Acquisitions
With more than fifteen years of experience in university press publishing, I acquire scholarly and trade work for scholars, students, and general readers in U.S. and world history. Within these broad areas I am particularly interested in manuscripts about the history of the American West, Latin America, and Pacific worlds. I also acquire in environmental history and military history. My own academic work has focused on environmental history and the American West.
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With eighteen years of experience in scholarly publishing, I acquire in Native American and Indigenous studies, anthropology and ethnography, and borderlands history. I have sponsored The Franz Boas Papers: Documentary Edition (25 vols.); Andrew W. Mellon Foundation–funded initiatives; and many award-winning books in Native American and Indigenous studies, western history, memoir, and general nonfiction. Previously I was the acquiring editor for western history and literary studies at the University of Oklahoma Press and was editor in chief of the San Diego History Center’s Journal of San Diego History. Before joining UNP in 2008 I taught the history of the American West and American intellectual and cultural history at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Nebraska–Kearney. I am the author of The San Diego World’s Fairs and Southwestern Memory, 1880–1940 (University of New Mexico Press, 2005). In my spare time, I enjoy gardening, skateboarding, and remodeling my 1908 house in Lincoln.
Series:
- American Indian Lives
- Borderlands and Transcultural Studies
- Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology
- Early American Places
- Early Modern Cultural Studies
- Historical Archaeology of the American West
- Indigenous Education
- Indigenous Films
- New Visions in Native American and Indigenous Studies
- Recovering Languages and Literacies of the Americas
- Studies in the Anthropology of North America
- Studies in the Native Languages of the Americas
- The Franz Boas Papers: Documentary Edition
- Native Literatures of the Americas and Indigenous World Literatures
- The Society of Historical Archaeology’s Essential Guides to Material Culture
I acquire in the fields of American studies, cultural criticism, and world history. I am particularly interested in works that focus on women’s and gender studies, media studies, and Latin American history. My own academic work is focused on women and Mexico. I received my master’s degree in history from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and have worked in scholarly publishing since 2015.
Series:
- Anthropology of Contemporary North America
- Bodies and Ecologies: Histories of Health, Environment, and Medicine in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Confluencias
- Encapsulations: Critical Comics Studies
- Engendering Latin America Series
- Expanding Frontiers: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality
- Frontiers of Narrative
I acquire trade creative works, oversee our series-based poetry program, and manage the Backwaters Press annual poetry contest. Though my list is primarily focused on creative nonfiction, I also seek works of fiction set on the Great Plains. I graduated from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with a BA in English and have worked in scholarly publishing since 2009.
Series:
- African Poetry Book
- American Lives
- The Backwaters Prize in Poetry
- Contemporary Holocaust Studies
- Flyover Fiction
- The James Alan McPherson Prize for the Novel
- On African Poetry
- Provocations
- The Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction
- The Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry
- Ted Kooser Contemporary Poetry
- Zero Street Fiction
Rob Taylor
Senior Acquisitions Editor
I acquire and develop sports books for both trade and scholarly audiences. My acquiring interests include all the major team and individual sports, with particular interest in biographies, accounts of specific eras or seasons, and narrative nonfiction. On the scholarly side I acquire sports history and monographs that focus on current topics in sports, including race, gender, and globalization. Across both lists I’m interested in sports as a point of entry into American culture and how sports reflect to a large degree who we are as a people. I also acquire spaceflight history, including the renowned Outward Odyssey series. Prior to joining the Press in 2003 I worked for Contemporary Books/McGraw-Hill in Chicago.
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I am a U.S. Coast Guard veteran with a PhD in history from the University of Colorado, and I have over twenty years of publishing experience. I acquire for Bison Books, UNP’s imprint widely regarded as the home of some of the best books in classic western literature and Native studies. I also acquire in the history and culture of the American West and Great Plains as well as environmental studies.
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I am the acquiring editor for Potomac Books, a general interest imprint of the Press purchased in 2013. My main areas of interest include biographies and memoirs, current events, military history, and international affairs. In addition, I assist Clark Whitehorn with his acquisitions in Bison Books. I graduated from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 2019 with a BA in English and have been with the Press since I worked as a student intern.
Series:
I assist Matt Bokovoy and Rob Taylor with their acquisitions and Leif Milliken with permissions and contracts. I joined the Press at the beginning of 2022 via an internship during my final undergraduate semester and became a full-time member of the press in 2023. I received a BA in art history with a minor in English from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. In my spare time I like to journal and paint and have recently taken up crochet.
I graduated with a BA in education from the University of Nebraska–Kearney and began my career in York, Nebraska, as an elementary school teacher and reading specialist for twenty-five years. Before coming to the press in 2007 I worked with the director of the UNL Child Care Center. At UNP I am part of the Business and Acquisitions Departments, and I’m proud to be a part of a team that publishes such outstanding books and journals.