Thomas W. Ross Fund Publishing Grant

The University of North Carolina Press offers small grants through their Thomas W. Ross Fund to help publish scholarly content generated in the University of North Carolina System. One-time matching grants are available to help with the costs of publishing being supported by UNC Press’s Office of Scholarly Publishing Services (OSPS). Grants in the amount of $500-$4,000 will offset costs otherwise incurred and are intended to support the publication of monographs, textbooks, Open Educational Resources, and other scholarly publications. They may also be used to establish sustainable publishing initiatives, such as imprints, reissues of out of print works, series, or journals.

Applicants must have a UNC System institutional partner such as a department, research center, or library. This sponsoring partner, in coordination with the grant recipient, will be responsible for establishing editorial oversight and peer review (if necessary), will be listed as the publisher of the work, and will supply matching funds at a level to be determined. The OSPS will help applicants with publishing services as needed, including design, production, distribution, and advising on publishing strategy.

Applicants should request a grant application form by emailing John McLeod at john.mcleod@uncpress.org.  Applications will be reviewed on a quarterly basis by a team comprised of Kimberly van Noort, Vice President for Academic Programs, Faculty & Research at the UNC System; Mark Simpson-Vos, Editorial Director of UNC Press; John McLeod, Director of the OSPS; John Sherer, Director of UNC Press; and Lucy Holman, University Librarian at UNC Wilmington.

Application Deadlines

August 15
November 15
February 15
May 15

Grants Announced

September 30
December 23
March 31
June 30

Grants Awarded

  • East Carolina University, to support special promotional efforts for the North Carolina Literary Review
  • East Carolina University Institute for Rural Education, to support a new open access journal Theory & Practice in Rural Education
  • East Carolina University Joyner Library, to fund the publication of Project Management for Archivists: Befriending Your Backlog, a handbook for professional librarians and archivists
  • East Carolina University Joyner Library, to fund the publication of Freedom of Expression Across the Borders: Communication, Culture, and Language edited by Sachivio Shearman and Mary Tucker-McLaughlin
  • East Carolina University Joyner Library, to support the publication of the open textbook Early Music in the West: Antiquity and the Medieval Era by Kevin Moll
  • North Carolina A&T State University’s Bluford Library, to reissue and digitize four out of print works about the history of the university
  • North Carolina Central University, to support a new journal of undergraduate research
  • North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, to help fund revisions of the textbook Contemporary Precalculus through Applications
  • NCSU and the Society for Early English and Norse Electronic Texts, to publish a critical edition of Piers Plowman: The B-Version Archetype (Bx)
  • NCSU Department of English, to publish documentary and critical editions through The Society for Early English and Norse Electronic Texts (SEENET)
  • NCSU Department of English and the MFA Program in Creative Writing, to fund an anthology celebrating 20 years of NC State Poetry and Fiction Contests
  • NCSU Department of English and the MFA Program in Creative Writing, to publish a collaborative novella written by a team of MFA candidates and Cadwell Turnbull
  • NCSU Department of Foreign Languages, to help expand the reach and impact of its Editorial A Contracorriente imprint which publishes Latin American studies monographs
  • NCSU Libraries, to support the publication of a book about pioneering landscape architect and NCSU faculty emeritus Lewis Clarke
  • UNC Asheville, to support the publication of a 3-volumes of the Global Humanities Reader 
  • UNC Chapel Hill Department of Dramatic Art, to fund PlayMakers Repertory Company: A History edited by Bobbi Owen and Adam Versényi
  • UNC Chapel Hill Department of Romance Studies, to reissue out-of-print titles in the North Carolina Studies in Romance Languages and Literatures series
  • UNC Chapel Hill Institute for the Study of the Americas, to support open access digital and affordable access print publications in the Studies in Latin America series
  • UNC Chapel Hill Writing for the Screen and Stage Program, to enable the publication of an anthology of student plays written for the Long Story Shorts Festival
  • UNC Chapel Hill Writing for the Screen and Stage Program, to support the textbook, Sixteen Weeks to Fade Out: A Practical Guide to Screenwriting by Michael Acosta
  • UNC Charlotte Center for the Study of the New South, to publish Why Does No One In My Books Look Like Me?: Tobe and Ongoing Questions about Race, Representation, and Identity edited by Ashli Quesinberry Stokes
  • UNC Charlotte Department of History, to support promotional efforts and onboarding costs for The Latin Americanist
  • UNC Charlotte J. Murrey Atkins Library, for Faculty Experiences in Active Learning: A Collection of Strategies for Implementing Active Learning Across Disciplines, an open access textbook
  • UNC Charlotte J. Murrey Atkins Library, to fund the publication of Jewel in the Crown: Bonnie Cone and the Founding of UNC Charlotte by William Thomas Jeffers and Jessica Injejikian
  • UNC Charlotte J. Murrey Atkins Library, to publish Odyssey for Democracy: Embracing a Vision of Hope and Change in Bosnia and Herzegovina by Clark Curtis
  • UNC Charlotte J. Murrey Atkins Library, to support the publication of the open textbook Shaping S-Curves: Choreography in Odissi by Kaus Sarkar
  • UNC Charlotte J. Murrey Atkins Library, to support Race and Social Justice: Building an Inclusive Experience through Awareness, Advocacy, and Action, a publication by a team of faculty from UNCC
  • UNC Charlotte J. Murrey Atkins Library, to help publish Third Cultures by Missy Eppes and Marek Ranis, an interdisciplinary book incorporating fine art and geology
  • UNC Greensboro Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, for the relaunch of the International Poetry Review
  • UNC Greensboro Libraries, to support the publication of the X-Culture Handbook of Collaboration and Problem Solving in Global Virtual Teams textbook developed in the Bryan School of Business and Economics
  • UNC Greensboro MFA in Creative Writing Program, to cover costs associated with transitioning the Greensboro Review into a partnership with UNC Press
  • UNC Wilmington Department of Film Studies, to support the journal Analog Cookbook
  • UNC Wilmington Randall Library, to support the publication of the open textbook Differential Geometry in Physics by Gabriel Lugo
  • UNC Wilmington Randall Library, to support the publication of Mind the Gap: Navigating Transitions in Life with Mindfulness by Beverley Foulks McGuire, an open access textbook for First Year Seminars
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library, to reissue Mountain Days: A Journal of Camping Experiences in the Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, 1914-1938 by Paul M. Fink
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library, to reissue Twenty Years Hunting and Fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains by Samuel J. Hunnicutt
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library, to reissue Just Over the Hill: Black Appalachians in Jackson County, Western North Carolina by Victoria A. Casey McDonald
  • Winston-Salem State University School of Health Sciences, to transition and sustain its Journal of Best Practices in Health Professions Diversity: Research, Education, and Policy