An internationally renowned nonprofit literary organization will move its publishing operations this summer from Champaign, Ill., to the University of Houston-Victoria.

Dalkey Archive Press logo

Dalkey Archive Press has published more than 750 fiction and poetry books during the past three decades. The press publishes about 50 books a year with an emphasis on translations from more than 40 countries. The Dalkey Archive Press Board of Directors voted unanimously on April 27 to move the press to the UHV School of Arts & Sciences.

“Dalkey Archive Press will play a key role in academic programs, international initiatives and campus life at UHV,” said Jeffrey Di Leo, dean of the UHV School of Arts & Sciences. “It will afford our students terrific internship and fellowship opportunities, and the press will be used in the growth and development of existing and new academic programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.”

John O’Brien

John O’Brien, Dalkey Archive Press founder and publisher, said the relocation to UHV will establish the press with a university that can best help the organization achieve permanence on the American and international literary scene. The relocation also will foster the organization’s educational mission to preserve its exceptional literary heritage for future generations and take on new challenges deep into the 21st century.

“The UHV School of Arts & Sciences is a leader in creating publishing programs for students and will expand that to include this unique translation program,” he said. “We expect that UHV will be a major force in international publishing and translation, accomplishing things that are possible only with a school that has a vision for the future and the flexibility to act quickly.”

UHV Interim President Vic Morgan said Dalkey Archive Press will be the centerpiece of the School Arts & Sciences publishing graduate program. The school also is home to Chax Press, one of the nation’s most innovative and active small literary presses; and Cuneiform Press, which specializes in publishing poetry, artists’ books and books about books. The school also houses symploke, a comparative literature and theory journal; and the American Book Review, a nonprofit, internationally distributed literary journal that also organizes a popular reading series.

Vic Morgan

“We are thrilled with the decision to relocate this highly respected organization to the UHV campus,” Morgan said. “Under the direction of Dean Di Leo, UHV has undergone a literary renaissance. The addition of the Dalkey Archive Press will only strengthen our standing as a literary and publishing powerhouse.”

The organization’s move to Victoria also will bring additional events to the Coastal Bend.

“The press will be an active partner in the vibrant arts community in Victoria, bringing writers and translators to Victoria on a regular basis, both for its translation program and for engagements with the local community,” O’Brien said. “The press also will continue its national and international activities.”

The press started in 1980 as a journal, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, to give critical attention to many of the great overlooked writers of the late 20th century. Dalkey Archive Press published its first literary work in 1984. The organization was named after “The Dalkey Archive,” a novel by Irish writer Flann O’Brien.

The press quickly gained praise for the quality of its list and its dedication to international literature. Its authors include winners of the most prestigious awards across the globe, including the Nobel Prize for Literature, the National Book Award, the Pulitzer and the European Union Prize for Literature.

Today, O’Brien and his staff publish the Review of Contemporary Fiction and CONTEXT magazine, and train emerging translators in the art and practice of literary translation and publishing. The press is holding an Applied Literary Translation Program this summer with a hybrid of one-on-one Skype meetings and a two-week intensive workshop in Dublin, Ireland.

Jeffrey Di Leo

Di Leo said the press’s artistic and educational mission ties in well with UHV’s objectives.

“With this relocation, UHV will join in the publishing of educational and literary material directed at promoting and preserving modern and contemporary critical and literary works,” he said. “We can implement a number of educational projects for teachers, writers, researchers, students, translators and the general public. It also could lead to increased student retention, grant funding and community outreach.”

Dalkey Archive Press has been awarded major grants from the Mellon Foundation, the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Fund, the Lannan Foundation and several other U.S. foundations, as well as more than 30 National Endowment for the Arts grants and many grants from more than 25 foreign countries.

O’Brien has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle, the Carey-Thomas Publishers Weekly Publisher of the Year Award and the National Service Award from the Republic of South Korea. He also was the 2015 recipient of the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République Française, a French award that recognizes artists and writers who have contributed to further the arts in France and throughout the world.

To learn more about the Dalkey Archive Press, visit www.dalkeyarchive.com. For more information about the UHV publishing program, visit www.uhv.edu/msINpublishing or email ArtsSciences@uhv.edu.