Building Bridges: How We Show Up for Readers and Communities
University Press Week 2025 • Theme: #TeamUP
By Kate O'Brien-Nicholson, Associate Director; Marketing & Sales Director
For University Press Week, we are sharing how Fordham University Press brings scholarship into conversation with the city around us, through campus collaborations, bookstore launches, library partnerships, and a full slate of Fall Events.
On Campus: Turning Scholarship Into Shared Spaces
Fordham is our home base, and our campus partners help transform our publishing program into a living part of university life. We collaborate with departments, centers, and student groups to build conversations around books, hosting launches, pairing titles with courses and reading groups, and supporting faculty who shape the intellectual heart of our lists.
These partnerships remind us that scholarship is strongest when it is shared. A conversation around a book on campus can become the spark for broader public engagement.
In Bookstores and Libraries: Strengthening Local Connections
Independent bookstores and libraries remain some of our most important partners. They create the spaces where readers gather, browse, and discover work they did not know they needed.
This year, we have expanded our events with neighborhood bookstores across New York City, strengthened relationships with branch libraries, and continued our commitment to library access models worldwide. Booksellers and librarians are often the first to recognize the right reader for the right book. Our job is to make sure they have the tools, information, and support to champion those titles.
Out in the City: Showing Up Beyond the Page
We know that not every connection happens behind a desk or on a website. Much of our work happens on the ground, at book festivals, readings, panels, and community events.
From Bryant Park to the Brooklyn Book Festival to local cultural organizations, we show up because we want readers to know that university press publishing is active, public-facing, and part of the cultural fabric of the city. These events bring authors into direct conversation with audiences and create moments of exchange that remind us why we publish.
This fall, a few highlights stand out:
- FUP booth signings at the Brooklyn Book Festival in late September, which kicked off our fall events and brought a wide range of authors face-to-face with readers.
- *Fordham Now recently spotlighted the Press in its feature, “Beyond the Page: The Wide-Ranging Impact of Fordham University Press.” Read it HERE!
- Book launch for The Concentration Camp Brothel on October 9, 2025, co-hosted with the Fordham University Center for Jewish Studies at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus in McMahon Hall.
- Book launch for Fabulous Fountains of New York on October 16, 2025, held at Book Culture’s 112th Street store, and bringing together neighborhood readers and city history enthusiasts.
- Book talk and reception for Twice Blessed on November 11, 2025, bringing together readers, adoption advocates, and community partners for a conversation about family, care, and unconditional love.
- An evening with Eve Kahn, author of Queen of Bohemia Predicts Own Death, at the Grolier Club on October 7, 2025, connecting our list with one of New York’s historic homes for book culture and the people who care for it.
- A Westbeth book launch on October 17, 2025, featuring Miriam Chaiken, author of Creative Ozone, to celebrate new work in a space that brings together artists, writers, and neighbors.
Book launch for Entering the Arena on October 30, 2025, held at Bryant Park Grill in New York City, and bringing together educators, readers, and legal communities in a space that links scholarship, practice, and public life.
Across the Digital Commons: Extending Reach and Access
Just as our events and partnerships help us show up in physical spaces, our digital presence lets us carry that same spirit of connection into online spaces.
Our digital presence helps us meet readers where they are. Through online events, social media, partnerships with library platforms, and our evolving website, we work to make our catalog easy to find and use for anyone interested in new ideas.
Digital outreach also helps carry specialized scholarship into broader online conversations, from humanities research to discussions of culture, politics, and the arts. When readers can encounter our authors digitally, the bridge between campus scholarship and public discourse becomes that much stronger.
Why #TeamUP Matters
University Press Week is a chance to reflect on the work we do together. Publishing is collaborative by nature. Authors, editors, designers, librarians, booksellers, reviewers, faculty, students, and readers all play a part.
#TeamUP captures that spirit. It describes what happens when scholarship extends beyond the university walls and becomes part of community life, whether that is through a classroom discussion, a bookstore window display, a library recommendation, an Instagram post, or the quiet moment when a reader connects with a book on their own.
At FUP, we are committed to building these bridges. They help our books travel. They help ideas grow. And they help us stay connected to the people and places that make our work possible.
