Nancy Grayson will retire this September from the University of
Georgia Press. She has spent 26 years in university press publishing: 20 years
with the University of Georgia Press (1986-1993 and 2001-2012) and 6 years with
the University Press of Kentucky (1993-1999). During her time at UGA Press,
Grayson spent 2 years as project coordinator of
The New Georgia Encyclopedia (1999-2001).
“Acquisitions editors are the engines of scholarly publishing,
and Nancy is one of the best,” said Lisa Bayer, director of the University of
Georgia Press. “Her cultivation of the finest scholarship will continue to
enrich the Press, the university, the citizens of the state and the region, and
scholars the world over for years to come.”
After receiving her Ph.D. in English from the University of
Tennessee-Knoxville, Grayson launched her publishing career at UGA Press, where
her roles included manuscript editor, acquisitions editor, editor-in-chief, and
executive editor. Grayson was editor-in-chief during her time at University
Press of Kentucky. At both presses, Grayson consistently sought to publish work
that reshaped the thinking in a field, as well as work that appealed to general
readers in addition to scholars.
“Nancy was the first person I recruited when I assumed the
director position at Georgia over a decade ago, and it was one of the best hiring
decisions I've ever made. Nancy quickly acquired an impressive number of
important books in history, literary studies, women's studies, and
ecocriticism, and she gave the list a global focus by founding a competitive
international affairs and security studies series. There is no doubt that
Nancy's tenure as executive editor dramatically increased the overall
reputation of the Press, and her distinguished career can be measured in the
many award-winning and critically acclaimed books that she brought to Georgia,”
said Nicole Mitchell, director of the University of Washington Press and former
director of UGA Press.
Grayson acquired many successful regional and national trade
titles, including
Jack London,
Photographer;
Murder at the MLA;
The Lost Boys of Sudan;
Harlem;
Equiano, the African;
Phillis
Wheatley;
Upheaval in Charleston;
Creeker;
Bloodroot;
Katharine and R.
J. Reynolds; and
Ossabaw. Below
is a list of Grayson’s favorite titles and series.
“Having had the pleasure of working with Nancy Grayson on all
but the first of the five books I’ve published with a university press, I’ll
certainly miss her as my editor, but I look forward to retaining our friendship
during her very well deserved retirement,” said Vincent Carretta, author of
Equiano, the African and
Phillis Wheatley.
Grayson describes her time as project coordinator of
The New
Georgia Encyclopedia as a “wonderful, challenging, fun experience. John
Inscoe and I thought our way through all the intricacies of creating an
infrastructure for the
The New Georgia Encyclopedia. It really was
one of the most creative and exciting jobs I’ve ever undertaken.”
“Nancy has left a significant mark on both the quality and
quantity of the Press’s output over the past decade,” said John Inscoe, editor of
The New Georgia Encyclopedia. ”She’s
been the driving force behind the creation and expansion of several major
series, was a key player in the conception and early evolution of
The New
Georgia Encyclopedia, and brought numerous top-tier scholars into the fold.
On all fronts, she’s leaving some mighty big shoes to fill.”
“I feel enormously grateful to have found university press
publishing 26 years ago,” Grayson said. “It has been endlessly stimulating and
very, very rewarding. What other career could have provided such varied and
interesting work—where no two projects are the same and we’re in daily contact
with people who are excited about ideas and genuinely want to further the
scholarship in their field? I have truly loved this work and will miss it. Most
especially I’ll miss the authors who have become some of my closest friends.”
Founded in 1938, the UGA Press is the largest book publisher in
the state. It has been a member of the Association of American University
Presses since 1940. With a full-time staff of 24 publishing professionals, the
Press currently publishes 80-85 new books a year and has more than 1,500 titles
in print. It has well-established lists in Atlantic World and American history,
American literature, African-American studies, southern studies and
environmental studies, as well as a growing presence in the fields of
geography, urban studies, international affairs and security studies.
For more information, see
http://www.ugapress.org/.
Notable Books:
Jeanne Campbell Reesman, Sue S. Hodson & Philip Adam,
Jack London, Photographer (UGAP)
Mark Bixler, The Lost Boys of Sudan: An American Story of the Refugee Experience
(UGAP)
Vincent Carretta, Equiano, the African: Biography of a
Self-Made Man (UGAP)
Vincent Carretta, Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in
Bondage (UGAP)
Vincent Carretta, ed., Unchained Voices: An Anthology of
Black Authors in the English-Speaking
World of the Eighteenth Century (UPK)
Harlem: The Vision of Morgan and Marvin Smith (UPK)
D.J.H. Jones, Murder at the MLA (UGAP)
Linda Scott DeRozier, Creeker: A Woman’s Journey (UPK)
Joyce Dyer, Bloodroot: Reflections on Place by Appalachian
Women Writers (UPK)
Anne Emanuel, Elbert Parr Tuttle: Chief Jurist of the Civil
Rights Revolution (UGAP)
Melissa A. McEuen, Seeing America: Women Photographers
Between the Wars (UPK)
William C. Harris, With Charity for All: Lincoln and the
Restoration of the Union (UPK; winner of the 1998 Lincoln Prize)
Thomas Hallock & Nancy E. Hoffman, eds., William
Bartram, The Search for Nature’s Design: Selected Art, Letters, and Unpublished Writings (UGAP)
Susan Millar Williams & Steven G. Hoffius, Upheaval in
Charleston: Earthquake and Murder on the
Eve of Jim Crow (UGAP)
Jack Leigh, James Kilgo & Alan Campbell, Ossabaw: Evocations of an Island (UGAP)
Michele Gillespie, Katharine and R. J. Reynolds: Partners of Fortune in the Making of the New
South (UGAP)
John C. Inscoe, Writing the South Through the Self: Explorations in Southern Autobiography (UGAP)
Marc Sommers, Stuck: Rwandan Youth and the Struggle for Adulthood (UGAP)
Larry Reynolds, Righteous Violence: Revolution, Slavery, and
the American Renaissance (UGAP)
Betty Rizzo, Companions Without Vows: Relationships Among
Eighteenth-Century British Women
(UGAP)
Calvin C. Johnson Jr., with Greg Hampikian, Exit to Freedom
(UGAP)
Book Series:
18th Century Novels by Women (UPK)
Southern Women: Their Lives and Times (UGAP)
The New Southern Studies (UGAP)
Studies in Security & International Affairs (UGAP)
THE FAITHS OF THE POSTWAR PRESIDENTS author David L. Holmes on religion and its role in the current presidential campaigns: "Religion has not played a role in it that church historians at one time thought it would." (Observer and Eccentric)
