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Miller Williams and Willard Gatewood devised a plan back in 1980. They believed that the University of Arkansas required an additional outlet for scholars who wanted to publish their work. They felt there were not enough opportunities for Arkansas writers to be published.

The University of Arkansas Press officially opened in December 1980 at the McIlroy house, just outside Fayetteville.

Brent Riffel wrote the following for the Central Arkansas Library System’s Encyclopedia of Arkansas: “A stylized depiction of the house became the UA Press Logo.” “Initially, the press lacked both staff and funds to produce its own works. Williams made an arrangement with William King (head of the University of Missouri Press), by which Missouri would become the editing/production house.

The UA Press was not independent until 1983 when it began to function. The first title was “The Governors of Arkansas: Essays in Political Biography”, published by Timothy Donovan, a UA historian.

I am looking through the 40-page 2022 book catalog today and I see many books I want for myself as well as other titles that I want to order as Christmas gifts. The quality and variety of the books are amazing. It’s hard to believe that this press has had such a turbulent history. It was the “little university presses that could.”

McIlroy House was set on fire in November 1983. The staff had to leave for nearly a year. The September 1987 fire in McIlroy House that destroyed many books and damaged a warehouse was also a factor. John White, the UA Chancellor, attempted to close down the publishing house in the late 1990s.

It’s also the story about some of the most gifted people to ever live in this area.

Arkansas and their determination to see UA Press succeed. Williams and Gatewood are at the top of this list.

Williams was one of America’s most prominent poets of the 20th century. He served 33 years as a UA Professor of English, foreign language and comparative literature for the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville was home to a number of talented writers, many from all over the country. Williams was an author, editor and translator of over 30 volumes of poetry, fiction, literary criticism, and literary criticism.

Williams was born at Hoxie in April 1930. He was the son of a Methodist minister and moved around a lot as a boy. He graduated high school from Fort Smith in 1947. He then entered Hendrix College in Conway as a freshman. He later transferred to the University of Central Arkansas and was again transferred to Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. His first collection of poetry, “Et Cetera,” was published in 1952.

In 1951, he received a bachelor’s degree from Jonesboro in biology. Two years later, he earned a masters degree at UA in zoology. For the next ten years, he taught biology. Williams was a teacher at Millsaps College Jackson, Miss. He also briefly attended the University of Mississippi’s medical school.

Gatewood wrote that he obtained a job at Louisiana State University’s English Department in 1962 with Flannery O’Connor’s assistance. “Four years later, Williams was appointed to the Loyola University faculty in New Orleans. He founded and edited The New Orleans Review’. He returned to UA in 1970 to be a member of the English department as well as the graduate program on creative writing.

His growing status in literature was evident in the honors he received starting in the 1950s. These included the Henry Bellman Award, Breadloaf Writers Conference Fellowship for Poetry in 1961, Harvard University’s Amy Lowell Traveling Fellowship for Poetry in 1963-64 and New York Arts Fund Award for 1970. Also, Fulbright Professorship at National University of Mexico, Prix de Rome for Literature 1976, and Charity Randall Citation for Contribution To Poetry as a Spoken Arts in 1993.

Williams also received the John William Corrington Award of Literary Excellence in 1994, and the National Arts Award 1997.

Gatewood wrote that Williams gave lectures and readings about tours to several continents, while mentoring UA students at the State Department’s request. “President Bill Clinton chose him to read his poem “Of History and Hope” at the 1997 presidential induction. Williams described himself to be a product of the small-town rural South. His long involvement in science was also important in shaping his poetry.

Williams is remembered for his broad imagination and his use irony, subtlety, and ambiguity. He was referred to by a journalist as “the Hank Williams” of American poetry. Miller Williams was presented with the Porter Prize’s Lifetime Achievement Award for 2009. Every year, the UA Press presents the Miller Williams Poetry Prize.

Williams died Jan. 1, 2015, at Fayetteville. Lucinda Williams, his daughter, was a well-known poet and songwriter. Multiple Grammy Awards have been won by her. Time magazine dubbed her America’s greatest songwriter in 2002.

“As a kid, she met many her father’s writing friends, including Eudora Mundy and Flannery Connor, who famously let Lucinda chase her peacocks,” Philip Martin of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette wrote. She was 12 years old when she began writing her own songs and performing for her parents. After a short stint at the UA she started her career as an itinerant musician. She played in coffee shops and bars in Austin, Nashville and Houston.

Lucinda Williams performed at a benefit concert held in September 2007 to raise funds and awareness for the Miller Williams Poetry Prize.

Miller Williams grew up in Arkansas in small towns. Gatewood was born in North Carolina, on a tobacco plant. Gatewood was born February 1931. He received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees from Duke University. In 1957, Gatewood began his college teaching career at East Tennesssee State University. Gatewood was also a teacher at East Carolina University, North Carolina Wesleyan College, and the University of Georgia.

Gatewood was the first Alumni Distinguished professor of History to arrive in Arkansas in 1970. The chair was established by the university’s alumni association. He held the chair until his retirement, 1998. He was UA chancellor between 1984 and 1985, taught hundreds of undergraduates, and directed 25 doctoral theses. Some of these students went on to become college historians.

Tom DeBlack, a Arkansas historian, said that Gatewood was the recipient of most major awards at UA during his tenure, including the University Distinguished Research Award (1980) and the Chancellor’s Medal for Distinguished Service (1994). He was the author, coauthor, or editor of 14 books as well as more than 75 articles in scholarly journals. His books included many pioneering works in African American history.

Gatewood’s “Aristocrats of Color”: The Black Elite, 1880-1920 was published by UA Press in 1990. It was nominated for a National Book Award. Gatewood was the president of Southern Historical Association between 1986 and 1987.

In 2002, UA Press published The Southern Elite and Social Change Essays in Honour of Willard B. Gatewood Jr. These essays were written and edited by former students and coworkers.

The book’s introduction stated: “There will, no doubt,” other great scholars and teachers. All who contributed to this book agree that Dr. Willard B. Gatewood Jr. was a great teacher and scholar. He is the reason we have an abiding passion and respect for history.

Gatewood passed away in October 2011. Gatewood died in October 2011. It was a bestseller that sold more than 10,000 copies in its first 10 months. It also received wide critical acclaim.

Gilchrist is a Vicksburg, Miss. native. She graduated from Vanderbilt University, and then received a second degree from Millsaps. There she studied under Welty. Gilchrist, who did postgraduate work at UA in creative writing, was a contributing editor to the Vieux Carre Courier in New Orleans between 1976 and 1979. She also published her first poetry book.

Gilchrist preferred to have “The Land of Dreamy Dreams”, published by UA Press over a commercial publisher. Its success led to a contract with Little, Brown & Co. Her short story collection, “Victory Over Japan”, won the 1984 National Book Award in Fiction.

UA Press was able in July 1982 to hire Stephanie Brown as its first editor due to the success of Gilchrist’s 1981 collection. Williams handled most manuscript acquisitions. In February 1984, UA Press created a student writing award. It opened its London office two more years later. It established a journal department in 1988 that produced scholary publications.

Riffel wrote that UA Press had become a major publishing house for American poets “by the 1990s.” The press also published other award-winning poetry books, including Frank Stanford’s posthumous work. … A result of Williams’ friendship, Jimmy Carter, former President, became a key figure in the author roster. Carter was able to write on many topics through the press.

Carter’s books included “An Outdoor Journal, Adventures and Reflections”, 1988 and “The Blood of Abraham: An Insight into the Middle East” (2008).

White was elected chancellor in 1997. He decided to shut down the press after it lost so much money. His decision sparked controversy statewide.

Riffel wrote, “In response to Gatewood and others prominent Arkansans launched an public campaign for keeping its doors open.” White resigned in 1998 after admitting that the plan for shuttering the press was misguided. The funding provided by Tyson Foods, Springdale allowed the press to reorganize itself as a non-profit organization and continue publishing new titles.

“In 1998, Lawrence Malley was appointed director by the press. This led to the expansion of its efforts into Middle East-themed books. This was partly due to the establishment of the King Fahd Center of Middle East and Islamic Studies at the UA. Recent years have seen Arkansas history made a significant contribution by the press, with the release of the Histories of Arkansas series. It traces Arkansas’s past from its territorial period to the modern era. Malley, who was the assistant director, retired at end 2013. Mike Bieker, former director of the Arkansas Historical Society, became director.

The publishing house continues to be a strong focus on poetry, fiction, and books about the Middle East.

They continue to receive awards. Kathleen Condray was awarded the 2021 Booker Worthen Literary Prize for “Das Arkansas Echo: A Year In the Life of Germans, Nineteenth-Century South”. Kenneth Barnes was awarded the 2022 J.G. for his book “The Ku Klux Klan: How Protestant White Nationalism Came into Rule a Country” Arkansas Historical Association’s Ragsdale Book Award.

“Winthrop Rockefeller, From New Yorker To Arkansawyer 1912-1956” was published earlier this year by John Kirk, University of Arkansas at Little Rock. It is already getting acclaim.

Cherisse Jones Branch, ASU history professor, has received positive reviews for her book “Better Living With Their Own Bootstraps: Black Women’s Activism in Rural Arkansas (1914-1965).”

Current releases “Country Boy” by Colin Edward Woodward is still on my winter reading list, as well as “Country Boy” by Brooks Blevins of Izard Country’s “The Roots of Johnny Cash”, which I am currently reading.