Colorado-based nonprofit Americas for Conservation + the Arts has launched a publishing unit, Mandel Vilar Press, which will publish titles with a Jewish and Latino/Latin American focus. MVP will be "dedicated to identifying important writers who have been overlooked by corporate publishers in order to majoritize historically marginalized voices," said AFC+A in a press release.
MVP will be helmed by Robert Mandel, Ph.D., the former director of five university presses (including University of Alaska Press and the University of Wisconsin Press), and AFC+A founder Irene Vilar.
"There is much to ponder about the health of a nation when its people don’t read across cultures, and I hope that MVP will help open up our cultural borders and will play a vital role in maintaining a healthy and vibrant democracy and cultural literacy,” said Vilar.
MVP’s inaugural three titles will be published in e-books and hardcover in mid-April. The inaugural title is Thane Rosenbaum's novel How Sweet It Is! Next is Breaking Ground: How Jackie Robinson Changed Brooklyn, and Searching For Wallenberg, both by Alan Lelchuk.
