University Press Week is an annual celebration of our global community of university presses. Each year, the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) takes a tour of the blogs in our publishing community with a series that addresses different aspects of the week’s theme. This year’s theme, #PowerUP, asks us to consider the mission-driven, creative, and collaborative practices that enable us to amplify our authors’ voices to inform our current moment and shape our future.
We are joining in the UP Week celebrations with today’s blog post on the theme of notable achievements this year. At the University Press of Florida, we are proud of our work to uplift Florida writers, whose unique voices contribute to important local, national, and global conversations.
We proudly support the work of both global and local scholars. We have published books by authors located across the US as well as countries around the world—but as the only university press within the state of Florida, our mission also includes helping readers discover and understand the history and culture of our state. We publish books by Florida writers who creatively define the state on their own terms, as well as a wide range of academic works by researchers based in Florida. We aim to uplift the perspectives and the contributions of Florida writers, past and present.
A Year of Creative Contemporary Work
In the past year, we have published and promoted books by Florida writers who invite readers to see the state through their lens.
In Anywhere Else: Essays on Florida, Rachel Knox uses touchstones from viral popular culture, such as the 90s neo-noir Wild Things; the “Monster of the Week” episodes of The X-Files; Florida’s Highwaymen artists; and Ralph Waldo Emerson, the transcendentalist writer who spent time in St. Augustine; to write about her own story growing up in the state with humor and searing honesty. Knox was interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered, and Anywhere Else was chosen as NPR’s Book of the Day for April 7.
Bodega Stories is a collection of true stories from the community that surrounds Amaris Castillo’s parents’ Dominican-owned bodega in St. Petersburg, Florida. Through captivating vignettes of visitors who come looking for products from Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Venezuela, Cuba, and many other countries, readers get a glimpse into the lives of employees and customers as they navigate matters of immigration, love, history, food, and identity. Bodega Stories received starred reviews ahead of its publication in Shelf Awareness and in Booklist, and Amaris Castillo was interviewed on the inaugural episode of PBS Books’ new Uncovered series, a partnership with AUPresses, along with many other outlets including Telemundo, Latinx in Publishing, The Rumpus, and Smithsonian Magazine.
A Year of Classics Revived
Alongside exciting contemporary writers, we look to the past to draw inspiration from—and generate appreciation for—our state’s deep literary heritage. Our new series Florida Editions recovers literary works written in Florida, about Florida, or by Florida authors, reviving them for a contemporary audience. Contextual forewords by contemporary writers and scholars introduce modern readers to these timeless books.
The first book in the Florida Editions series, South Moon Under by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, published earlier this year. With a foreword by Lauren Groff, our Florida Edition of South Moon Under makes the first novel by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author available for today’s readers.
The second book in the series, Time of the Turtle by Jack Rudloe, follows the hundred-million-year saga of sea turtles as they survived mass extinctions, shifting continents, and dramatic climate change. A work of both natural history and literary merit, it continues to encourage interest in sea turtles and the people working to understand and protect them. Our Florida Edition will include a foreword by historian Jack E. Davis and publishes in March 2027.
A Year of Florida Research
In the past year, we are proud to have published academic work by many Florida-based researchers. This year’s scholarly publications and public-facing scholarship included:
Unearthing the History of America's Oldest Colony
Spaces of Globalization, Resistance, and Transformation
Florida and America's Space Industry
Regional Landscape Conservation Planning
Wildlife, Connectivity, and the Florida Model
Comparative Insular and Colonial Studies
The Wari of the Middle Horizon
Digital Heritage and Engagement on the Disappearing Island
A Technological History of Florida
From Sails to Spacecraft
Colonial America's Black Fortress of Freedom
Citizen Science in Maritime Archaeology
Terminology, Theory, and Infrastructure
A Practical Guide for Building Coastal Resilience
Mid-Century Architecture and Culture in South Florida and the Caribbean
Inside the Supreme Court's Historic Right to Counsel Decision
A Year of Writerly Advice
At the Press, we strive to be a resource for writers based in Florida and beyond by illuminating the behind-the-scenes aspects of publishing for prospective and current authors. We recently hosted an Authors in Conversation webinar where three Florida-based writers—Rachel Knox and Amaris Castillo, as well as Julie Marie Wade, author of Other People’s Mothers—discussed the process behind writing their books, their approaches to creative nonfiction, and advice for aspiring writers.
We also host annual publishing symposiums every fall. These symposiums are free virtual events open to anyone interested in learning about book publishing, particularly scholars and writers who would like to learn more about publishing with a university press. We invited professionals from five other university presses to join us as speakers in our Fall 2026 Publishing Symposium. Recordings of this year’s panels, The Making of Your Book and Marketing Your Book, are now freely available to view.
Our editors also travel to schools in Florida to give publishing workshops to faculty and regularly participate in panels and presentations at the annual meetings of various academic associations.
A Year of Strengthening Florida’s Literary Future
In March 2027 we will publish a kaleidoscopic anthology of contemporary Florida writers, All This Beauty, edited by Kristen Arnett and P. Scott Cunningham. This collection brings together poems, short fiction, and essays from 66 writers, demonstrating the depth and extent of Florida’s literary genius. Established writers and up-and-coming voices conjure widely varying experiences of the state, together presenting a Florida that is messier, deeper, and far more compelling than its stereotypes suggest. In October, the cover reveal for All This Beauty went live on Literary Hub.
We are continuously inspired by our writers and their capacity to tell stories that drive conversations on today’s issues, shaping both our current moment and our shared future. We invite prospective authors, especially those based in Florida, to reach out to us with questions.