Spring 2025 New Books
Welcome!
I’m Than Saffel. I’m pleased to introduce our Spring 2025 digital catalog and to introduce myself as the Press’s new full-time director.
Since September 2023, I’ve served as interim director, providing design, editorial, marketing, and strategic oversight. For nearly 20 years prior, I served as art director and production manager for the press’s award-winning books and journals.
As the first West Virginian to lead the press, I’m keenly aware of the responsibility this position brings, at this particular moment. We’ve enjoyed remarkable success over the past few years, and we’ve faced daunting challenges. Today I see only opportunity. We have strong support within the university; a dedicated, talented staff; creative and energetic partners who amplify and build upon our work; and a reputation for publishing titles that push the envelope of what a small university press can do.
This season we offer our usual wide range of impressive and engaging material, from Afro-futurist fiction (Blue Futures, Break Open) to a keywords-style lexicon that offers 101 ways to think about our increasingly complex relationships to energy (Power Shift). We’re doing it in a new way, in this expanded digital form, to offer readers a more involving experience and more direct ways to get to our publications.
We’re turning 25 this year, and throughout 2025 we’ll be looking back at past successes and celebrating the achievements of those who have made our continued success possible. For 25th-anniversary news, events, and reflections from key players in our history, follow us on social media and at Booktimist.com. Fans of our cute trifold mailer, fear not—if you’re on our mailing list, you’ll receive your copy soon.
Spring 2025
wvupress.com/Blue-Futures-Break-Open
Blue Futures, Break Open
A Novel
ZOË GADEGBEKU
“When the souls of enslaved Black people flew away to freedom, where did they go?” This debut novel by a Ghanaian writer answers the question with a queer Black femme take on traditional African religions and Vodou, highlighting the interdependence of magic and freedom.
“Beautifully written . . . Blue Futures, Break Open speaks to the power and possibility of women’s self-determination to shape fate.”
—Kirsten Imani Kasai, author of The House of Erzulie
Zoë Gadegbeku is a Ghanaian writer. She received an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College and was a fellow at the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop. Her writing has appeared in Saraba magazine, AFREADA, Blackbird, The Washington Post, and the anthology Pan African Spaces: Essays on Black Transnationalism. This is her first book.
March 2025 · 378 pp · 5.5 x 8.25in · PB 978-1-959000-39-6 · $19.99 eBook 978-1-959000-40-2 · $19.99
wvupress.com/north-by-north-west
north by north/west (an
attention to frequency)
CHRIS CAMPANIONI
A hybrid work of creative nonfiction assembled as several iterative sequences—a discontinuous itinerary—of exile. A personal, critical, and autoethnographic exploration of diasporic identity formation and creative expression amid the cultural and political impacts of Cold War colonialism and fragmentation.
“This work is a tour-de-force of creative critical praxis, a work that establishes a new genre for exiles and immigrants.” —Christine Hume, author of Everything I Never Wanted to Know
Chris Campanioni was born in Manhattan and grew up in a very nineties New Jersey. The son of exiles from Cuba and Poland, Campanioni is a writer, multimedia artist, and instructor. He is a recipient of the International Latino Book Award for his debut novel, Going Down (Aignos, 2013); the Pushcart Prize for “Soft Opening” from his cross-genre collection Death of Art (C&R Press, 2016); and the 2013 Academy of American Poets College Prize.
May 2025 · 216 pp · 5.5 x 8.25in · PB 978-1-959000-43-3 · $22.99 eBook 978-1-959000-44-0 · $22.99 · 21 color images
wvupress.com/Dispatch-from-the-Mountain-State
Dispatch from the Mountain State Poems
MARC HARSHMAN
A collection from the West Virginia poet laureate, who finds unexpected beauty while grappling with current issues such as addiction, environmental devastation, and illness in Appalachia.
“Marc Harshman’s poetry . . . pays homage to West Virginia and to many aspects of the human psyche and experience.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Marc Harshman is poet laureate of West Virginia. He has published eight collections of poetry, including the award-winning titles Woman in Red Anorak and Believe What You Can. He is also the author/coauthor of fourteen nationally acclaimed children’s books. Harshman was recently named the Appalachian Heritage Writer for 2024 by Shepherd University’s Appalachian Studies program. He holds degrees from Bethany College, Yale Divinity School, and the University of Pittsburgh. He lives in Wheeling.
Power Shift
wvupress.com/Power-Shift
Keywords for a New Politics of Energy
EDITED BY IMRE SZEMAN AND JENNIFER WENZEL
FOREWORD
BY DAVID E. NYE
This keywords-style reference of over 100 contemporary terms on energy and environmental politics connects historical injustices with current environmental crises, offering readers critical insights and hope for a sustainable future.
“We urgently need Power Shift if we are to find our way forward toward a decarbonized future.” —David E. Nye, author of Seven Sublimes and Consuming Power: A Social History of American Energies
Imre Szeman is director of the Institute for Environment, Conservation, and Sustainability and professor of human geography at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He has authored books such as On Petrocultures: Globalization, Culture, and Energy and Futures of the Sun
Jennifer Wenzel is professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature and the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University. Her books include The Disposition of Nature: Environmental Crisis and World Literature and Bulletproof: Afterlives of Anticolonial Prophecy in South Africa and Beyond.
Energy and Society Series April 2025 · 296 pp · 6 x 9in · PB 978-1-959000-49-5 · $26.99sp CL 978-1-959000-51-8 · $55.99sp · eBook 978-1-959000-50-1· $26.99
1 image
Cover design by Daniel Benneworth-Gray
The Doom of the Great City; Being the Narrative of a Survivor, Written A.D. 1942
WILLIAM DELISLE HAY • EDITED BY MICHAEL KRAMP AND SARITA JAYANTY MIZIN
The earliest tale of urban apocalypse and environmental devastation, The Doom of the Great City (1880) is presented in a critical edition with a curated collection of historical excerpts and contemporary discussion of global warming, colonialism, public health, and the Anthropocene.
“An exemplary model of how to introduce a little-known nineteenth-century text.” —Porscha Fermanis, professor, University College Dublin, and author of Romantic Pasts: History, Fiction and Feeling in Britain, 1790-1850
Michael Kramp is a scholar of nineteenth-century British literature, critical theory, and masculinity studies. He is the author of Patriarchy’s Creative Resilience and Disciplining Love: Austen and the Modern Man.
Sarita Jayanty Mizin is assistant professor of English and faculty director of the dies at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.
Salvaging the Anthropocene Series
February 2025 · 216 pp · 5.5 x 8.25in · PB 978-1-959000-37-2 · $24.99sp eBook 978-1-959000-38-9 · $24.99 · 5 images
Enraptured Space
Gender, Class,
wvupress.com/enraptured-space
and Ecology
in the Work of Paula Meehan
KATHRYN J. KIRKPATRICK
The first book-length study of poet Paula Meehan, whose perspectives on gender, class, and ecology are transformative to the Irish literary landscape, in conversation with practicing poet Kathryn J. Kirkpatrick.
“A polished, moving, deeply intelligent study of Paula Meehan’s poetry, which goes beyond a single poet’s life and work to illuminate an entire culture.” —Maureen O’Connor, University College Cork, author of Edna O’Brien and the Art of Fiction
Kathryn Kirkpatrick is professor of English at Appalachian State University. She is the author of seven collections of poetry, most recently The Fisher Queen: New & Selected Poems, as well as the editor of Border Crossings: Irish Women Writers and National Identities and co-editor of Animals in Irish Literature and Culture.
March 2025 · 256 pp · 5 x 8in · PB 978-1-959000-45-7 · $24.99sp eBook 978-1-959000-46-4 $24.99 · 3 images
wvupress.com/New-American-Small-Town
The New American Small Town Lessons for Sustainable Urban Futures
JENNIFER MAPES
A critical examination of American small-town narratives contrasted with lived experiences in these locations, and a consideration of both the myth and reality in the context of current urban challenges and the quest for sustainable urbanism.
“The book offers hope-filled portraits of small towns as livable, sustainable, and diverse places and serves as an important corrective to the media narrative of alienated, left-behind rural voters.” —Mark D. Bjelland, author of Good Places for All
Jennifer Mapes is assistant professor of geography at Kent State University. A community geographer, she researches with local stakeholders to help build more sustainable, just futures. Jen and her family live, work, and play in downtown Kent, Ohio.
June 2025 · 200 pp · 6 x 9in · PB 978-1-959000-47-1 · $26.99sp eBook 978-1-959000-48-8 · $26.99 · 25 images
wvupress.com/Weaving-a-Fabric-of-Unity
Weaving a Fabric of Unity
Conversations on Education and Development
HALEH ARBAB, GUSTAVO CORREA, AND BRADLEY WILSON
The history and lessons from FUNDAEC (Foundation for the Application and Teaching of Science), a Colombia-based NGO that created one of Latin America’s most innovative curricula in rural development.
“The story of FUNDAEC in Colombia is one of the most inspiring educational processes of the 20th century and is vitally important today. Every student of development economics should read this book.” —Nava Ashraf, Professor of Economics, London School of Economics
Haleh Arbab was with FUNDAEC for over twenty years, including ten years as director of its Centro Universitario de Bienstar Rural (The University Center for Rural Wellbeing). She holds an EdD from the Center for International Education at the University of Massachusetts.
Gustavo Correa was one of the founders of FUNDAEC in 1974 and served as its director from 1988 to 2005. He holds a master’s in public administration from the Kennedy School at Harvard University.
Bradley Wilson is associate professor of geography and executive director of the West Virginia University Center for Resilient Communities. He has a PhD in geography from Rutgers University.
Distributed for Center for Research in Education for Development, Inc. (CRED) March 2025 · 160pp · 6x9in · PB 979-8-9907777-0-5 · $22.99sp · 98 images
wvupress.com/series/connective_tissue
New Series Connective Tissue A Health Humanities and
Narrative Medicine Series
EDITED BY RENÉE K. NICHOLSON
Connective Tissue is dedicated to exploring the human condition and its intersection with health, illness, and healing through the lens of the humanities and its methodologies, as well as through expressive creative works that illuminate people’s lived experience with health, illness, and medicine.
SERIES ADVISORS
Christine Bentley, PhD, Professor of Art History, Missouri Southern State University, Visiting Scholar, Visual Arts in Healthcare Program, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Joel T. Katz, MD, MACP, Senior Vice President for Education at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and founding director of the Visual Arts in Healthcare program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Derek McCracken, MS, MA, 2023 Faculty Fellow in the School of Professional Studies and a Lecturer in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University
Kathryn Rhine, PhD, Associate Professor and Director of the Arts & Humanities in Healthcare Program, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Michael P.H. Stanley, MD, Tufts Medical Center, Department of Neurology, Director of the Neurocognitive Division, Assistant Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS
A starred review in December’s Publishers Weekly calls Megan Howell’s Softie: Stories (Fall 2024) “. . . a beautiful and striking collection about friendship, secrets, and unspeakable desires. . . . These vivid and harrowing stories are tough to shake.”
Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy (Spring 2019), edited by Anthony Harkins and Meredith McCarroll, found a new audience with J.D. Vance’s vice-presidential candidacy and election in November.
Another Appalachia’s Neema Avashia took to the airwaves and digital streams, writing in The Guardian and appearing on BBC World Service’s Newsday to discuss Vance’s candidacy.
Matthew Ferrence, professor of creative writing and 2020 PA House candidate, published a Vance-related op-ed in Newsweek and joined numerous podcasts in support of I Hate It Here, Please Vote for Me: Essays on Rural Political Decay (Fall 2024).
Sejal Shah’s debut collection How To Make Your Mother Cry: Fictions (Spring 2024) has received considerable praise, including a starred review in Foreword Reviews. Elaine Chiew calls the book “a groundbreaking literary collection that transcends limits to heighten meaning and emotional power.”
Improving Learning and Mental Health in the College Classroom (Spring 2023) authors Robert Eaton, Steven V. Hunsaker, and Bonnie Moon appeared on notable pedagogy podcasts Social Learning Amplified, Intentional Teaching, and Teaching in Higher Ed (twice!) to discuss their scholarship.
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