SIU Day Of Giving

Southern Illinois University Press is the nonprofit book-publishing arm of Southern Illinois University. Unlike a commercial publisher, which focuses on publishing for popular audiences, we have a mission to publish works of scholarly, intellectual or creative merit, often for a small audience of specialists or for our regional community.

SIU Press has published more than 2,500 books since its inception. Publishing primarily in the humanities and the social sciences, the press has made substantial contributions in a wide range of subject areas.

The evolving needs of the publishing and academic communities require continual investment in new technologies and new methodologies of delivery. Your support helps us continue our mission — publishing important works at prices affordable to scholars, students and the general public — while building toward the future of digital content development and delivery.

For 60 years, SIU Press has supported SIU’s research mission by making a strong contribution to academic scholarship, providing educational opportunities and disseminating information about our region. Your support will help us continue that tradition.  Please see our funding priorities below and click Give Now at the top of the page to make your gift. 

First Book Fund - The establishment of an endowed scholarship that will be used to cover all or a portion (depending on availability of funds) of the publication costs for first-time authors publishing through the SIU Press.   

Blanket Fort Radio Theater Fund - Blanket Fort Radio Theater (BFRT) is a collection of student-produced podcasts in the form of serialized audiobooks. The books chosen for BFRT are previously published titles from Southern Illinois University Press. 

SIU Press General Fund:  Funds are used where they are most needed.

45 Reasons to Support SIU Press

1. We have published approximately 2,500 titles
2. We have been publishing for 66 years
3. We have approximately 2,000 titles currently in print, so you’re sure to find several that interest you!
4. We are bringing history to life and providing free entertainment via Blanket Fort Radio Theater, a student-produced audiobook podcast available on WSIU, NPR One, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
5. We publish works that recover lost histories and challenge the dominant historical narrative.
6. Half of our Press staff hold degrees from SIUC!
7. Our Concise Lincoln Library series makes Lincoln scholarship accessible to both scholars and a general audience.
8. Our full-color, heavily illustrated “Looking for Lincoln” guidebooks are a fundamental part of the work of the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area in Springfield.
9. We have been publishing books in our Crab Orchard Series in Poetry for 23 years.
10. Our inclusive Theater in the Americas series publishes ground-breaking titles on performance, production, and artistry in both traditional and experimental theater.
11. Our backlist is loaded with landmark texts regularly used in both undergraduate and graduate classrooms.
12. As the only university press in the Southern Illinois region, we have a vested interest in preserving the history and beauty of the area.
13. We publish titles that center a variety of social justice issues, in subject areas such as African American studies, Native American history, criminal justice, and more.
14. We offer hands-on internships to provide SIUC students with publishing and marketing skills.
15. We regularly publish books by our very own SIUC professors, both current and emeritus.
16. Our titles are timely, including the recent Institutional Sexual Abuse in the #MeToo Era and the forthcoming Crime and Justice Innovations, Adaptations, and Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
17. Our books are distributed worldwide!
18. We collaborate with other units such as the SIUC Art department and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville to publish work by students enrolled in both universities.
19. We are a nonprofit dedicated to advancing knowledge, expanding SIUC’s presence in ongoing scholarly dialogue, and promoting understanding of Southern Illinois history and culture.
20. We published the Collected Works of American philosopher John Dewey, a leader of the progressive education movement and one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century!
21. We provide exclusive access to the Ulysses S. Grant Papers in print form: thousands of letters and many documents and photographs that comprise the most comprehensive collection of Grant correspondence available.
22. Our Illustrated Flora of Illinois series, active since 2002, serves as the definitive guide to Illinois plant identification.
23. Our editors are very knowledgeable about their fields and about Southern Illinois history and culture.
24. To ensure that we produce only top-quality books, all of them undergo peer review by scholars established in their fields.
25. Author Cynthia Huntington’s poetry collection, Heavenly Bodies, was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award.
26. Edith: The Rogue Rockefeller McCormick, by author Andrea Friederici Ross, won the 2021 Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year in Traditional Nonfiction.
27. In Their Letters, In Their Words: Illinois Civil War Soldiers Write Home, a collection of Civil War soldiers’ correspondence edited and annotated by author Mark Flotow, won the Illinois State Historical Society’s Russel P. Strange Memorial Book of the Year Award in 2020.
28. As an approachable academic press, we are a good fit for both established and emerging scholars.
29. In addition to peer review, our titles also undergo review by our Editorial Board, a distinguished group of SIUC and SIUE faculty, to ensure that our high standards are met.
30. We have published significant and influential scholarship in feminist rhetoric and historiography.
31. Our books are reasonably priced and easily obtainable.
32. Our press was founded by the innovative scholar and longest-serving SIU President Delyte Morris.
33. We publish in a wide variety of areas, from botany to Civil War history to original poetry, for example!
34. Three titles we have published by author and communication ethicist Ronald C. Arnett have received national book awards.
35. Several of our authors are recipients of the Lincoln Prize and other Lincoln-related awards and honors.
36. We publish innovative and experimental new poetry by diverse writers both emerging and established.
37. Books like The State of Southern Illinois: An Illustrated History, Snake Road, 20 Day Trips in and around the Shawnee National Forest, and others showcase the unique beauty of the region we are proud to call home.
38. Books like Kaskaskia, Southern Illinois at 150 Years, Southern Illinois Coal, Land Between the Rivers, and others explore the complex history of our region.
39. Books like A Brick and a Bible, Corn Kings and One-Horse Thieves, Organizing Freedom, The Bonds of War, and others highlight unique, overlooked, and surprising moments in Midwest history.
40. In the recent A Backyard Prairie: The Hidden Beauty of Tallgrass and Wildflowers, authors Fred Delcomyn and James L. Ellis join the ongoing conversation on natural landscaping, encouraging readers to participate in small prairie restoration in their own backyards.
41.  Cyrus Cassells’s book, The Gospel According to Wild Indigo, was nominated for the 2019 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature in Poetry.
42. Several of our books focus on the history of immigration to Illinois, such as Germans in Illinois, Irish in Illinois, and the forthcoming Puerto Ricans in Illinois.
43. We publish extensively about the city of Chicago: everything from forgotten history to current political issues.
44. One of our authors, Harold Holzer, was a historical consultant for Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster film Lincoln.
45. Together with Morris Library, we are working to develop and open access platform where course materials developed by our faculty and staff are freely available for students.