Pittsburgh, PA – The University of Pittsburgh Press is thrilled to announce that Terrance Hayes, winner of the National Book Award and one of the leading voices in American poetry, will serve as judge of the 2026 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. Submissions are now open for the first full-length book prize, with the winner receiving publication in the Pitt Poetry Series and a cash award of $5,000. Hayes, who has served as co-editor of the Pitt Poetry Series with Nancy Krygowski and Jeffrey McDaniel for four years, has also decided that the time is right to step back from…

Pittsburgh, PA – The University of Pittsburgh Press is pleased to announce that Deborah Orgel Hudson has been named Marketing and Sales Director. Deborah Orgel Hudson brings over sixteen years of experience at Rowman & Littlefield, most recently as Director of Strategic Engagement. She has deep, hands-on experience in every aspect of book marketing, and has managed people, programs, and budgets in a variety of contexts. Her experience with trade and academic nonfiction publishing and working with booksellers, librarians, academics, and consumers will add to the Press’s existing 89-year legacy. Press Director Peter Kracht shares, “Deborah’s energy, warmth, sense of…

The University of Pittsburgh Press is pleased to announce the launch of a new scholarly series: Between Asias and Americas. This ambitious new series will feature scholarship that bridges Asian studies and American studies (conceived hemispherically to include Latin American studies and Asian American studies), while bringing into closer dialogue “area studies” and “ethnic studies” approaches to timely topics in a range of disciplines, foregrounding work in the social sciences while also welcoming boundary-crossing research in the humanities. The series intends to become a platform for work that explores the flows and fluxes of populations, affects, cultures, ideas, technologies, and…

Today for University Press Week we are featuring an interview with Will Masami Hammell, who recently joined the Press as Senior Acquisitions Editor to build new lists in Asian Studies and Africana Studies.  Below he discusses his personal and professional background as well as his editorial process. Q; What drew you to the University of Pittsburgh Press? A: I’ve admired the gumption of the Press since my earliest days as an editor. When I was starting out in acquisitions at Temple University Press, I lost my first competitive project to the Pitt Latin American Series, and I remember my less-than-mature…

The University of Pittsburgh Press is pleased to announce that William Masami Hammell has joined the Press as senior acquisitions editor. Will has 20 years of publishing and editorial experience, including over a decade in scholarly book acquisitions, most recently at Cambridge University Press, where he acquired new titles and managed multiple series in African and Middle Eastern studies, focusing on history, politics, religion, and anthropology. Prior to that, he was editor and director of publications at the Harvard University Asia Center, acquiring and producing award-winning monographs in East Asian studies. He got his start in book publishing at Temple…