Saving Southern Methodist University Press

The Dallas Observer reports on the writers, publishers, professors, and students trying to save the 73-year old press:

Before she went home yesterday to soak in a large glass of well-deserved wine, SMU Press Senior Editor Kathryn Lang forwarded to Unfair Park a rather large stack of missives she'd received yesterday following the news that SMU Provost Paul Ludden had decided to save the school $400,000 annually by shuttering its 73-year-old publishing arm. It's a very impressive roster of supporters that includes no less than Ann Beattie, Pulitzer winner Richard Russo, Dallas's own Ben Fountain, poet and novelist David R. Slavitt (who writes that "outside of Dallas, people mostly associate SMU with the football team and the press. You should not get rid of either of these") and other award-winning writers, publishers and professors . . .