A Year in Review
Author Testimonials
“AU Press handled our manuscript with exceptional care, providing insightful editorial guidance and consistent support throughout the entire publishing process. Their dedication to high academic standards, beautifully designed books, and author success made this an outstanding publishing experience — from start to finish.”
—Lachlan MacKinnon and Andrew Parnaby, editors of Cape Breton in the Long Twentieth Century
“I have been lucky enough to do three projects with AU Press, most recently a critical monograph called Hockey on the Moon: Imagination and Canada’s Game in 2024. With each project I have been amazed at the talent and dedication of the people who work there. The sharp-eyed and professional editors, and the gifted book designers, have combined to help make books that I am proud of—and that I am so proud to share.
—Jamie Dopp, author of Hockey on the Moon
“Working with the professional and dedicated staff at AU Press on Resisting the Dehumanization of Refugees was a great experience because of the time and care taken at all stages of the process. Having an open access book is also exciting because it amplifies the book’s reach.”
—Yasmeen Abu-Laban, editor of Resisting the Dehumanization of Refugees
Writing in Residence Book Series
In 2024, AU Press officially launched the Writing in Residence book series. This series showcases the remarkable talents of Athabasca University’s writers in residence, resulting in works presented in a variety of genres from essays and personal reflections to memoir, poetry, and conversational interviews. This series includes Steven Heighton’s The Virtues of Disillusionment, Indigiqueerness: A Conversation about Storytelling by Joshua Whitehead in dialogue with Angie Abdou, and now Writing Ukraine by Myrna Kostash (August 2024). In her essay, Kostash offers a self-critical reflection on her body of work and considers how her visits to Ukraine and the ongoing war have nuanced her writing and understanding of Ukranian identity.
Accessible Ebooks: Maintaining our Commitment to Access
49%
of our list is accessible.
Our Book Program
More than
800
scholars published in total.
27%
of these AU Press book authors and editors are international scholars.
pdf downloads in 2024.
In this last year, OA Readership was:
2024 most downloaded books
We added another 8 books to our online reading platform in 2024, which now includes over 90 books. During this time, overall registered readership on the platform has increased by more than 100%. The visitor engagement doubled in the past year, with users making over 14,000 annotations to our books.
Our books have been adopted in university courses across Canada at institutions such as the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, Concordia University, Carleton University, Queen’s University, University of Toronto, and more. They’ve also been used in courses throughout the United States and around the world at institutions that include Northern Arizona University, SUNY College of Technology, University of Dallas, Illinois State University, University of California, and the Open University, among others.
Remix: OER Imprint
Our Journal Program
79
journal articles published in 2024
336,740
article downloads in 2024
over 250,000
visits to the site in 2024
IRRODL is the highest ranked open access education journal in Canada and holds the #1 position among all Canadian education journals.
Most downloaded article in 2024: Blaschke, L. M. (2012). Heutagogy and lifelong learning: A review of heutagogical practice and self-determined learning.
Public Engagement
We bring AU Press books and journals to the public in a variety of ways. In addition to the standard tools of wide distribution and targeted marketing, we take care to build our publishing program and its profile on social media, where the value of our open access mandate is just one click away. We also play an active role in our industry and publishing community by participating in a number of organizations that seek to develop sustainable scholarly publishing models, to advance the open access movement, and to highlight the role of writing and publishing in the creation of a vibrant and diverse society.
AU Press Books in the News
A few highlights from the many reviews of AU Press books that appeared this year.
Community Engagement
AU Press maintains a presence on Instagram, Facebook, X, and Bluesky where we announce new publications, share bestseller and themed reading lists, connect with authors, scholars, students, and readers, and run a variety of campaigns and features.
Our bi-monthly newsletter highlights recent reviews, forthcoming books, links to related articles on open access publishing, and author activities. Recent virtual activities involving AU Press authors include:
- Myrna Kostash spoke about Writing Ukraine with the University of Manitoba’s Ukrainian Canadian Reading Club.
- Lachlan MacKinnon and Andrew Parnaby discussed Cape Breton in the Long Twentieth Century with Wendy Bergfeldt live on CBC’s Mainstreet Cape Breton radio show.
- Indigiqueerness by Joshua Whitehead in dialogue with Angie Abdou featured prominently in the digital catalogue of the Association of University Presses Book, Jacket and Journal Show.
- AU Press celebrated University Press Week by participating in a tour of blog posts hosted by the Association of University Presses on how we #StepUP for our community.
- We partnered with AU Media Relations to host giveaway contests for copies of Writing Ukraine in commemoration of the launch of our Writing in Residence book series.
- How Education Works by Jon Dron was named a must-read book on online learning by Contact North | Contact Nord and is one of the most viewed books via their TeachOnline platform.
- Zubair Ahmad’s “Dead Man’s Float,” from Grieving for Pigeons translated by Anne Murphy, was a Read Alberta #SundayShort recommended short story.
2024 saw AU Press presenting our books in-person at a variety of book launches, author-hosted events, and conferences, both in Athabasca and abroad. Here’s where our books and staff landed this year:
- Alberta Book Day (Edmonton, AB)
- Parkland Institute Annual Fall Conference (Edmonton, AB)
- Alberta Book Publishing Conference and Awards (Edmonton, AB)
- Book launch for Resisting the Dehumanization of Refugees edited by Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Michael Frishkopf, Reza Hasmath, and Anna Kirova at the Canadian Ethnic Studies Association Biennial Conference (Edmonton, AB)
- Athabasca University Convocation (Athabasca, AB)
- Athabasca University Learning Conference (Athabasca, AB)
- Book launch for Cape Breton in the Long Twentieth Century edited by Lachlan MacKinnon and Andrew Parnaby at Old Sydney Society (Sydney, NS)
- Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time Conference (Glasgow, Scotland)
- Plains Anthropological Society Annual Meeting (Lethbridge, AB)
- Feria Internacional del Libro de las Universitarias y los Universitarios (Mexico City, Mexico)
- Association of University Presses Annual Meeting (Montreal, QC)
- Writing Ukraine presented at the Ukrainian Museum of Canada (Saskatoon, SK) and the Ukrainian Resource Development Centre at MacEwan University.
Community Participation
Members of AU Press participate in a number of industry organizations and benefit from partnerships and conversations with a broad variety of publishing and academic colleagues. AU Press staff currently serve on the board of the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, the Governance Committee of Research Impact Canada, the Editorial, Design, and Production Committee at the Association of University Presses, and as a member of the Association of Canadian University Presses and the Association of Canadian Publishers’ Higher Education Committee.
AU Press is based in Alberta and our readers here are important to us. To that end, we ensure our books are accessible to readers in the province through the Read Alberta eBook Collection and the Prairie Indigenous eBook Collection available at Alberta libraries. A selection of our books also appear in Alberta Books for Schools digital database and print catalogue. This collection allows educators to discover Alberta-published books that have already been matched to the Alberta curriculum.
We thank our supporters, including:
Social Impact
One Year Since Publication:
Indigiqueerness
Evolving from a conversation between Joshua Whitehead and Angie Abdou, Indigiqueerness, has gone on to have an outsized impact for such a small and intimate book. Over the past year, it was supported by a successful marketing campaign both online and in person, including events at bookstores and schools, and garnered support from social media influencers across Canada. Since its publication in 2023, Indigiqueerness has been reviewed in The Miramichi Reader and Bookriot, featured in the Association of University Presses Book, Jacket and Journal Show, and won gold in the Book Design category at the Alberta Book Publishing Awards. Now it is included in AU Press’s new Writing in Residence series alongside the work of other award-winning alumni of AU’s Writer in Residence program.
“This slim volume packs a punch. Author, essayist, and poet Whitehead reflects on his work, life, identity, and queerness. Part memoir, part examination of his writing process, this is an intimate and meaningful look at inspiration and a celebration of storytelling and Indigenous art,” writes writes Jo Treggiari, Block Shop Books.
Pageviews on our reading platform
674
PDF downloads
142
print copies sold
Ten Years Since Publication:
Legal Literacy
In 2014, we published Legal Literacy: An Introduction to Legal Studies by Archie Zariski. This book provides a foundational understanding of key concepts such as legal personhood, jurisdiction, and precedent, and introduces students to legal research and writing skills. Ten years later, this book continues to perform well, is heavily downloaded and course adopted.
Pageviews on our reading platform
46,585
PDF downloads
3,823
print copies sold
over 294