We are pleased to announce that Lesley Rains, former manager and buyer for the City of Asylum Bookstore and founder of the East End Book Exchange (now White Whale Books), has joined the University of Pittsburgh Press as Publicity Manager.

“Lesley’s experience in front-line bookselling brings a real understanding of the importance of publicity to sell books in a competitive retail environment,” said Marketing Director John Fagan.

Lesley will oversee all publicity efforts at the Press, including soliciting reviews, scheduling author events, and submitting books for a wide range of regional and national prizes. She will work with all Press authors, including those we publish in the award-winning Pitt Poetry Series, regional interest titles, and our renowned scholarly monographs in subjects ranging from the history and philosophy of science, Latin American studies, and Russian and East European studies, to architecture, composition and rhetoric, and environmental studies.

Director Peter Kracht said, “We are delighted that Lesley has joined the Press, and I am particularly pleased about her scholarly background, which will serve our academic publishing program well.”

Rains’s masters’ degrees in both European history and European studies give her a grounding in and appreciation for scholarly work, and her six years as the manager of the dynamic City of Asylum Bookstore and active member of the local and national bookselling community have provided her with valuable knowledge of the trade and first-hand appreciation of the importance of publicity to authors, bookstores, and the Press.

“I’m thrilled to join the University of Pittsburgh Press,” Lesley said. “I have always admired their work, both as a reader and a bookseller. To be able to help share their books and authors with the world is a dream come true.”

Lesley can be reached by email at lrains@upress.pitt.edu or by phone at 412-383-2493.

More about Lesley: Lesley Rains joined the University of Pittsburgh Press after a decade in bookselling. She has always admired the Press, both as a reader and as a bookseller, and is thrilled to be able to help share their books and authors with the world. In her spare time, she is an avid reader, beginner gardener, and cocktail experimenter. Her favorite book she has read recently is Salka Valka, a 1930s Icelandic feminist epic by Halldor Laxness, and her favorite cocktail is a strong Manhattan.