In the News: Walton Harris Retiring from the University of Georgia Press

After 18 years at the University of Georgia Press, Walton Harris will retire from the design and production department at the end of October.

"All of the Press staff will miss Walton's great sense of humor, above-the-call-of-duty dedication, and wonderful inventiveness in playing his part in the making of our books,” said Kathi Morgan, assistant director for design and production at UGA Press. “His design and production colleagues will especially miss Walton's appreciation of the craft of design, typography, composition, appropriate color palettes, use of quality materials, and fine manufacturing technology and techniques so each book could be enjoyed and treasured.  We wish him—and his family—well during the next phase of his life beyond the office!”

 As book designer, production manager, and production specialist at the Press, Harris has managed more than 800 titles through production and designed and composed more than 160 titles since 1994.

“I will always be grateful to Walton for all that he did for our department, the Press, and for me from 1994 through 2005 when we worked together in design and production,” said Sandy Hudson, former assistant director for design and production at UGA Press. “Organized, thorough, detail-oriented, a team player, someone who appreciates others and treats people with respect—Walton was and is a superb production coordinator. Dedicated, focused, and hardworking, Walton can always be counted on to do a great job and to carry through on any project.”

After receiving his BFA from the University of Georgia, Harris made many one-of-a-kind books and other works of art. His work has been exhibited at the Lucky Street Gallery, Heath Gallery, and Nexus Contemporary Art Center. Some of his books are in the collections of the High Museum of Art, New York Museum of Modern Art, and in private collections.

Harris’s publishing career began in 1977 when he cofounded Nexus Press, a fine arts publisher specializing in limited edition artist’s books. From 1980 until 1991, Harris wrote, designed, directed, and performed original works for the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, including Dinosaurs, Aladdin, Once Upon A-bomb, The Box, Cirque Pataphysique, and Bad Sax. His show, The Box, was invited to the International Puppet Festival in Boston, MA in 1989, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution declared it the “most creative and original dramatic performance” in the 1989 year-end theater review. Harris went on to cofound the animation studio Vivid Pictures in 1992.

“I have really enjoyed working on the complex four-color projects in our series of natural history titles: Snakes of the Southeast, Turtles of the Southeast, Frogs and Toads of the Southeast, Lizards and Crocodilians of the Southeast, Salamanders of the Southeast, Dragonflies and Damselflies of Georgia and the Southeast, Wildflowers of the Eastern United States, and The Breeding Bird Atlas of Georgia,” said Harris.