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| Friday, March 23, 2001 WRITER: Larry B. Dendy, 542-8078, ldendy@uga.edu CONTACT: Karen Orchard, 369-6163, korchard@ugapress.uga.edu WEBSITE: http://www.uga.edu/ugapress UGA PRESS DIRECTOR KAREN ORCHARD TO RETIRE THIS YEAR ATHENS, Ga. — The University of Georgia Press has matured from a small, relatively obscure university press into one of the country’s best mid-size publishing houses in the 28 years since Karen Orchard came aboard as an editorial assistant. Orchard, who held most of the key administrative positions at the Press en route to becoming director six years ago, attributes most of the improvement to the efforts of her staff and her predecessors. But many admirers say Orchard deserves much of the credit. “She has provided wonderful leadership that has strengthened the Press’s identity and visibility, and made it one of the larger and more important presses in the country,” says UGA professor Betty Jean Craige, whose biography of ecologist Eugene Odum has been published by the Press. Adds Athens author Philip Lee Williams, whose memoir “Crossing Wildcat Ridge” was published by the Press in 1999: “Karen is a brilliant editor and a joy to work with. Without her, my book would have been twice as long and half as good.” Orchard has announced her retirement effective Oct. 1, ending a 30-year career at UGA, the only place she’s ever worked professionally. She joined the Press in 1973 after working two years in the career planning and placement office, a job she took when she moved to Athens after graduating from Westminster College in Pennsylvania. The Press in 1973 bore faint resemblence to the Press today. Founded in 1938, it was still very much in the mold of traditional university presses, publishing mostly scholarly books that were read by a small and select audience. It produced almost no fiction or poetry, and its authors were largely unknown outside academic circles. The staff of 11 people turned out fewer than 20 books a year. Rarely did a book sell more than a few hundred copies, and it was virtually unheard of for a major publishing house to pick up rights to a Press book. Today the Press still includes scholarly tomes among the 80-90 titles it publishes each year. But it also produces highly regarded works on environmental issues, feminist studies, Southern history, African-American culture, Civil War studies and legal and civil rights history. The UGA Press was one of the first academic presses to move heavily into fiction and poetry, and is now a wellspring for new works in these fields. Fiction by authors such as Mary Hood, Judson Mitcham, Judith Cofer and Jim Kilgo have cracked best-seller lists. Paperback rights to Mitcham’s “The Sweet Everlasting” drew bids from six major publishers. Rights to “The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys,” by Chris Fuhrman, have been sold to a national publishing house, and a production company headed by actress Jody Foster is turning the book into a movie. The Press’s Contemporary Poetry Series Competition publishes works by major contemporary poets, and the Flannery O’Connor Award, which the Press presents for short fiction, is a coveted honor among short story writers. Orchard, who earned a master’s degree from UGA after joining the Press, has played a role in every step of the Press’s rise in stature and quality. She was an editorial assistant just six months before being promoted to assistant marketing manager and then to manuscript editor. She later was managing editor for six years, then assistant director and editor, associate director and executive editor, and interim director before becoming director in 1995. Her duties have run the gamut of tasks in a publishing house — screening manuscripts, developing catalogs and marketing programs, proofreading, editing, acquiring and evaluating manuscripts, negotiating with authors, strategic planning, budgeting and personnel supervision. She manages a 28-person staff and oversees a business operation that nets more than $2 million in sales annually. “Karen has brought an extremely high standard of quality to the Press,” says Karen Holbrook, UGA provost. “She has kept pace with changes in the industry, and has sharply raised the Press’s profile, both within the publishing industry and in the public arena. We will certainly miss her and the excellent leadership she has provided.” In addition to higher sales and a glowing reputation, the Press’s success under Orchard is evident in an ever-growing array of awards. In 1998, the Press became the first university press to win the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Southern Book Critics Circle. It has also been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism, and won the grand prize in the Boston Globe Literary Press competition, among many honors. Just this month, authors of three books published by the Press were named Georgia Authors of the Year. They are Joyce Hudson (for her novel “Apalachee”), Judith Cofer (for her essay collection “Woman in Front of the Sun”) and Constance Curry (for her civil rights history “Deep in Our Hearts: Nine White Women in the Freedom Movement”). One of the Press’s newest ventures is helping produce the “New Georgia Encyclopedia,” a comprehensive profile of the state that will be available on-line as well as in print. Orchard is on the planning committee for the encyclopedia, which will be one of the first such interactive reference works. Orchard’s own stature in the publishing industry has risen alongside the Press’s. She’s been president of Women in Scholarly Publishing, served on the board of directors of the Association of American University Presses and has been active in Southern University Presses. She is on the board of the new Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. Orchard will move to California with her husband, novelist John Miller, and plans to take a year off before getting back into writing or publishing. A committee headed by James Cobb has been appointed to conduct a search for her successor. NOTE TO NEWS MEDIA: You may retrieve a photo of Karen Orchard electronically from our web site at http://photo.alumni.uga.edu or by contacting Rick O’Quinn at University Communications/ Photographic Services at (706) 542-8085 or via e-mail at roquinn@uga.edu. |