The University of Kentucky Press has a dual mission - to publish scholarly books of high scholarly merit in a variety of fields and to publish important books on the history and culture of Kentucky, the Ohio Valley region, the Upper Southern United States, and the Appalachian Mountains.
The nonprofit Kentucky Statewide Academic Publishing House serves all Kentucky-sponsored institutions of higher learning as well as nine private colleges and two major historical societies in Kentucky.The University of Kentucky Publishing House is the academic publishing house of the State of Kentucky, founded in 1969 as a successor to the University of Kentucky Publishing House. The university has been sponsoring academic publishing since 1943. In 1949, the publishing house was established as an independent academic body under the supervision of the rector, and the following year, Bruce F.Denbo, then at Louisiana State University Press, was appointed as the first full-time professional director. Denbo served as the director of the publishing house until his retirement in 1978, where he founded a small but distinguished list of academic books focused on American history and literary criticism.Since the 1969 reorganization, the publishing house has represented a federation that now includes all of Kentucky's universities, nine of its own colleges, and two historical societies. Each of the member institutions is represented on a statewide editorial board, which oversees the publications of the University of Kentucky Press.
