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| Parneshia Jones | |
Parneshia Jones has been named director of Northwestern University Press, effective September 21. She is currently editorial director for trade and engagement, and earlier served as an acquisitions editor and sales manager. She joined the press in 2003 after an internship at Third World Press.
She has revitalized the press's TriQuarterly imprint, developing its award-winning poetry list with a range of acquisitions, including Head Off & Split by Nikky Finney, winner of the 2011 National Book Award. Jones is also a visiting writer at the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing Program. She is a past president and board member of the Cave Canem Foundation, and serves on the advisory board of ShoreFront Legacy Center, a nonprofit organization that documents African American history on the North Shore of Chicago. She is a published poet: Vessel was published by Milkweed Editions in 2015 and won the Midwest Book Award, and her work has been published in several anthologies. With this promotion, she will be one of only two Black women currently leading a university press.
Sarah M. Pritchard, the Northwestern University Dean of Libraries and the Charles Deering McCormick University Librarian, said that in her time at the press, "Jones has developed a unique record as a leader on campus, in the Chicago area, and in the broader world of books and letters. She is the ideal leader both to build on NUP's traditional strengths and to continue the advances that the Press has made in Black studies, critical ethnic studies, performance studies, and other subjects that enhance the university’s academic mission and commitment to social justice and inclusion."
Jones commented: "I am so grateful to come full circle at Northwestern University Press. My love for the literary world started within the mahogany walls of Third World Press, and my continued apprenticeship in publishing has been guided and supported by Northwestern, my brilliant NUP colleagues, and the unwavering publishing community. In the words of the great poet, Gwendolyn Brooks, 'We are each other's magnitude and bond.' I step into this role deeply humbled by the magnitude of these special bonds."