Welcome. My name is Vivian Schiller and im the director of aspen digital. Were blunt glad you could be with us today. The New York Times bestseller list can often seem to be a veneer of the National Psyche and this year it seems to reflect a nation going through an awakening on matters of race. Books written by people of color and about matters of race and racism have filled those lists, both fiction and nonfiction. Thats the good news. Sadly the Publishing Industry does not necessarily always reflect that reality. The recent twitter protest hashtag publishing pay me exposed the disparity in the industry between black and nonblack authors. There are few people of color who serve as publishing staff or literary agents and even fewer who operate at decisionmaking levels and for those who are published, sometimes the marketing exposure can be sub optimal. This year of National Reckoning on racism were going to take a look at the industry, the book Publishing Industry and whether it can br
Reading University Press and University Pressth week. Im cow, one of the managers here and i think i speak for all of us at book called was a University Press, especially our friends at columbia University Press, nyu press and fordham University Press take up a large part of what we do here for the past 20 years. They are heavily featured in a dense programming, our displays are often at in a weekly annual bestseller list though it shows our Customer Base loves them as well. A couple of housekeeping before i move over to our lovely panel. We have a lot of books for sale here we do not have register up here so if youre free to take a bunch, give insight to make sure to pay for them on the way out. Well be here for years to come during this event. You may have noticed the cameras. Cameras. Cspan is here so we get to the q a portion, if you have a question make sure you wait for the mic to get to you so that you can hit the question as well as see. I will turn it over to our panel. Great.
What we do here for the past 20 plus years. Have the havely featured in orientses programming, our plays and weekly and yearly best seller liveses so shows our Customer Base loves them as well. A couple of housekeeping things before i move over to the lovely panel. We have a lot of book for sale up here. We do not have a register up here so feel free to take a bunch, get them signed and pay for them on the way out so you can be here from years to come. You may have noticed the cameras. Cspan is here so when we get to the q a portion, if you have a question, make sure you wait for the mic to get to you so that we can hear the question as well as see you. So ill turn it over to our panel. Great. Thank you, kyle. Hello and welcome to our University Press week celebration. Im fred and im the director or fordham University Press. This is our eighth annual up week. Have been a member of the task force since 2014 and chair person for two of those years. This year the theme is read, think, act
Press, nu and Fordham University press make up a large part of what we do here for the past 20 plus years. Have the havely featured in orientses programming, our plays and weekly and yearly best seller liveses so shows our Customer Base loves them as well. A couple of housekeeping things before i move over to the lovely panel. We have a lot of book for sale up here. We do not have a register up here so feel free to take a bunch, get them signed and pay for them on the way out so you can be here from years to come. You may have noticed the cameras. Cspan is here so when we get to the q a portion, if you have a question, make sure you wait for the mic to get to you so that we can hear the question as well as see you. So ill turn it over to our panel. Great. Thank you, kyle. Hello and welcome to our University Press week celebration. Im fred and im the director or Fordham University press. This is our eighth annual up week. Have been a member of the task force since 2014 and chair person
First fiction. It was also a finalist for the 2020 National Book award in the fiction category. So welcome deesha. Thanks for joining us. We also have steven sparks whos the cone coowner of point reyes books out in california. Hes worked at green apple books and the dalke archive and he is on the boards of dorothy a publishing project open letter books and the center for the art of translation. Thank you stephen for joining us. And last we have john shear whos the director of the university of North Carolina, press it is the oldest Scholarly Publishing house in the south. I am as a bookseller. Im compelled to say as well that john is a former bookseller at olsons in washington dc. Oh, im sorry, washington. Not dc. So, thank you everyone. I am going to start out with a question for you d shop. You have as i said had an incredibly successful university, press book. So what brought you to West Virginia up . Why did you just what pulled you in that direction instead of looking forward or d