Hidden Landscapes.” Since then I’ve traveled across the state giving talks about Kansas wild places. At every stop, somebody comes up after my presentation to let me know how my book put down in print what they had felt all their lives about Kansas that it is a place that matters. Books are powerful like that. They can legitimize and validate feelings that are somet