As Black History Month comes to a close, continue to celebrate, learn, and amplify Black stories. The Bucknell Press continues to partner with the Griot Institute for the Study of Black Lives and Cultures by publishing the  Griot Project Book Series, an interdisciplinary series of “monographs, collections of essays, and poetry exploring the aesthetics, art, history, and culture of African America and the African diaspora.” 

The Griot Project Book Series has published seven fantastic books, including Testimony: Found Poems from the Special Court for Sierra Leone (2021) by Shanee Stepakoff. The text is a moving collection of poetry drawn from public testimonies at a UN-backed war crimes tribunal in Freetown. The Bucknell Press recently published a Q&A with the author about her process and the art of listening. While the series continues to grow, the Bucknell Press continues to support the events and programs coordinated by the Griot Institute that occur throughout the year. 

Beyond the Griot Book series, the Press recently published two independent titles that align fruitfully with the Griot mission as well as the celebration of Black History Month: Challenging the Black Atlantic: The New World Novels of Zapata Olivella and Gonçalves by John T. Maddox IV and Mayaya Rising: Black Female Icons in Latin American and Caribbean Literature and Culture by Dawn Duke.

In Challenging the Black Atlantic, John T. Maddox IV, an assistant professor of Spanish and African American studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, analyzes how the historical novels of Manuel Zapata Olivella and Ana Maria Gonçalves map black journeys from Africa to the Americas in a way that challenges the Black Atlantic paradigm that has become synonymous with cosmopolitan African diaspora studies. Unlike Paul Gilroy, who coined the term and based it on W.E.B. DuBois’s double consciousness, Zapata, in Changó el gran putas (1983), creates an empowering mythology that reframes black resistance in Colombia, Haiti, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States. In Um defeito de cor (2006), Gonçalves imagines the survival strategies of a legendary woman said to be the mother of black abolitionist poet Luís Gama and a conspirator in an African Muslim–⁠led revolt in Brazil’s “Black Rome.” These novels show differing visions of revolution, black community, femininity, sexuality, and captivity. They skillfully reveal how events preceding the UNESCO Decade of Afro-Descent (2015–2024) alter our understanding of Afro-⁠Latin America as it gains increased visibility. 

“Maddox offers us a refreshingly provocative revision of Black Atlantic theory and African diasporic authorship across Luso-Hispanic communities. His insightful readings will further enrich our understanding of the complex and nonlinear facets of African diasporic Blackness, Black Atlantic religious traditions, and Black women in impactful, new ways.”

—Nick Jones, author of Staging Habla de Negros

“John Maddox’s Challenging the Black Atlantic is as monumental as the historical sagas the book studies. . . . Originally conceived, meticulously researched, and well written and argued, the book is an intellectually sophisticated interdisciplinary study that will certainly leave its vital mark in the field of Afro-diaspora studies for years to come. A must read!”

—Emanuelle Oliveira-Monte, author of Writing Identity: The Politics of Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Literature

Mayaya Rising: Black Female Icons in Latin American and Caribbean Literature and Culture by Dawn Duke, a professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, re-centers previously overlooked black heroines of Latin America and the Caribbean. In answer to the historical dearth of models of African ancestry in the region, Mayaya Rising explores and celebrates the work of writers who intentionally center powerful female cultural archetypes. In this inventive analysis, Duke proposes three case studies and a corresponding womanist methodology through which to study and rediscover these figures. The musical Cuban-Dominican sisters and former slaves Teodora and Micaela Ginés inspired Aida Cartagena Portalatin’s epic poem Yania tierra; the Nicaraguan matriarch of the May Pole, “Miss Lizzie,” figures prominently in four anthologies from the country’s Bluefields region; and the iconic palenqueras of Cartagena, Colombia are magnified in the work of poets María Teresa Ramírez Neiva and Mirian Díaz Pérez. In elevating these figures and foregrounding these works, Duke restores and repairs the scholarly record.

“Dawn Duke’s study of black women writers in the Hispanic Caribbean—its continental components included—breaks important new ground. Its intersectional stress on race and gender illuminates the path of authors who draw strength from feminist and anti-racist legacies owed to iconic ancestresses. The cultural and linguistic diversity of this literary corpus pulverizes homogenizing assumptions about ‘Spanish American’ literature.”
—Silvio Torres-Saillant, coauthor of The Once and Future Muse: The Poetry and Poetics of Rhina P. Espaillat

“[A] carefully detailed and focused discussion of Afro-Latina/Caribbean women writers from Cuba, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Colombia. Duke discusses strategies of resistance, recuperation of memory, and rewritings of history, centering her reading of Afro-diasporic women’s literature transversally within Hispanic Caribbean and Latin American Literature Studies. It is a much-needed repositioning . . . ‘Enhorabuena,’ Dawn Duke. As an Afro-Boricua writer, I celebrate Mayaya Rising. Latin American and Caribbean Literary Studies need more books like this.”
—Mayra Santos-Febres, author of La amante de Gardel

Velocipedomania: A Cultural History of the Velocipede in France is a collection that foregrounds the significance of the nineteenth-century French invention that later developed into the modern bicycle. Edited by Corry Cropper, professor of French at Brigham Young University, and Seth Whidden, professor of French literature, Queen’s College, Oxford, the book includes three original source texts translated from French—available for the first time together in English—that explore the cultural significance of the velocipede. This engaging volume explores how the new machine represented cutting-edge technology and gives readers a glimpse into the material culture of France in the late 1860s, while underscoring the machine’s importance to the study of gender, culture, and the history of sport.

Here we speak to the editors about class mobility, transportation, and translation:

Why were you both drawn to studying the velocipede and its parallels to French culture? 
Both of us enjoy cycling—in fact we have cycled together before—so this was a topic that ticked all the boxes for us in terms of our scholarly focus on nineteenth-century France and our interest in the sport.

Throughout the text, you argue that the velocipede becomes a “symbol for economic mobility” that creates a “sense of middle-class national solidarity” (24-25). Can you explain how the wooden wheeled machine became such a symbol, particularly during late Second Empire in France?

The velocipede amazed people because it was new and different. Seeing people zipping around under their own power on two wheels without touching the ground attracted attention. And since the velocipede was a French invention, it served as a source of pride for the entire country. Its very existence implied progress, energy, freedom, and inventiveness. Initially, riding was primarily an upper class hobby, but the velocipede quickly became ubiquitous in Paris and inspired people of different classes to ride. More physical mobility also held the promise of more social mobility: people who couldn’t afford a horse suddenly saw new opportunities.

Would you call the velocipede a modern form of transportation?
We would call it the modern form of transportation. Besides the railroad, no form of transportation changed life more in France than the velocipede and its descendant the bicycle. In fact, it could be argued that globally the bicycle remains the most important form of transportation ever invented; it provides mobility for people from every socioeconomic level in nearly every region on the planet.

Can you speak to the experience of translating Note on Monsieur Michaux’s Velocipede and the Manual of the Velocipede compared to the operetta Dagobert and His Velocipede?¹ While both texts emphasize the influence of the velocipede in French culture, do the different genres communicate that influence to varying extents? 
The Note is more technical in nature, and the original author was more a bureaucrat than a writer. So we found it challenging to translate. But it remains an important piece because it argues for the utility of the velocipede. The operetta, Dagobert and His Velocipede, appeals to a popular audience and is designed to entertain. Since the action is set in the Middle Ages, the velocipede becomes a source of anachronistic humor: we had great fun working on it. The Manual of the Velocipede straddles the two: it features some practical advice alongside arguments in favor of the velocipede’s usefulness, and it ties the velocipede into French history, French literature, and the tradition of gallic humor.

In the introduction, you note Timothée Trimm’s front-page article in Le Petit Journal (July 5, 1868) and his greatest fear that “the velocipede will damage France’s literary reputation” (7). As French professors (as well as translators of these texts), did Trimm’s fear have any merit?
Not really. But it does highlight the fear people have around any new technology while also implying that one of the most central aspects of French identity and pride in the late 1860s was their literary tradition. It might be comparable to an American journalist being afraid that TikTok would destroy Hollywood and the American cinematic tradition.

While your book addresses this question in detail, why, briefly, was the enthusiasm for the velocipede so short-lived? 
The main company that manufactured and promoted the velocipede suffered from infighting and financial problems. Then in 1870, France was lured into a devastating war against Prussia, and in 1871 there was a bloody civil war known as the Paris Commune. All this taken together spelled the end of the fervor for the velocipede in France². But the cultural forms created around the velocipede would help shape how the bicycle was perceived later in the century.

Velocipedomania features forty black and white and six color images, including a number of illustrations of the velocipede that originally appeared in newspapers, musical scores, manuals, and advertisements from the 1860s. It is available for order in paperback, hardback, and ebook.

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[1] This book provides a translation of an operetta, Dagobert and his Velocipede, along with a recording of music
from the work (found here: velocipede.byu.edu)

[2] Significantly, the velocipede played a role during the Commune. In fact, Corry co-authored an article about it in a volume co-edited by Seth

Bucknell University Press is pleased to announce the rollout of a new colophon, debuting with its fall-winter 2022-23 publications. The fresh design features BUP’s name and an icon depicting the recognizable tower atop Bucknell’s beautiful Ellen Clarke Bertrand Library, with its distinctive finials and bison weathervane.

The new branding signals BUP’s “intention to advance and evolve, its commitment to the fields and the specialists whose work we publish, and its pledge to reflect and carry the university’s commitment to intellectual exploration and scholarly excellence worldwide,” according to director Suzanne E. Guiod. “Now in our sixth decade, BUP’s hope is that this new graphic identity will resonate with new generations of authors and readers, and become instantly identifiable for the quality and value of the work it represents.”

The colophon was designed by Adrienne Beaver, Bucknell University Communications Associate Director of Design, who said she aimed for “a clean form to allow for vibrant reproduction when reduced on a book spine.” Beaver selected fonts from the Freight Sans Pro collection, designed by Joshua Darden in 2005. “I find this font family to be clean, modern, and pleasing to the eye. The logo is clear, bold, and contemporary, neither too traditional nor too edgy, an approach I hope will provide great longevity.”

Ghislaine McDayter, Associate Provost for Research and Creative Activity remarked, “As Bucknell University Press continues to evolve as one of the most exciting of the small academic presses in America, this new logo will make it immediately recognizable as a press that remains dedicated to publishing fresh, important new voices in the humanistic fields.”

Replacing the university’s wordmark, which has long stood in as BUP’s logo on book spines and in other branded materials, the new colophon is unique to the Press, symbolizing its clear purpose in the publication and dissemination of innovative research in the humanities.

Prior to the Bucknell wordmark, Bucknell University Press books were branded with the university seal, approved by the university’s board of trustees in April 1849 and depicting the sun, an open book, and waves, meant to symbolize the light of knowledge and education surmounting the storms and turbulence of life.

Internationally distinguished in Iberian, Latin American, Irish and global eighteenth-century studies, Bucknell University Press has been publishing in the arts, humanities, and social sciences for more than 50 years. We proudly collaborate with institutional partners like the Griot Institute for the Study of Black Lives and Cultures and the Samek Art Museum, and with learned societies such as the Goethe Society of North America and the Eighteenth Century Scottish Studies Society to publish book series. Our newest collaboration is with the Library of Congress Publishing Office.

To learn more about Bucknell University Press and the books we publish, visit www.bucknelluniversitypress.org.

#ReadUP on these 10 noteworthy Bucknell UP titles published in the last 10 years

Bucknell UP’s partnership with Rutgers UP a way for small presses to #KeepUP with the times

Like many citizens of the UP community, Bucknell University Press proudly participates in several collaborative relationships on and off our beautiful Lewisburg, Pennsylvania campus. Locally, we copublish a book series with Bucknell’s Griot Institute for the Study of Black Lives and Cultures, celebrating the art, culture, and history of African America and the African diaspora through textbooks, poetry, fiction in translation, and groundbreaking scholarship. Further afield we partner with the Goethe Society of North America on the New Studies in the Age of Goethe book series, and with the Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society on their book series, Studies in Eighteenth Century Scotland. We also team with Bucknell’s Bertrand Library to make our new books fully and freely available to the Bucknell campus community through our institutional repository.

But perhaps our most significant collaboration is with a fellow AUPresses member.

In 2017, Bucknell University Press’s then-director Greg Clingham made the vital decision to dissolve BUP’s relationship with commercial academic publisher Rowman & Littlefield in favor of a new partnership with Rutgers University Press for the production, promotion, sale, and distribution of our books and journals. At a time when economies of scale are so critical, particularly to smaller, underresourced publishers trying to do business in the age of powerful conglomerates, partnering with a like-minded, mission-driven university press has brought measurable advantages.

Beginning in the fall of 2018, new Bucknell University Press book projects became fully integrated with the Rutgers University Press workflow from manuscript transmittal to bound book and beyond. Bucknell University Press authors and editors now benefit from the experience of Rutgers UP’s project editors, publicists, designers, and marketing staff, as well as its business relationships with printers, foreign sales agents, and the Chicago Distribution Center. Through Rutgers, Bucknell University Press, which publishes about 20 new books annually, has been able to professionalize its own in-house systems through access to Firebrand’s Title Management bibliographic database, and can retrieve and track granular sales data 24/7 at the touch of a button through the CDC.

Most meaningfully—particularly to our authors!—this partnership allows Bucknell University Press to bring out its books simultaneously in affordably-priced paperback, cloth, and multiple eBook editions for a range of readers. This materially supports our mission to disseminate new scholarship as broadly and accessibly as possible.

Notably, this innovative partnership frees Bucknell University—a small, liberal arts college for which a fifty-year-old university press might seem a luxury—from many of the typical overhead costs (think printing, binding, warehousing, shipping); instead, we can focus efforts and resources on signing and developing exceptional books in the humanities and expanding our editorial list thoughtfully over time.

This collegial relationship has also been a synergistic one. Rutgers University Press director Micah Kleit offers, “We are proud to be Bucknell’s publishing partner. BUP’s books are of the highest scholarly quality, and have added luster to our own list, allowing us to keep company with each other in significant ways, through conferences, domestic and international sales, and through heightened awareness of our programs. Our books speak to each other, and in so doing have made both presses stronger.”

Rutgers UP editorial director Kim Guinta suggests that for the larger press, such a partnership “extends what we can offer our authors—Rutgers’ Latin American studies list tends toward the social sciences, for example, but I can suggest that people with Latin American projects in the humanities talk to Bucknell, thus increasing your pipeline but also highlighting our usefulness to authors.”

She remarks further about the collaboration that, “It’s fun. I’ve enjoyed getting to know the BUP staff, and our willingness to work together and figure out solutions to problems makes us all more connected to the UP world. I really enjoy the camaraderie and the feeling of team-building involved.

“The partnership has also given me a better appreciation for the hurdles small presses face. I think that the way we’re working can relieve some of that pressure of having to go it alone or be taken advantage of. We hope the partnership makes BUP feel instead part of a supportive web of university press publishing.”

It does indeed. Ours is not the only big press/little press collaboration in the UP universe, certainly. That such partnerships among AUPresses members are becoming more common may speak in part to the need for mission-driven university presses to distinguish themselves from commercial academic publishers by—among other things—strategically aligning with their peers. Three years into the Bucknell-Rutgers partnership seems a fitting time to take stock of this successful and mutually beneficial initiative, and to highlight it as a financial and organizational model—at once practical and congenial—that could help to ensure the sustainability of very small presses into the future.

Bucknell UP welcomed these 10 developments over the past 10 years, making it a force to #KeepUP with.

Since 2012, Bucknell University Press…

1. Celebrated its 50^th anniversary in 2018.

2. Became a full member of the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) in 2020.

3. Saw the retirement of its longtime director, Greg Clingham, at the end of 2018 after 22 years of service to the Press.

4. Welcomed, in 2019, Suzanne Guiod as its first fulltime, non-faculty director.

5. In 2018, entered into a new distribution partnership with Rutgers University Press.

6. Began to release all new books simultaneously in paperback, cloth, and ebook formats as a result of its new arrangement with RUP.

7. Made all new publications since 2018 available free of charge to Bucknell students, faculty, and staff via Bucknell’s Digital Commons.

8. Saw the creation of two new book series, Scènes francophones: Studies in French and Francophone Theater (edited by Logan Connors) and Campos Ibéricos: Bucknell Studies in Iberian Literatures and Cultures (edited by Jason McCloskey and Isabel Cuñado).

9. Took over the publication of two long-running annuals, 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiry in the Early Modern Era (edited by Kevin L. Cope) and The Age of Johnson (edited by Jack Lynch & J. T. Scanlan), both in their 24^th year.

10. Upgraded its office space in 2018 when it moved from the basement of Taylor Hall, the oldest building on campus, to the top floor of the newly-renovated and named Hildreth-Mirza Humanities Center.