Detroit Proper: How WSU Press Preserves Detroit Culture

here’s an institution that has been serving Detroit – and Michigan – nearly as long as some of the city’s most iconic businesses, including Better Made, Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, Mario’s and Sindbads. You may not have heard of it, but it has played a major role in preserving the legacy and culture of Detroit: Wayne State University Press, founded in 1941. Through decades of thunderous change, WSU Press has been a mainstay in the Detroit community, quietly issuing books of regional and national importance that may not otherwise have been published. Today its catalog numbers nearly 1,000 volumes in print.

And on Sept. 30, it will celebrate its 75th anniversary.

Wayne State University established the press to be “a distinctive urban publisher” committed to “generating high-quality scholarly and general-interest works of global importance.” Through decades of social, economic and political revolution, the press has been a local voice uniquely qualified to tell Detroit’s story.

According to the press’s board of visitors member Laura Rodwan, books about African-American studies and Judiaca are particularly loved by readers. its jewels are too many to count, including books about the city’s architecture, breweries, legacy of music (classical, Motown and jazz), turbulent race relations and art. Most recently, 2013’s Crusader for Justice: Federal Judge Damon J. Keith, by Peter J. Hammer and Trevor Coleman, sold more than 10,000 units in the first year of publication.

“While the press has garnered national, and even international, acclaim,” says Rodwan, a co-chair of the anniversary event, “its signature general-interest publications are known for the spot-on way they capture life in the Midwest and, more specifically, in Detroit and Michigan.”

Over the years, the press has partnered with community organizations to offer programming. One of my favorites is “An Author at Your Table,” held a few times a year at a local restaurant. Area writers, even those not published by the press, are invited to read, bringing new patrons to the businesses and new audiences to the literature. “I feel a great responsibility to Detroit and a commitment to involve and serve the community,” says WSU Press director Jane Ferreyra. “We do that in the books we publish, in the programming we create and in the events we hold. I am proud of the investments we have made in the community.”

Ten years ago, the press launched its Made in Michigan Writers Series, a vehicle for fiction writers and poets who live in Michigan or who write about life here. The series has published an amazing diversity of Detroit writers including: 2012 Kresge Literary Arts fellow Lolita Hernandez; 2011 Kresge eminent artist, poet and playwright Bill Harris; and 2015 National Endowment of the Arts fellow poet francine j. harris. In 2009, Kalamazoo’s Bonnie Jo Campbell was a National Book Award finalist for her book American Salvage published by WSU Press.

The press is not only local; it’s excellent. It wins about 25 awards every year, and in 2011 it was named one of the 17 most innovative university presses by The Huffington Post. This year, one quarter of the books for the Michigan Notable Books awards were published by WSU Press.

Board of visitors member Carmen N’Namdi is co-chairing the anniversary event. A longtime supporter of the city, her family moved to Detroit in 1976 because “we recognized Detroit as a place where you could reap the benefits of what had already been sown, and you could also plant new ideas of your own for the city’s future. Now here I am, 40 years later, in a new century, co-hosting a celebration for an institution that blossomed from an idea that was planted 75 years ago.”

And what an idea it was: To promote the academics, arts and literature emanating from a remarkable city in the Midwest. Thank goodness the idea took root, and today the press remains a unique voice for Detroit.

The 75th anniversary celebration for Wayne State University Press is 5-8 p.m. Friday Sept. 30 at The N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art at 52 E. Forest Ave., Detroit. It’s free and open to the public, but RSVPs are requested at wsup75.eventbrite.com. Make a tax-deductible donation and learn more at wsupress.wayne.edu.