Student-run publishing house to host workshop

Ooligan Press will hold an open house at the Portland State Native American Student and Community Center on Wednesday with workshops and readings to help students and staff understanding how the PSU publishing program operates.

Ooligan Press is a student-run publishing house at Portland State with national distribution formed to coincide with the graduate publishing program. The press publishes books from authors around the world, and unlike most small presses, Ooligan publishes novels, histories, cultural studies and poetry.

Students complete all aspects of publishing including editing, design and acquisitions. Professor Dennis Stovall, coordinator of Ooligan Press, said the press is unique worldwide because of its integration with Portland State, a relationship that he said offers opportunities for both faculty and students.

This week’s open house, which runs from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., aims to display these opportunities and to provide general information about the publishing world and Portland State’s publishing program, Stovall said. There will also be a table set up where people can pitch book ideas to graduate students.

Stovall said that while Ooligan has never published a book by a PSU student, many of student projects have made major contributions to some of Ooligan’s releases. The geography department makes maps for their books, and Dreams of the West, a book about Chinese history in Oregon, compiled much of its source material for its history of Chinese in Portland from senior capstones.

The press is named after a common smelt fish, found on Oregon’s coast, which Native Americans named Ooligan. According to Stovall, one theory on the origins of the word “Oregon” is that the word “Ooligan” slowly evolved into Oregon through the long distance trade of oil.

“We’ll keep the fish story whether the anthropology is proven,” he said.

Robin Cody, author of the novel Ricochet River, the latest release by Ooligan Press, will give a reading. General information about the publishing program and scholarships will also be available.