Podcast by TextFormations
06 November 2025
Ken Wissoker is Senior Executive Editor at Duke University Press where, since arriving in 1991, he has published over 1400 books. Ken acquires books across the humanities, social sciences, and the arts, by authors like Stuart Hall, Jack Halberstam, and Sara Ahmed. Recently, Ken has been vocal about his concern for the financial future of academic publishing - and there are few people who know more about the subject. In this episode, he talks about how the finances of a press work, and how authors should think about the funding of their books, from subventions to list price.
Mentioned:
Siobhan Angus, Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography
Emilie Boone, A Nimble Arc: James Van Der Zee and Photography
A few of Ken's other appearances:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52PR11MgTn0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX0jsOD4wkA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAYtyKb_VJE
Also a useful read:
Email us at podcast@textformations.com.
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01:01:44
21 October 2025
My guest today is Stephanie Porras, professor of art history at Tulane University. Stephanie is the author of multiple books, including, most recently, The First Viral Images: Maerten de Vos, Antwerp Print, and the Early Modern Globe (Penn State UP, 2023). And, she is the former reviews editor of The Art Bulletin, the flagship journal for art history in the US. So, I wanted to talk to Stephanie about book reviews.
Book reviews are one of the most common forms of publication for authors, very much including early-career authors, and they’re also part of a larger set of practices of reviewing that includes peer reviews and tenure letters. I felt Stephanie would be the perfect person to ask about how to write and read a review as she has herself been the author of many reviews; she teaches students how to write them; she’s commissioned an enormous number of them; and, as a book author, she has read many reviews of her own work.
Mentioned:
Karin Wulf, "How to Gut a (Scholarly) Book in 5 Almost-easy Steps," and her follow-up post.
Sylvia Houghteling, The Art of Cloth in Mughal India.
Kathryn Renton, Feral Empire.
Emily Wilbourne, Voice, Slavery, and Race in Seventeenth-Century Florence.
Email us at podcast@textformations.com.
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53:52
08 October 2025
Michelle Komie is publisher for art and architectural and urban history at Princeton University Press, where since 2014 she has been the person behind numerous important, and beautiful, books. Previously, she spent over a decade in acquisitions at Yale University Press. I asked Michelle about what she looks for in a project, how she communicates with authors, and the entire process of bringing a book to publication. I think first-time authors in particular will find her answers both informative and encouraging.
Mentioned:
Roland Betancourt, Byzantine Intersectionality: Sexuality, Gender, and Race in the Middle Ages.
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59:58
06 October 2025
This is an introductory episode for the Academic Publishing Podcast, in which host Lisa Regan talks to Amyrose McCue Gill, with whom she co-founded the academic editing company TextFormations. In this brief chat, they talk about the idea behind this podcast and what to expect in future episodes.
For more about us, visit TextFormations.com. Our email is podcast@textformations.com.
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10:25