University of North Carolina Press

07/17/2025

2025 Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Award Winners

1st Place:
Making Never-Never Land: Race and Law in the Creation of Puerto Rico
by Mónica A. Jiménez

2nd Place:
Vibes Up: Reggae and Afro-Caribbean Migration from Costa Rica to Brooklyn
by Sabia McCoy-Torres

3rd Place:
Politics in an Island State
by Diane Austin-Broos

Honorable Mention:
Forbes Burnham: The Life and Times of the Comrade Leader
by Linden F. Lewis

Fractal Repair: Q***r Histories of Modern Jamaica
by Matthew Chin

Learn more about the winning books at: https://www.caribbeanstudiesassociation.org/2025-gordon-k-and-sybil-lewis-award-winners/

07/16/2025

New podcast episode dropped! Julia Brock joins New Books Network to talk about her book CLOSED SEASONS which traces the dizzying array of factors that led to effective game and fish laws in the South.

Listen below or find the UNC Press Presents Podcast wherever you get your podcasts 🎧

https://newbooksnetwork.com/closed-seasons

07/15/2025

"I remember as a child being on a road trip through Missouri and unfortunately needing to stop in “Klansville,” a region that all Black people in our state know to avoid, because our car required gasoline. . . . "

Continue reading this excerpt of CARCERAL APARTHEID by Brittany Friedman in Inquest

White civilians often spontaneously cooperate in acts of racial hatred. It’s a web of racist solidarity that Black people know all too well.

07/10/2025

White Southerners once demanded reparations for lost enslaved people—then rewrote history to hide it, shaping debates that still echo today.
 
Learn more about this important history in COUNTING THE COST OF FREEDOM by Amanda Laury Kleintop publishing next month 📖

07/09/2025

Wishing a huge Happy Birthday to folk legend .gerrard 🥳🎶
 
Yesterday, Alice celebrated her 91st birthday—and today, we’re celebrating her remarkable journey and ongoing influence by looking ahead to her forthcoming memoir, CUSTOM MADE WOMAN which is available for pre-order now! 📚
 
Drop your favorite Alice Gerrard song in the comments 🎶

07/09/2025

"What is often forgotten in narratives about plantations even in their destruction is the skilled labor . . . of the enslaved and free African Americans who often participated in the building and maintaining these structures."

New guest blog by Torren L. Gatson 👇

The following is a guest post by Torren L. Gatson, assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and co-editor of Fighting for Freedom: Black Craftspeople and the Pursuit of Independence which is available now wherever books are sold. The burning of Louisiana's No...

07/08/2025

INTREPID GIRLS ARC’S are here!! How many many can you spot in this photo??

For anyone who has ever worn a uniform or wondered about the hidden history behind this iconic American institution, INTREPID GIRLS will surprise, inspire, and challenge what you think you know about the Girl Scouts 🙌

07/08/2025

For immigrants on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, documentation does not guarantee access to health care.

This piece is the first in a 6-part series on rural immigrant by Thurka Sangaramoorthy, adapted from her book LANDSCAPES OF CARE, for Barn Raiser

For health care providers serving rural immigrant communities, moving beyond the framework of legal status opens up new possibilities for care.

07/07/2025

Due to the recent storm and resulting flooding, Brooks Hall—home to UNC Press on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus—remains without power and as a result some of our staff members may be slower to respond. Our thoughts are with all those in the surrounding communities who have been affected. We’re wishing everyone safety and a swift recovery 💚

07/03/2025

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Central American and Mexican immigrants arrived in New Orleans to help clean up and rebuild.
 
Now 20 years after Katrina, Sarah Fouts centers human experiences to illustrate how immigrant and communities of color resisted criminalization and racial capitalism to create a more just New Orleans.

REBUILDING NEW ORLEANS is available now wherever books are sold 📖

06/27/2025

Sayantani Dasgupta's BROWN WOMEN HAVE EVERYTHING (University of North Carolina Press, 2024) has won the Foreword Reviews 2024 Book of the Year Award in Essays!
https://uncw.campuslabs.com/engage/news/323554