U of A Press Acquires Butler Center Books

The U of A Press and the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) are pleased to announce the acquisition of Butler Center Books by the U of A Press, bringing together two longstanding Arkansas institutions in a shared commitment to publishing and promoting the history, culture and voices of the Natural State.

The acquisition builds on a partnership that has spanned nearly 25 years. From the publication of Things Grew Beautifully Worse in 2001, to the release of The Thane of Cawdor Comes to Bauxite in 2023, Butler Center Books brought more than 80 titles to readers, documenting Arkansas' past and present through the work of Arkansans including David Pryor, Terrence Roberts, Ann Miles and Charles Portis.

The U of A Press has shared that mission since its founding in 1980 by poet Miller Williams and historian Willard Gatewood. Arkansas history has been a cornerstone of the press' publishing program for more than 40 years, and the press has served as the distributor for Butler Center Books since the program's inception. Through that partnership, the press has helped make Butler Center titles available in multiple editions and formats, across a range of platforms, and to readers well beyond the state.

"With this acquisition, we are building on a partnership that has served Arkansas for nearly 25 years," said Mike Bieker, director of the U of A Press. "The Butler Center has created an extraordinary body of work, and we are proud of the role we have played in bringing those books to readers everywhere. This new agreement allows us to build on that legacy."

The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies will continue its role as a center for research, scholarship and the preservation of Arkansas history, while developing a future capacity to identify and acquire new manuscripts and projects focused on Arkansas history and culture. The U of A Press will bring its editorial, production, marketing and distribution expertise to those works, creating a closer connection between the Butler Center's role in discovering and documenting Arkansas stories and the press' role in developing those projects into books and bringing them to a global audience.

Drawing on their deep and longstanding connections to the state, CALS and the U of A Press will work together to identify and develop new projects and broaden the range of Arkansas stories.

Together, CALS and the U of A Press will strengthen an important statewide publishing mission: to ensure that the people, places, events, ideas and traditions that have shaped Arkansas are documented, preserved and made accessible through books.