The coming year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of University of Manitoba Press. In 1967, we started the first university press in western Canada, and we are proud of our five decades of publishing important books for both scholarly and general audiences.
As University Press Week 2016 begins, we invite you to join us in a year-long celebration of our past and a look at our future plans.
Anniversaries are a time for reflection and also for looking forward. Over the next year, we will be celebrating our past in different ways, including issuing new versions of two of our most important titles from the past.
The first of these, John S. Milloy’s A National Crime, will be released in Spring 2017 with a new foreword. Originally published in 1999, Milloy’s book was the first detailed examination of the inner workings of Canada’s residential school system. It is a searing indictment of the foundations and administration of that system and helped to lay the groundwork for Canada’s national journey towards truth and reconciliation. We are proud to be its publishers.
In Fall 2017, we will issue a new edition of The North End, John Paskievich’s lyrical book of photographs that celebrate one of Canada’s most iconic urban communities.
Together, these two books typify twin themes that are at the core of University of Manitoba Press: commitment to scholarship and engagement with community.
Looking forward, we would like to introduce a new wordmark and identity for the press designed by Winnipeg graphic designer Frank Reimer. This sleeker version of our earlier wordmarks conveys a sense of both continuity and looking forward. Using a sans serif typeface that is both accessible and classic, it reflects our roots in the traditions of bookmaking along with our ongoing commitment to innovation.
We also have a number of 50th anniversary events planned for 2017, including a spring celebration at the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities, Canada’s largest gathering of scholars held this year at Ryerson University in Toronto, and a fall exhibit at the University of Manitoba Archives that examines UMP’s history in light of larger societal and book-industry trends.
Book publishing is at heart about community and connections between authors and readers and among the ideas that emerge from books written and read. Thanks for joining us in this conversation, and for all the books still to come.
David Carr
Director, University of Manitoba Press
