Te Whare Tā o Ōtakou Whakaihu Waka (Otago University Press) publishes scholarly and culturally significant non-fiction with a focus on Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific.
Our list includes works on history, Māori and Pacific studies, natural history, social and political issues, biography, memoir, essays and creative nonfiction.
We support literature and the arts, publishing a select number of poetry collections and Landfall Tauraka, Aotearoa’s leading journal of new writing and art.
Publisher
Sue Wootton
publisher@otago.ac.nz
Editorial
Mel Stevens
editorial@otago.ac.nz
Production
Fiona Moffat
fiona.moffat@otago.ac.nz
Publicity
Meg Hamilton
publicity@otago.ac.nz
Publishing Administrator
Laura Aitchison
university.press@otago.ac.nz
+64 3 471 6344
New Zealand
Sales
Archetype Book Agents
neilb@archetype.co.nz
09 814 9455
0274 984 670
Distribution
Nationwide Book Distributors
books@nationwidebooks.co.nz
nationwidebooks.co.nz
UK / Europe
Gazelle Book Services
sales@gazellebookservices.co.uk
gazellebookservices.co.uk
Australia
John Reed Books
sales@johnreedbooks.com.au
johnreedbooks.com.au
North America
Independent Publishers Group (IPG)
frontdesk@ipgbook.com
ipgbook.com
Otago University Press began in 1958 as a part-time operation run from the University Library. The University Council had decided the previous year to establish a press, and librarian Peter Havard-Williams, with John McIndoe of Dunedin’s printing firm John McIndoe Ltd, travelled to Melbourne to learn the craft of book production. Their first title, Greek Art and Literature 770–530 BC (1959), appeared under the imprint University of Otago Press in association with Melbourne University Press.
For the next three decades the Press remained small, producing one or two scholarly works a year. Successive University Librarians, including W.J. McEldowney, served as editors, often juggling typescripts, proofreading and correspondence alongside their library duties.
A new era began in 1993 when the Press appointed its first full-time publisher, Wendy Harrex. Harrex brought publishing experience from Oxford University Press and New Women’s Press, expanding the Press’s reach into both national and international markets.
By 2006 the Press had a refined name, Otago University Press. From its early monographs and pamphlets, the list had evolved into substantial, often illustrated works that found readers well beyond academia.
Today OUP publishes around 18 new non-fiction and poetry titles each year, alongside the literary journal Landfall Tauraka. With distributors in Australasia, North America, the UK and Europe and a steady flow of manuscripts from New Zealand writers and scholars, the Press continues to honour its founding aim: to produce serious, lasting books that share the ideas, creativity and research of Aotearoa New Zealand with the wider world.