Category: Press News

2025 Photos of Authors and Staff

Posted on December 23, 2025December 19, 2025 by maryreynolds

December 23, 2025

What a fantastic year for our books and authors! From conference exhibit halls to the Tucson Festival of Books to author events, we’ve celebrated our exceptional scholarly and trade books. Today we share some of our favorite photos of authors and UA Press staff. Here’s to another great year for our authors and their books in 2026!

National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies Meeting: Norma Elia Cantú, Jose O. Fernandez, and Silvia Soto.

Tucson Festival of Books clockwise from top left : Author Julie Morrison and Editor Kristen Buckles, poets Amber McCrary and Denise Low: Marketing team Cameron Quan, Mary Reynolds, and Abby Mogollon; friends visit with author David Levy; authors Tim Z. Hernandez and Gary Nabhan

American Anthropological Association Meeting: Felipe Fernández, Allyson Carter and Allison Caine, and Sandhya Krittika Narayanan.

Kelly McDonough and Ezekiel G. Stear at 2025 Latin American Studies Association Conference; Kristina Baines and Nicole Peterson at Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting.

Enrique Ochoa records a podcast; John Schaefer signs books at book launch; Elizabeth Wilder, Leigh McDonald, Mary Reynolds and Cameron Quan ride bikes to work on International Bicycle Day.

Western History Association Conference: Margo Tamez, Cynthia Bejarano, and Jeffrey P. Shepherd; BorderVisions series editors Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez and Yvette J. Saavedra; Arizona Crossroads series editors Anita Huizar-Hernández, Eric V. Meeks, and Katherine G. Morrissey.

From top: Tumamoc Hill Author Series with Abby Mogollon at the sales table; hydrologist Julia Fonseca in conversation with author Stephen Strom inside Tumamoc boathouse; Tumamoc director Elise Gornish talks with author Michelle Téllez.

Cameron Quan and Amber McCrary at UA library zine workshop; Melani Martinez at AWP; Danielle P. Williams and Elizabeth Wilder at AWP.

Winter Sale: 50% Off All Books

Posted on December 9, 2025December 10, 2025 by Cameron Quan

From December 9 to 17, 2025, all our books are 50% off! Plus, we’re offering free shipping on orders over $75 within the contiguous U.S.

Enter promo code AZWINTER50 when you check out on our website. This deal is good for any of our books, but just in case you need some inspiration, check out a few of our recommended bundles below.

Arizona & the Sonoran Desert

Art & Photography

Space & Astronomy

Memoir & Poetry

Plants & Environment

Indigenous Voices

Browse all of our books here.

Book, Jacket, & Journal Show for University Press Week, Nov. 10-14

Posted on October 29, 2025October 24, 2025 by maryreynolds

October 29, 2025

The University of Arizona Press hosts the Association of University Presses’ Book, Jacket, and Journal Show in November. It is all part of our celebration of University Press Week, November 10-14. The award-winning books are on display at the Press offices on the 5th Floor of the University of Arizona Main Library. The winners are also on virtual display here.

Now in its 60^th year, the show honors the university publishing community’s design and production professionals. By recognizing achievement in design, production, and manufacture of print publications, it also sparks thoughtful, creative, and resourceful publishing design in the future.

Check out a few of the winning designs below, and a photo of the Show at the Press offices above.

Photos from the 2025 WHA Conference

Posted on October 23, 2025October 22, 2025 by Cameron Quan

October 23, 2025

Thank you to all of the authors and editors who visited our booth at the Western History Association Conference in Albuquerque last week! Below, check out a few snapshots from the conference.

There’s still time to take advantage of the conference discount, too! Until October 25, use AZWHA25 when you check out on our website for 40% off all books and free shipping on orders over $60.

Arizona Crossroads series editors Anita Huizar-Hernández, Eric V. Meeks, and Katherine G. Morrissey

Cynthia Bejarano, co-editor of Frontera Madre(hood)

BorderVisions series editors Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez and Yvette J. Saavedra

Margo Tamez, Cynthia Bejarano, and Jeffrey P. Shepherd, co-editors of Gathering Together, We Decide

From left to right: Anthony Macías, author of Chicano-Chicana Americana; Kristen Buckles, University of Arizona Press Editor-In-Chief; L Heidenreich, co-author of Writing that Matters; and Myrriah Gómez, author of Nuclear Nuevo México.

We look forward to seeing you again at the 2026 Western History Conference in Portland!

Joe Watkins on Podcast

Posted on October 6, 2025October 30, 2025 by maryreynolds

November 10, 2025

The University of Arizona Press’ podcast features an interview with Joe Watkins, author of Indigenizing Japan: Ainu Past, Present, and Future. Watkins, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is an affiliated faculty member in the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. He was president of the Society for American Archaeology during 2019–2021. His study interests concern the ethical practice of anthropology and anthropology’s relationships with descendant communities and populations on a global scale.

Asked about SOMETHING, Watkins answered, “ANSWER HERE”

Listen to the full podcast here.

About the book:

In this collection, established and emerging scholars draw upon their rootedness in the U.S. Southwest and U.S.-Mexico borderlands. The meXicana contributors use personal and scholarly inquiry to discuss what it means to cultivate spaces of belonging, navigate language policies, and explore and excavate silences in various spaces, among other important themes. From the recruitment of Latinas for the U.S. Benito Juárez Squadron in World War II, to the early twentieth-century development of bilingual education in Arizona, to new and insightful analyses of Bracero Program participants and their families, the book details little-known oral histories and archival material to present a rich account of lives along the border with emphasis on women and the working class.

First Book Published in Arizona Crossroads Series

Posted on September 18, 2025August 27, 2025 by maryreynolds

September 18, 2025

The University of Arizona Press, in collaboration with the Arizona Historical Society, proudly announces the publication of the inaugural book in the new Arizona Crossroads Series on September 23: meXicana Roots and Routes: Listening to People, Places, and Pasts. Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez and Anita Huízar-Hernández co-edited the book.

The book is not just about Arizona. Each section of the book intentionally centers Arizona within broader comparative and cross-state dialogues, alongside chapters that reflect regional concerns in other southwestern states, including Texas, California, Colorado, and New Mexico.

Arizona Crossroads is led by a team of three editors: Anita Huízar-Hernández, Arizona State University; Eric V. Meeks, Northern Arizona University; and Katherine G. Morrissey, University of Arizona. Morrissey explained, “Crossroads is an intersection, but we also mean it as an analogy that brings together ideas and peoples. It is of course a geographical place, that we know today as Arizona, a place that has long been an intersection of indigenous peoples, of settler colonialists, and immigrants from around the world.”

For the Arizona Crossroads series, UA Press is open to any topic within any time period of Arizona history. The series will publish scholarship that is cutting-edge and innovative, yet generally accessible and readable to an educated general audience. Arizona has been a contested site among peoples, nations, and empires; it is also a place where events, decisions, and struggles have had far-reaching consequences beyond its shifting borders.

Arizona’s history is a useful entry point for contemporary conversations about people and issues in the state today. Kristen Buckles, UA Press Editor-in-Chief said, “As the series title suggests, we welcome books that deepen our understanding of Arizona as a diverse crossroads and meeting ground within broad national and transnational contexts, whether topical, thematic, or geographic.”

For more information, visit the Arizona Crossroads Series.

UA Press Podcast on New Books Network

Posted on July 22, 2025July 11, 2025 by maryreynolds

July 22, 2025

We are thrilled to announce The University of Arizona Press Podcast on The New Books Network (NBN)! NBN hosts have interviewed our authors about new books for more than ten years, and now we have officially partnered with the Network, creating a dedicated channel of our past and forthcoming author interviews.

Recently, the NBN featured an interview with Enrique C. Ochoa, author of México Between Feast and Famine. Andrew Canessa and Manuela Lavinas Picq were interviewed about their book, Savages and Citizens. Last year, NBN interviewed Ricardo Quintana-Vallejo, author of Growing Up in the Gutter.

Wondering if you can hear your favorite author on the pod? Check out the complete list of interviews with U of A Press authors. Podcasts are available on the New Books Network website, Apple , Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts.

The New Books Network is a consortium of author-interview podcast channels dedicated to public education. Covering more than one hundred subjects, disciplines, and genres, NBN publishes seventy to one hundred episodes a week. The Network reaches about 250,000 people every month; listeners download close to 850,000 episodes each month.

Kathryn Conrad, director of The University of Arizona Press said, “We’re excited to collaborate with New Books Network to introduce our authors to new readers. Podcasts also give educators another resource to enrich the discussion of our books in their classrooms.”

Caleb Zakarin, editor of The New Books Network, said, “The University of Arizona Press publishes across many disciplines that are of great interest to our listeners. I have personally enjoyed my interviews with U of A Press authors and look forward to many more in the future.”

In the Fall, listen for interviews with authors of forthcoming books: Kip Hutchins, author of A Song for the Horses, and Joe Watkins, author of Indigenizing Japan.

Watch this space and our social media, we’ll let you know when new podcasts drop.

Book Lovers of UA Press: Ashley Amacher

Posted on July 16, 2025 by Cameron Quan

July 16, 2025

Summer is a great time to meet the people at The University of Arizona Press who turn book dreams into reality. We are a small but mighty team!

Today, we feature our Assistant to the Director & Rights Administrator, Ashley Amacher.

Hi Ashley! What do you do for the Press?

I wear two hats at The University of Arizona Press, acting as both the rights administrator and the assistant to our wonderful director, Kathryn Conrad. Essentially, I handle matters related to author contracts, copyright, permissions, and subsidiary rights licensing while also performing a host of administrative tasks to keep UAP organized.

How long have you been at UAP?
I have been at UAP for about eight months now, so I’m still relatively new to the world of scholarly publishing. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to work with books, so I feel very lucky to kickstart my publishing career at my alma mater. Bear down!

What do you like most about working here?
I love working in an environment that is so mission-driven. The pursuit and dissemination of knowledge is an undeniable priority for everyone who works here. Since I manage our translation and foreign rights licensing, I appreciate that I help share the valuable work of our authors with people all over the world. I love to connect new audiences with impactful books. You also can’t beat the satisfaction of digging through the records and uncovering the answer to a tricky permissions question!

What would people be surprised to learn about your work?
I think people would be surprised to learn how much research is involved in determining whether we can grant other people the rights to use or republish content from our books. My job involves constant investigation, and I feel like there is always something new to learn about copyright law and how it applies to different scenarios. People might also be surprised about the wide variety of different requesters I get to interact with, including scholars, musicians, creative writers, artists, and publishers of all sizes.

What do you like to do in your free time?
To no one’s surprise, I love to read! While I really enjoy working with academic monographs every day, my perfect evening at home involves sitting on the couch with my cat and falling headfirst into a fictional world. I currently cannot stop thinking about R.F. Kuang’s Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History. I am also on a mission to expand my music taste, so I try to listen to a new album every day. My all-time favorites range from Taylor Swift’s evermore to David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

Summer Sale: 50 on 50

Posted on July 8, 2025 by Cameron Quan

For ten days only, all our books are 50% off! Plus, we’re offering free shipping on orders over $50 within the continental U.S.

Use promo code AZSummer50 between July 8 and July 18 when you check out on our website. This deal is good for any of our books, but just in case you need some inspiration, check out a few of our recommended book bundles below.

Arizona

Immigration & the Border

Indigenous Voices

Memoir & Poetry

Plants & Environment

Space & Astronomy

Browse all of our books here.

Six Books on Immigration

Posted on June 18, 2025June 18, 2025 by Cameron Quan

Located in Tucson, the University of Arizona Press has a long tradition of publishing diverse perspectives regarding the border and immigration. This week, alongside other members of the Association of University Presses (AUPresses), we’re sharing a roundup of recent works whose authors provide valuable context on current events.

Illegalized: Undocumented Youth Movements in the United States

Illegalized takes readers on a journey through the history of the rise of undocumented youth social movements in the United States in the twenty-first century. The book follows the documentation trail of undocumented youth activists spanning over two decades of organizing. Each chapter carefully analyzes key organizing strategies used by undocumented youth to produce direct forms of activism that expose and critique repressive forms of state control and violence. This inquiry is particularly generative in relation to how immigrant bodies are erased, contained, and imagined as “aliens” or “illegal.”

Rafael A Martínez, an undocu-scholar, intricately weaves his lived experience into this deeply insightful exploration. Martínez’s interdisciplinary approach will engage scholars and readers alike, resonating with disciplines such as history, American studies, Chicana and Chicano studies, and borderlands studies.
Illegalized shows that undocumented youth and their activism represent a disruption to the social imaginary of the U.S. nation-state and its figurative and physical borders. It invites readers to explore how undocumented youth activists changed the way immigrant rights are discussed in the United States today.

Resistance and Abolition in the Borderlands: Confronting Trump’s Reign of Terror

While there is a long history of state violence toward immigrants in the United States, the essayists in this interdisciplinary collection tackle head-on the impacts of the Trump administration.

This volume provides a well-argued look at Trump’s first term (2017-2021). Insightful contributions delve into the impact of Donald Trump’s rhetoric and policies on migrants detained and returned, immigrant children separated from their parents and placed in detention centers, and migrant women subjected to sexual and reproductive abuses, among other timely topics. The contributors document a long list in what the book calls “Trump’s Reign of Terror.”

Las Horas Imposibles / The Impossible Hours

In Las Horas Imposibles / The Impossible Hours, Octavio Quintanilla takes us on a profound journey to witness what it means to erase those boundaries devised by genre and politics intent on stifling memory, imagination, and creativity.

Presented in Spanish with English translations, this poetry collection comprises lyric and concrete poems—or frontextos—that explore intimacy and different shades of violence as a means to reconcile the speaker’s sense of belonging in the world. From the opening poem to the last in the first section, Quintanilla captures the perilous journeys that migrants undertake crossing borders as well as the paths that lovers forge to meet their endless longing. These themes are skillfully woven by Quintanilla, guiding us back and forth across the Rio Grande to encounter the apparitions of the disappeared and to witness the willingness of many to risk life and limb for a better life.

Kids in Cages: Surviving and Resisting Child Migrant Detention

In recent years, the plight of immigrant children has been in the national spotlight. A primary issue of concern is the experience of child migrants in detention by the U.S. government.

The authors in this volume approach the topic of child migrant detention from a range of perspectives. Some authors, particularly those who provide a legal perspective, chronicle the harms of detention, arguing that despite governmental assurances of child protection, detention is fundamentally a state-sanctioned form of violence. The social scientists in the volume have worked closely with detained youth themselves; in these chapters, authors highlight the ways in which youth survive detention, often through everyday acts of resistance and through the formation of temporary relationships. Practitioners including psychologists, activists, and faith leaders look at forms of resistance to detention. From retheorizing psychological interventions for detained youth to forming hospitality homes that act as alternatives to detention, these practitioners highlight ways forward for advocates of youth. At the heart of these narratives lies a crucial debate: the tension between harm-reduction strategies and abolition.

Walled: Barriers, Migration, and Resistance in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands

In 1993, then-U.S. President Bill Clinton oversaw the construction of the first stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border walls. Since that pivotal moment, every subsequent U.S. president has allowed for the construction of additional miles of walls or fences. Despite his initial pledge to halt the expansion of border walls, in July 2022, President Joe Biden authorized the construction of new sections in four locations within Arizona. This decision underscores the enduring complexity and contentious nature of the U.S.-Mexico border infrastructure.

From the bustling San Diego–Tijuana region to the borderlands of Brownsville-Matamoros, the U.S.-Mexico border is marked by extensive stretches of walls. Over the past thirty years, these walls have evolved from purely physical barriers into multifaceted systems encompassing administrative, legal, legislative, and biometric components. Walled invites readers to reflect on the transformations of the border since the construction of the initial fourteen miles of wall, and the subsequent addition of 1,940 miles. It provides a comprehensive exploration of the border’s evolution, and its profound and lasting impacts.

Accompaniment with Im/migrant Communities: Engaged Ethnography

This collection brings together the experiences and voices of anthropologists whose engaged work with im/migrant communities pushes the boundaries of ethnography toward a feminist, care-based, decolonial mode of ethnographic engagement called “accompaniment.”

Accompaniment as anthropological research and praxis troubles the boundaries of researcher-participant, scholar-activist, and academic-community to explicitly address issues of power, inequality, and the broader social purpose of the work. More than two dozen contributors show how accompaniment is not merely a mode of knowledge production but an ethical commitment that calls researchers to action in solidarity with those whose lives we seek to understand. The volume stands as a collective conversation about possibilities for caring and decolonial forms of ethnographic engagement with im/migrant communities.

The University of Arizona Press