EDITORIAL POLICY
2) Our Director's Past Experience in the Editorial World and His Vision of Publishing.
Alain Saint-Saëns has a long and multifarious experience as an editor and publisher.
He has been Series Editor with International Scholars Publications from 1992 to 1996; then Series Editor and General Editor with University Press of the South from 1995 to 2000; before being named Director of University Press of the South. Under his editorial leadership, University Press of the South has published more than 200 remarkable academic books, novels, and poetry books in several languages [English; Spanish; French; Portuguese; Catalan; Italian; German; etc...].
He created Presses Universitaires du Nouveau Monde in 1998, to allow French and francophone scholars from four continents to be published in French and distributed all over the world. The francophone catalog of Presses Universitaires du Nouveau Monde has been extremely impressive from the very start. Alain Saint-Saëns has been instrumental for the defense and promotion of French and Francophone languages worldwide.
He has been part of the Editorial Board of the Mediterranean Conferences, of which he was Co-Director from 1994 to 1998, and he has served as a consultant for several other international academic presses. He is also a Member of the Editorial Board of two prestigious journals, Hispania Sacra and Punto y Raya.
Dr. Alain Saint-Saëns at the MLA Chicago Exhibit, December 1999.
- What Did you Accomplish in ten years, as General Editor, then Director, with University Press of the South?
"The first four years, we transformed a small local press into a dominant academic press with national and international scopes. We established a very solid, and I believe, merited, reputation of excellence in publishing. Honesty, clarity, and hard work have been the keys of our success. Some of our Series are among the best in their respective field --Iberian Studies; Latin American Studies; Gay/Lesbian/Queer Studies; French and Francophone Studies; Theater; etc... Our Series editors are highly regarded scholars from America, Europe, Africa, and Australia. Our staff has been totally dedicated twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, answering questions, treating potential authors with respect and cordiality, helping our authors to get grants, providing letters of evaluation to third-year review, tenure, or promotion committees. Nothing makes me happier than to hear that one of our authors was granted tenure at her university, or became Full Professor in her Department. We do care for our authors.
We have secured links and distribution rights with internationally renowned academic presses --Presses Universitaires de Lyon; Presses Universitaires de Toulouse; Editorial Complutense; Editions Christian Pirot; Honoré Champion Editions; Editions Slatkine; etc...
All this would have been impossible without the support of great scholars, who understood what University Press of the South could bring to serious academics. Teresa Soufas and the late Daniel Heiple (Tulane University), Edward Friedman (Vanderbilt University) and Catherine Larson (Indiana University), Paul Freedman (Yale University), William Monter (Northwestern University), Amadou Koné and Barbara Mujica (Georgetown University), Allyson Weber (University of Virginia), Mary-Elizabeth Perry (Occidental College), Fred de Armas (Penn State University), Jean-Jacques Thomas (Duke University), and many others in America, Europe, Australia, and Africa, have been instrumental in offering their scientific recognition to our editorial project."
- How did your role change when you became Director of University Press of the South in 2000?
"I got the opportunity to decide the general policy of the company; work on giving more visibility to the editorial within the academic world; recruit more local and national partners and sponsors; and develop more associations with major universities in the country and worldwide. My approach has been more global, regardless of the continent or the country. I want every scholar in America, Europe, Australia, or Africa, to know that, if her book is scientifically solid and peer-reviewed positively, we will publish it.
We currently consider manuscripts for publication in seven languages; I would like to extend that to as many languages as possible, as long as there is a market worldwide for the book. Too many excellent scholars still cannot find a publisher in the United States, because traditional university presses publish only in English. Moreover, many European scholars would like to have access to the North American market; we will provide this service to them. Most of the time, very gifted African scholars cannot find a publisher; we will welcome them even more."
- What are the fundamental values of University Press of the South?
"First, a commitment to excellence in publishing. I want to publish only top quality books. Very often I have told young professors that University Press of the South was not interested in publishing their recently finished doctoral dissertation. Even if it is a good one, it is still a dissertation, not a book. It won't help them to publish it without revisions. I therefore encourage them to rewrite it carefully and to come back and see us within a year or two.
Second, a commitment to diversity, regardless of color of skin, nationality, ethnic background, gender, or sexual preferences. I have clearly emphasized that in my own academic work, and I want every scholar to feel comfortable and confident when approaching University Press of the South. Moreover our staff, editors, designer, printer, and interns, are also very much representative of this policy. We are indeed the rainbow people at University Press of the South and we are proud of showing the right example to a still very conservative editorial world.
University Press of the South has successfully established a prestigious worldwide reputation in twelve years, from 1996 to 2008. We came back much stronger after the devastation of Katrina in the fall 2005, that paralyzed and partially destroyed our operations for a good semester. We feel a great sense of pride to being an active part of the reconstruction of New Orleans, a major and vibrant, diverse and multifarious, American city, in which University Press of the South has organized international congresses with great success.
My ultimate goal is for University Press of the South to become one of the leaders among the academic presses within the next ten years, and to open much more to gifted fiction writers and talented poets. I truly believe we will."
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