UGA Press

The University of Georgia Press is pleased to announce a new endowment to support the publication and promotion of the winners of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction.

The Debbie and John Edwards Endowment has been established to cover all costs for the award-winning short story collections that are published every fall, including editorial, design, and marketing costs. The $100,000 gift from UGA Press Advisory Council Chair Debbie Edwards and her husband John will also support author travel to Georgia for book launch events, advertising, and help expand overall visibility for the distinguished award that has been sponsored by UGA Press for over four decades.

The University of Georgia Press is pleased to announce a new endowment to support its undergraduate internship program in book publishing. The Candler Family Experiential Learning Scholarship Fund will provide funding for the university press’s paid experiential learning opportunities for UGA students.

The UGA Press has enjoyed a long relationship with the Candler family. Peter Candler Sr. and Shannon Ilges Candler are founding members of the Press’s Advisory Council. Following their retirement, son Pete Candler joined the council in 2018.

The $100,000 gift from the Ilges Foundation was matched by $50,000 from the UGA Foundation as part of a university-wide scholarship campaign.

“It is truly an honor to be able to support the Press in this way. We are so grateful for all of you and the heroic work you do,” said Pete Candler on behalf of the Candler family.

Clarke Central High School in Athens, GA, has announced a Summer Book Club for student athletes featuring The Crimson and Gold: Football and Integration in Athens, Georgia (UGA Press, 2024) by local author Mark Clegg (Economics A.B., University of Georgia). What started as a conversation in August 2025 with Assistant Head Football Coach Damien Gray and Clarke Central High librarians Angela Pendley and Naomi Craver evolved into a desire to educate students and the community about the history of integration at Clarke Central.

Award-winning writers whose poems, novels, and plays have been lauded across the country have been named to the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, based at the University of Georgia Libraries.

The inductee class of 2026 honors Alice Friman, Charlie Smith, and Shay Youngblood. The three writers' literary legacies have been felt across the Peach State, from Friman’s tenure at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville to Smith’s roots in Moultrie and Youngblood’s connections to Atlanta.

Former Los Angeles Times Publisher and CNN President Tom Johnson will discuss his new book Driven: A Life in Public Service and Journalism from LBJ to CNN as part of the University of Georgia’s Fall 2025 Signature Lecture series on Wednesday, October 29. The public conversation with Red and Black Executive Director Charlotte Varnum will begin at 4 p.m. at the UGA Special Collections Libraries Building, with a light reception and a book signing to follow.

For UGA Libraries, Thomas May’s job centers around film and audiovisual work, but the archivist also enjoys the printed word. In fact, he was named one of the best authors in the state, as a recipient of a 2025 Georgia Author of the Year Award in the science fiction/fantasy category.

May serves as the audiovisual systems archivist and access coordinator with the Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, one of three special collections units at the University of Georgia Libraries. He’s also a novelist, who self-published his debut fantasy novel Alan Dreams of Giants in November.

The University of Georgia is pleased to announce Feminisms, Gender, and Space, a new critical geography series that will publish cutting-edge and engaged social science on the topics of intersectional feminisms, sexuality, and gender as they relate to geographical spaces and places.

For the third time in four years, The Georgia Review, a literary journal based at the University of Georgia Libraries, is being recognized as one of the best fiction outlets in the nation.

The publication is a finalist for the Award for Fiction, presented by the American Society of Magazine Editors, in association with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The Georgia Review has been named a finalist three times in the past four years, including in 2022, which the publication took the prize home to Athens.

This Black History Month, two events at the UGA Special Collections Libraries highlight Black voices in history and journalism.

The events include a discussion with author Michael Thurmond on his book about Georgia’s founder and a panel discussion about Black publishing in Georgia in honor of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame induction of Robert Sengstacke Abbott, the founder of The Chicago Defender.

On Thursday, Feb. 13, Thurmond will discuss his book James Oglethorpe, Father of Georgia: A Founder’s Journey from Slave Trader to Abolitionist, published by the UGA Press. The book explores Oglethorpe’s relationships with Ayuba Suleiman Diallo and Olaudah Equiano, two of 18th-century England's most influential Black men, and how they influenced his philosophy on the issue of enslavement.

Librarians and others from across the Atlantic Ocean came together virtually for a two-day symposium this December, engaging in a rich exchange of professional knowledge and ideas. Co-organized by the University of Georgia Libraries and the University of Liverpool Libraries, Museums, and Galleries, the symposium marked the latest milestone in the decade-long collaboration between these sister universities.

The symposium began with a report on the recently signed agreement naming Liverpool University Press as the exclusive distributor for UGA Press books in the United Kingdom and Europe, and a non-exclusive distributor for other parts of the world.