Brassey's Inc. academic publisher Stephen M. Wrinn is leaving the industry's commercial sector to become the third director of the University Press of Kentucky in Lexington on April 1. It was his experience at Brassey's, a for-profit publisher in Dulles, Va., and before that as editorial v-p and executive editor for history and political science books at Rowman & Littlefield, that proved convincing to a committee charged with finding a successor to Ken Cherry, who retired last August as only the second director of the 59-year-old press.
In addition to heading a publisher with $2 million in annual sales, a staff of 22 and a frontlist of 55 to 60 titles, Wrinn will acquire books in history and political science for the press, a consortium that represents Kentucky's eight public universities, five private colleges and two historical societies. "It feels like a perfect match," Wrinn said. "By building on the press's nationally known strengths, its regional focus on Appalachian studies and strong infrastructure, I will hopefully be able to continue refining a publishing model here that balances scholarly publishing with more popularly directed publishing."
