Message from Our Director

Dear Readers, Authors, and Friends of Great Books,

I am delighted to greet you as director of the University of South Carolina Press.

I invite you to browse our online catalog and discover our books on the shelves at your local bookstore—I know you will be impressed. Good bookmaking is a tradition at USC Press, and each of our titles, with its unique cover and thoughtful interior design, draws the eye of the reader. In a similar way, I was drawn to this small-but-mighty press because of its steadfast commitment to traditional publishing values. I believe your initial attraction will be rewarded, as was mine, when you shift your focus from admiring the typeset pages to reading them: Paragraph by paragraph, USC Press books are exceptionally well written and edited. From the outside covers to the inside pages of each book, things are just done right, and it shows.

Traditional publishing values encompass honoring authors, respecting readers, and striving to serve the communities, inside and outside of the academy, that care about history, art, literature, politics, culture, and communication. These values are far from old-fashioned. In any era, big ideas need careful and conscientious stewards, and at USC Press we are proud to play that role.

We know that books are only one means of communication. Like other publishers, we are thinking about a plurality of media. Readers, listeners, and viewers alike enrich their experience whether they are turning pages, inserting earbuds, or tapping screens. We support the creation of inspiring and challenging work from a diverse group of creators, and we want to share that work with an equally diverse audience, meeting people where they are and using whatever technology they prefer.

Good stewards innovate while staying true to basic values—we aspire to present rigorous scholarship, veracious reporting, skillfully narrated stories, and well-observed subjects, all expertly edited and designed to create a compelling experience across media. Traditional bookmaking values are durable communications values, and they serve as a basis for growth and change.

I invite you to keep coming back to our website to see what is new, discover what topics have excited our curiosity, and appreciate the impressive results of editors working closely with authors and artists. I anticipate that you will be engaged by what you see, read, and hear. 

Warm regards, 

Michael J. McGandy
Director
University of South Carolina Press

Photo: Michael J. McGandy by Abe Danaher, University of South Carolina