About Us
Community through Books
The Press has a 4-part mission under our umbrella: Community through Books.
New Ground Books: This imprint of the Pacific University Press publishes books of poetry, short stories, essays, and hybrid forms written by authors of cultures and groups underrepresented in mainstream publishing. New Ground invests in writers who use language to explore their own experience and cultural traditions in order to strengthen identity and expand understanding. All books in the series are edited and designed by student interns and editors in our Editing and Publishing Laboratory on our Forest Grove campus.
Collaborate Books: We support faculty-student co-written books that build community and produce necessary and innovative knowledge. In collaboration with mentoring professors, students write, edit, design and promote monographs and collections. In the process, they gain practical experience that prepares them for futures in the crafting, shaping, curating, and dissemination of knowledge through books and other media in their professional fields.
Promotion of Books Written by Pacific University Faculty: These creative and scholarly contributions are published by commercial and university presses as well as community and self-publishing platforms. Because our professors are committed to the accessibility of their work, many of these books are on open access or other free or affordable platforms. We create online promotion, including interviews and reviews, to promote the Pacific community's research, textbooks, and literary art.
Hands-on Experience - As part of our "create local, connect global" mission, we offer handmade book and zine workshops at the press office in Duniway House in Forest Grove. We also offer printing options with our on-site small press book binder equipment. The press does not need to go through a third party printer to produce small artisan runs of a book.
Pacific University Press Staff
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Editor-in-Chief
Kathlene Postma
Dr. Kathlene Postma is professor of writing and literature at Pacific University. She works on all aspects of book creation and design, from initial hand-dashed notes to manuscript completion to online promotion. She mentors student writers, scholars, and interns in the creation of books and pursuit of professions in which they can joyfully apply their informed perspectives and problem-solving skills. Professor Postma has a passion for the fairy tale, folklore, and mythology of world cultures. Her own writing and publications engage this inexhaustible realm of storytelling.
Assistant Editor & Promotions Intern
Isabella Makino
Isabella Makino, a writer from Hawai'i, is fascinated with literary art and film. She is in particular interested in the way Japan and the Japanese diaspora are interpreted and understood through these media. She has studied at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan on a Pacific University-Kansai Gaidai University exchange. Currently, Isabella is pursuing a degree in English Literature with a minor in Japanese at Pacific. She is considering a career in library science. In her precious free time, she draws and creates scrapbooks.
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Social Media and Events Intern
Rylee Larson
Rylee Larson is completing a degree in Creative Writing and Literature at Pacific. Her creative and scholarly work are sapphic, queer, and vociferous. She is an active member of the university's improv community. For her senior capstone projects she wrote a study of cannibalism in contemporary literature and a novella about a female warrior who battles with a goddess. (Guess who wins?) Rylee has edited PLUM, the Pacific Lit by Undergrad Magazine and coordinates events and promotion for the Pacific University Writers Series. She plans a career in book publishing, where she is ready to apply her editing, promotion, and organizational skills. Rylee grew up in a tiny town in Minnesota and now calls Portland, Oregon home.
