Acclaimed Ewu Press Faces Task Of Replacing Retired Editor

Robert Herold remembers being given an ultimatum.

Make the Eastern Washington University Press “something we can be proud of,” Eastern’s president Mark Drummond told him, “or kill it.”

That was in 1992, and Herold - the EWU executive vice provost who doubles as the press’ publisher - remembers what he had to work with.

“It was a small operation,” he says. “And what came out of it was very uneven and there was very little support to do it right. Not a lot of money for editorial support, marketing, nothing like that.”

Two years later, the press was not only still alive, but thriving. Its backlist was growing by as many as four books a year, including poetry by Paula Meehan, essays by John Sisk, poetry by Thomas Reiter and even more poetry by Samuel Green.

The Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook even ranked the EWU Press as No. 7 among all the country’s university presses.

And today the press boasts a backlist of some 20 books, which are distributed through an agreement with the University of Washington Press. One recent book, Thomas Heuterman’s “The Burning Horse,” recently was honored with a national human rights award.

Books by the likes of Eastern literary stars Patrick F. McManus and John Keeble are on the docket.

Herold credits the small staff of graduate students and part-timers for pulling things off.

But he saves special praise for Jim McAuley, who ended his five-year term as the press’ editor by retiring in January.

“He’s irreplaceable,” Herold says.

Herold went to McAuley bearing the weight of Drummond’s directive. As head of Eastern’s summer school program, Herold knew the longtime creative writing instructor as founder and ongoing director of the Dublin Writer’s Workshop.

The two forged a five year plan that involved McAuley editing the press (soliciting writers, editing the work, overseeing the printing, etc.) while Herold made sure that McAuley had the freedom to do what was needed.

“I run political interference,” Herold says. “I try to make sure the funding is there, and I try to give Jim as much support as I can.”

McAuley isn’t gone completely. He’s still under contract to edit another couple of books, and he negotiated the deals with McManus, who will provide a how-to book on writing, and Keeble, who will bring out a special 10th-anniversary edition of his nonfiction book “Out of the Channel.”

But Herold is faced with replacing a man who boasts so many talents on so many levels.

“He has good taste,” Herold says. “That’s where it begins. He sets very high editorial standards for himself.”

He also has connections.

“He is very well plugged in to the literary industry nationwide,” Herold says. “He knows practically everybody, it seems, so he was able to bring in from the very beginning people with experience and people of standing.”

Herold’s job may not be easy. But given how McAuley has helped shape the press, it should be easier than it was five years ago.

, DataTimes