Back to Blog

Happy Trails to Kate Douglas Torrey

UNC Press Director Kate Douglas Torrey will retire this summer after twenty-three years with the publishing house–the past twenty spent as Director.

Here’s the full press release from UNC Press.

According to the Raleigh News & Observer, Ms. Torrey was the first female director of UNC Press. During her tenure, the institution won four Bancroft Prizes from the trustees of Columbia University for books about the history of the Americas. She also won two Francis Parkman Prizes (top book on American History), six Fredrick Jackson Turner Awards (a first scholarly book in American History), and three Fredrick Douglass Prizes (book on slavery).

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Torrey says she plans to “keep up with university press publishing by reading lots of really good university press books!” adding that she will start her retirement by “doing some more volunteer work, both in the non-profit sector and in the political arena this fall.”