Founded in 1935, LSU Press quickly established itself as one of the nation’s outstanding scholarly publishers. Over its lengthy history, it has published exceptional works of scholarship as well as books of wide interest to general readers. The Press has garnered national and international accolades for its work, including four Pulitzer Prizes, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Bancroft Prize, the Tom Watson Brown Award in Civil War History, the Frederick Douglass Award in Slavery Studies, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

One of the oldest university presses in the South, LSU Press publishes approximately seventy new books each year, primarily in the fields of southern history, southern literary studies, Louisiana history and culture, environmental studies, southern foodways, media studies, landscape architecture, fan studies, poetry, and fiction. Since 1935, the Press has published close to 3,500 books, nearly 2,000 of which are still in print, and has distributed over 7 million books—all bearing the LSU imprint—worldwide.

LSU Press is an integral part of Louisiana State University and shares its goal of disseminating knowledge and culture. The Press attracts noteworthy authors from Louisiana, the South, the nation, and the world, contributing to LSU’s academic prominence through a broad array of scholarly inquiry. Additionally, as the largest nonprofit publisher in Louisiana, the Press takes seriously its mission to promote the abundant cultural assets of the state and region to readers around the globe. All LSU Press books undergo a rigorous peer-review process and must be approved by a faculty committee before publication, ensuring their content meets the highest criteria for excellence.