President Mark A. Emmert, affirming the University of Washington's commitment to scholarly publishing, has stated: "It has been said that a great university deserves a great university press, and we are fortunate to have one of the best. Books published by the University of Washington Press carry the name of the University far and wide, serving the international community of scholars and citizens of our own region."

Washington's books have won many prizes for scholarship and literary excellence, as well as for graphic design. Recent awards include:

2008 Publishers West Design Award: Lionel H. Pries, Architect, Artist, Educator: From Arts and Crafts to Modern Architecture by Jeffrey Ochsner (designed by Ashley Saleeba)

2007-2008 Outstanding Academic Book Award by CHOICE Magazine: Raven Travelling by Peter Macnair, et al.; Art of the Northwest Coast by Aldona Jonaitis; and Ehon by Roger S. Keyes

2007 AAUP Book and Jacket Design Awards: Beyond Literary Chinatown by Jeffrey F. L. Partridge (designed by Pamela Canell); Ipse Dixit: How the World Looks to a Federal Judge by William L. Dwyer (designed by Audrey Meyer); Danish Cookbooks: Domesticity and National Identity, 1616-1901 by Carol Gold (designed by Ashley Saleeba); and Arctic Spectacles: The Frozen North in Visual Culture by Russell Potter (designed by Ashley Saleeba)

2007 Book Builders West Design Award: The Problem of the House: French Domestic Life and the Rise of Modern Architecture by Alex T. Anderson (designed by Ashley Saleeba)

2007 Weyerhaeuser Award, Forest History Society: Wilderness Forever: Howard Zahniser and the Path to the Wilderness Act by Mark Harvey

2007 Washington State Book Award: River of Memory: The Everlasting Columbia by William Layman

2007 American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation: Beyond Literary Chinatown by Jeffrey F. L. Partridge

2007 Heldt Prize, Women in Slavic Studies: The New Woman in Uzbekistan: Islam, Modernity, and Unveiling Under Communism by Marianne Kamp

2006 Shimada Prize, Sackler-Freer Gallery, Smithsonian: Chikubushima: Deploying the Sacred Arts in Momoyama Japan by Andrew M. Watsky

2005 John Whitney Hall Book Prize, Association for Asian Studies: Chikubushima: Deploying the Sacred Arts in Memoyama Japan by Andrew M. Watsky

2002 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize: Alfredo Arreguin: Patterns of Dreams and Nature by Lauro Flores

2001 George Wittenborn Memorial Book Award, Art Libraries Society of North America: The Complete Jacob Lawrence: Over the Line: The Life and Art of Jacob Lawrence, and Paintings, Drawings, and Murals (1935-1999), A Catalogue Raisonne by Peter Nesbett and Michelle DuBois

2001 Joseph Levenson Book Prize for Modern China, Association for Asian Studies: Manchus and Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China by Edward J. M. Rhoads

Our titles cover a wide variety of academic fields with especially distinguished lists in international studies (with a focus on Asia), environmental history, Jewish studies, anthropology, Western history, natural history, architectural history, and art. We are recognized as the foremost publisher in the world on the art and culture of the Northwest Coast Indians and Alaskan Eskimos, and as the leader in the publication of materials dealing with Asian American experience. The following edited series are examples of our focused editorial program which brings distinction to the Press and the University:

American Ethnic and Cultural Studies, edited by Johnnella E. Butler and John C. Walter

Asian Law Series, edited by Veronica L. Taylor

Critical Dialogues in Southeast Asian Studies, edited by Charles F. Keyes, Vincente L. Rafael, and Laurie J. Sears

Culture, Place, and Nature: Studies in Anthropology and Environment, edited by K. Sivaramakrishnan

Earl and Edna Stice Lecture-Book Series in Social Science, edited by Gerald Baldasty

In Vivo: The Cultural Mediations of Biomedical Science, edited by Philip Thurtle and Robert Mitchell

Korean Studies of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, edited by Clark W. Sorenson

Literary Conjugations, edited by Richard T. Gray

Pacific Northwest Poetry Series, edited by Linda Bierds

Studies in Modernity and National Identity, edited by Sibel Bozdogan and Resat Kasaba

Studies on Ethnic Groups in China, edited by Stevan Harrell

Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books, edited by William Cronon

In response to two successfully completed National Endowment for the Humanities challenge grants, private gifts have enabled the Press to inaugurate the following funded series:

Capell Family Endowed Book Fund

Classics of Chinese Thought Book Fund

Donald R. Ellegood International Publications Endowment

Robert B. Heilman Endowment

Jackson School Publications in International Studies

Joan Patterson Kerr Publication Endowment

Charles and Jane Keyes Endowment for Books on Southeast Asia

Jacob Lawrence Series on American Artists

McLellan Books Endowment

New Directions in Scandinavian Studies Book Fund

Scott and Laurie Oki Series in Asian American Studies

Samuel and Althea Stroum Books

University of Washington Press / Architecture Department Book Fund

University of Washington Press / China Studies Book Fund

Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books

V Ethel Willis White Books

Thomas T. Wilson Book Fund

In addition, the Naomi B. Pascal Editor's Endowment was established to enable our editors to attract the finest scholarly manuscripts available.

Our publishing program has important implications beyond the actual books it produces. We have helped the University to support the works of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education (CIRGE), and other divisions of the University for which we either publish or distribute publications. These collaborations reinforce the ties of the University to its community.

We have been proud to publish books by several Nobel laureates, as well as many other internationally known figures in the humanities, arts, and sciences. We are proud, too, of the many young scholars, poets, and artists whose first books have appeared under our imprint.

Although the Press is an integral division of the University, it operates with considerable autonomy. Like most other book publishers, it has no printing facilities. Composition, printing, and binding are purchased under contract. The Press is not involved with production of the University's magazines, newspapers, bulletins, or catalogues. As a nonprofit cultural organization, its sole function is to find, develop, select, and publish scholarship of high quality and enduring value.

The imprint of the University of Washington Press is overseen by a faculty committee appointed by the President of the University. The approval of the University Press Committee is required before any book may be published. The Press's editors work closely with the faculty committee to select those books that will carry the University of Washington Press imprint. About one-third of the books published by the Press originate within the University of Washington. From more than 1,000 manuscripts and proposals submitted to us annually from all over the world we select only about 7 percent for publication.

With a dedicated and highly professional staff of twenty-eight, the Press provides a complete range of publishing services - copyediting, design, production supervision, advertising, publicity, and marketing. Since 1997 the Press has been under the direction of Pat Soden. In addition, the Press Executive Committee includes Mary Anderson, associate director and general manager; Lorri Hagman, executive editor; Marilyn Trueblood, managing editor; John Stevenson, production manager; Alice Herbig, marketing manager; and Nina McGuinness, development director.

We at the Press are constantly aware of the magic that books can evoke and the far-reaching influence they can exert. We are proud of our books, and we care deeply about the quality of our publications, their physical appearance, and their effective distribution.

The University of Washington Press maintains close ties with other university publishers. As a member of the Association of American University Presses since 1947, the Press has hosted national and regional meetings, and its staff has participated actively in Association programs.

In recent years, the Press has established copublishing and distribution relationships with a growing list of museums, university presses in Canada, China, Australia, and other institutions throughout the world. This activity enables us to give worldwide distribution to many valuable publications. Mindful of the shrinking world, the University of Washington Press has long placed special emphasis on our role in the two-way exchange of knowledge and information internationally. The books that bear our imprint are among the University's most significant ambassadors to the outside world. They are distributed through overseas marketing consortia and copublishing arrangements, and many have been translated into more than ten languages. We were in the vanguard of publishers who established reciprocal ties with the People's Republic of China and Russia.

We eagerly anticipate the challenges of the next decades. As new technology makes possible almost limitless access to information and data, our traditional role as "gatekeepers" of quality in the publication of scholarship is sure to assume even greater importance. At the same time, we are committed to developing new ways of serving our university, our region, and the world beyond.