Guilford, Conn.-based publisher Globe Pequot Press, the trade division of Rowman & Littlefield, will take a trip down south in 2016 with the launch of Lone Star Press, an imprint dedicated to the culture and history of Texas.
The regionally-focused imprint will publish 10 to 12 books per year in the narrative nonfiction, sports, cookbooks, and lifestyle categories. The imprint will start in August with the release of sports journalist Mac Engel and NFL Hall of Fame photographer Ron Jenkins's Pigskin Rapture: Four Days in the Life of Texas Football. The book, Globe Pequot said, will be a "360 degree look at the cultural and athletic phenomenon that is Texas football."
TwoDot Books editor Erin Turner, who will also take the wheel at Lone Star, said the imprint will "tell the stories of historic and contemporary Texas and Texans." She added: "Our authors know Texas, they are Texans, and they cover the stories and interests of Texans."
According to Globe Pequot's media engagement manager, Sharon Kunz, the launch is the next step in a broader strategy at Globe Pequot to expand its regional publishing program. The publisher expects the books to perform well in both trade and nontraditional outlets including supermarkets, hardware stores, gift shops, and buying clubs. Kunz also noted the potential appeal of the imprint's output to both tourists and locals.
Globe Pequot is also, as editor Rick Rinehart noted, somewhat familiar with this subject matter. He said that Taylor Trade (which is now an imprint of Globe Pequot), "has its roots in the Lone Star state," and that the imprint holds the combined backlists of the Republic of Texas Press, Gulf Publishing (formerly Texas Monthly Press), and the book publishing division of Dallas's Taylor Printing.
Further titles slated for fall publication include Patrick Dearen's A Cowboy of the Pecos and A Priest, A Prostitute and Some Other Early Texans by Don Blevins—both histories. The imprint will also release new editions of Texas Bad Girls by J. Lee Butts, Texas Myths and Legends by Donna Ingham, and Texas Ranger Tales: Hard-Riding Stories from the Lone Star State by Mike Cox.
