THE BOOK, JACKET, AND JOURNAL SHOW
Honoring the many design and production teams within our community whose work furthers a long tradition of excellence, the annual AUPresses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show recognizes achievement in the design, production, and manufacture of books, book jackets, and journals. Through a traveling exhibit and an acclaimed annual catalog of selected entries, the competition visually teaches the tenets of good design and fulfills its mission to “honor and instruct” while providing a source of discussion and creative and resourceful ideas.
The 2024 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show selections were announced in April 2024 via a virtual display on the AUPresses Design site. The show then debuted live at the AUPresses Annual Meeting in Montréal, Quebec, June 11-13. The show catalog was again produced, and the selections were widely promoted on the show’s Instagram account, @AUPressesDesign.
Judging for the 2024 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show had taken place at the AUPresses Central Office in New York City in January 2024, with jurors selecting 81 entries from 32 member publishers in 7 categories from among 507 entries.
The Book, Jacket, and Journal Traveling Show also returned with the 2024 selections appearing on display at 32 university presses across the US and Canada from September 2024 through June 2025. The show was also on display in the UK, for its first-ever route across the pond, appearing at UP Redux Conference 2025, held in Oxford, UK, on April 3-4; Manchester University Press on April 23-26; and Liverpool University Press on May 12-28.
The 2025 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show judging took place in the AUPresses Central Office in New York City on January 30-31. Jurors selected 52 books and journals, and 58 jackets and covers as the very best examples from a large pool of excellent design. The selected entries were announced via the AUPresses Design website on the UP Commons in April 2025.
READUP AND MORE
The Association uses the #ReadUP tag on social media to highlight our members’ publications and stories about the valuable work of university presses. Though this tag originated in University Press Week celebrations and on a single social media platform, its exhortation is always relevant—just like university presses!
The AUPresses Bookshop.org shopfront continued to support our promotion of member work to readers. Through it, we once again expanded the reach of the UP Week Gallery, this year with the theme Step UP.
UNIVERSITY PRESS WEEK
University Press Week 2024 began with a sponsored content feature in Publishers Weekly, highlighting the work of 15 member presses (Arkansas, Cambridge, Johns Hopkins, Colorado, Manitoba, Mercer, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Rochester, Texas, Vermont, Wayne State, Wesleyan, West Indies, and Wits). In conjunction with Veterans Day / Remembrance Day, this issue also featured our 5 US Armed Forces university members (Air, Army, Marine Corps, Naval Institute, and West Point) and celebrated university press works by and about veterans. In addition, its “Endnotes” column spotlighted the making of The Brazil Chronicles (Missouri).
This year’s theme, Step UP, focused on the myriad ways that university presses step up to educate and enlighten, motivating all to stride forward with purpose. This essential work was amply demonstrated by:
- A record-breaking 123 entries in the Step UP Gallery and Reading List,
- More than 80 posts in the Step UP blog tour,
- More than 25 events, celebrating university press authors from Menlo Park, California, to Barcelona, Spain, as well as online,
- More than a dozen print and digital ads, supported by generous offers of complimentary space, including first-time placements in Dissent, New Left Review, and Foreword This Week.
- Opinion pieces from AUPresses President Anthony Cond (Liverpool) in The Bookseller and from Board of Directors member Rachael Levay (Princeton) in HigherEdJobs.
University Press Week 2025 is scheduled for November 10-14.
STAND UP AWARD
The 2024 Stand UP Award was presented to open access advocate Martin Eve. “His 2014 Cambridge University Press book Open Access in the Humanities remains the critical source for understanding how the humanities differ from the sciences in this space,” noted AUPresses Executive Director Peter Berkery. The award was announced by outgoing President Jane Bunker (Cornell) at the AUPresses 2024 Annual Meeting in Montréal, Quebec, in June.
Eve is Professor of Literature, Technology and Publishing at Birkbeck, University of London; Principal R&D Developer at Crossref, and author most recently of Theses on the Metaphors of Digital-Textual History (Stanford University Press, 2024) and The Digital Humanities and Literary Studies (Oxford University Press, 2022)
Through the Stand UP Award, the Association celebrates people who have done extraordinary work in support of university presses, recognizing advocates who are not on staff at a member press but who stand up from within the communities that presses work with, speak to, and serve.