Southern Methodist University Press

Southern Methodist University Press (or SMU Press) was a university press that is part of Southern Methodist University. It was established in 1937 and released eight to ten titles each year and was known for its literary fiction. It was scheduled to suspend operations on June 1, 2010. The provost of SMU announced in 2011 plans to reorganize the press with a smaller budget and different goals. It closed again in 2015. In 2022, a new publishing operation at SMU began in Bridwell Library, under the leadership of its director Anthony J. Elia. Bridwell Press would begin as a small-scale undertaking, but within a few years has grown to occupy a major place in academic and literary publishing at SMU and within Dallas, with a distinguished series dedicated to contemporary poetry. While Bridwell Press is not the new SMU Press, it continues the legacy of its predecessor's long and distinguished history of high quality publications. The new press extends across several disciplinary areas and has a special focus on translations of underrepresented languages, as well as in Methodist History, Italian religious history, sacred music, and interdisciplinary area studies. The new model of this press is based on the Diamond Model of open access publishing and provides e-book versions of its books freely online with affordably-priced hard copies for sale online and in person at select book stores.