Wilfrid Laurier University Press


Wilfrid Laurier University Press, based in Waterloo, Ontario, is a publisher of scholarly writing and is part of Wilfrid Laurier University. The fourth-largest university press in Canada, WLUP publishes work in a variety of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences—literary criticism, aboriginal studies, sociology, environmental studies, and history among them—as well as culturally significant books of regional interest. Laurier Press also provides publishing services to scholarly associations and journals.
The mandate of Laurier Press is to introduce new and original voices into the written discourses of culture and policy in Canada and to broaden the awareness of, and interest in, Canadian writing—especially Canadian scholarly writing—with readers everywhere.

History

The Press was founded in 1974 as a non-profit enterprise. They now publish 30 titles a year, have a turnover of $1.5 million and have 260 physical titles in print. Having digitized their backlist, they have made over 400 titles available electronically. WLUP has been typesetting books from electronic files since 1984, and was one of the very first publishers to have a web presence in 1994. Their e-ventures appear through netLibrary, Questia, Ebrary, Ingram Digital and the Canadian Electronic Library. They are also participants in Google Print.
Wilfrid Laurier University Press have co-publishing arrangements with: the Canadian Corporation for the Study of Religion, the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies, the Centre of International Governance Innovation, the TransCanada Institute; they distribute Cinematheque and Toronto International Film Festival titles in Canada. WLUP is represented in the trade market by Hargreaves, Fuller and Company, and around the world by Gazelle Books. They are also represented in the United States by a variety of regional sales reps. Wilfrid Laurier University Press is a member of the Association of American University Presses, the Association of Canadian University Presses, the Association of Canadian Publishers, and the Organization of Book Publishers of Ontario. They attend the Frankfurt and London book fairs and have sold international rights to a number of their titles. WLUP books have won many awards and garnered excellent reviews. Their most significant recent accomplishment is the sale of their electronic backlist to the Canadian Research Knowledge Network. From early on they have also provided pre-press, typographic, subscription and fulfillment services to a number of scholarly journals.
In October 2011, WLU Press, in conjunction with Laurier Library, launched , an institutional repository that aims to support open scholarly communication, collaboration, and lasting visibility and recognition for Laurier scholarship. It will house online journals, faculty scholarship, theses, dissertations, and an archival collection of The Cord Weekly dating back to 1926.

Role in Canadian scholarly and literary publishing

The Press aims to help channel culturally significant research into reader-friendly culturally significant books. Their list is unique in its focus on Canadian literature, life writing/memoir, aboriginal voices in the First Nations series, and cultural studies, as well its range of new and continuing co-publishing arrangements with CIGI, the TransCanada Institute and the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic Disarmament Studies. WLUP has a number of series that serve to organize the list of its 30 titles published each year: