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| Parent company | University of Pittsburgh |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1936 |
| Founder | John Gabbert Bowman |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Distribution | Chicago Distribution Center (US)[1] Eurospan Group (EMEA) East-West Export Books (Asia, the Pacific) Scholarly Book Services (Canada)[2] |
| Publication types | Books |
| Official website | www |
TheUniversity of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major Americanuniversity press, part of theUniversity of Pittsburgh. The university and the press are located inPittsburgh,Pennsylvania, in theUnited States.
The press publishes several series in the humanities and social sciences, including Illuminations—Cultural Formations of the Americas; Pitt Latin American Series; Pitt Series in Russian and East European Studies, Pittsburgh Series in Composition, Literary, and Culture; Pittsburgh/Konstanz Series in Philosophy and History of Science; Culture, Politics, and the Built Environment; Central Eurasia in Context, and Latinx and Latin American Profiles.
The press is especially known for literary publishing, particularly itsPitt Poetry Series, theAgnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize,[3] and theDrue Heinz Literature Prize. The press also publishes the winner of the annual Donald Hall Prize, awarded by theAssociation of Writers & Writing Programs and the winner of theCave Canem Poetry Prize. One of its perennial bestselling titles isThomas Bell's historical novelOut of This Furnace, reissued by the press in 1976.

The press was established in September 1936 byUniversity of PittsburghChancellorJohn Gabbert Bowman.Paul Mellon committed the majority of the necessary startup funding from theA. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust. Other contributors were theBuhl Foundation, theHistorical Society of Western Pennsylvania, and the university itself. The first full-time director of the press wasAgnes Lynch Starrett, followed byFrederick A. Hetzel (1964–1994),[4] Cynthia Miller (1995–2013),[5] and Peter Kracht (2013–present). The press was housed on the fifth floor of the Eureka Building on Pitt's main campus in theOakland section ofPittsburgh.
In 2008, the press began making out-of-print scholarly books freely available on-line at the University of Pittsburgh Press Digital Editions collection through theUniversity Library System'sD-Scribe Digital Publishing program.[6] By 2010, the University of Pittsburgh Press Digital Editions included more than 750 titles, and more than 350 previously out-of-print titles have been reissued in paperback format as Prologue Editions.
The press is also collaborating with the University Library System on a new online scholarly journals program. Most of the journals are open access and published in electronic format only, while a few titles are also available in print editions through the Espresso Book Machine in the University Book Center.
In 2010, the press received major funding from the Andrew W.Mellon Foundation to develop a history of science list and expand its existing philosophy of science list, working in collaboration with the university's History and Philosophy of Science Department and World History Center. This new program will lead to a 50% increase in the number of new titles published by the press each year.
In July 2013, the press moved into a new the university's Thomas Boulevard Library Resource Facility in thePoint Breeze section of Pittsburgh in July 2013.[7] The University of Pittsburgh Press is a Charter Member of theAssociation of University Presses.[8]