Apprentice House Student Book Publishing

"Apprentice House Combines Courses, Creativity, and Technology in Unique Teaching-Publishing Model"
"Series of Classes, Forthcoming Titles, New Web Site Herald Growth of Campus-Based Book Publisher"
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Apprentice House touted as "Real World Experience" for Loyola students by Examiner.com of Baltimore

Loyola book publishing house gives students real-world experience, by Matthew Lindeboom, The ExaminerJune 7, 2008. Gregg Wilhelm, lanky and bespectacled, paces the front of the classroom and holds up a book just off the press.

Groundbreaking Learning Experience

Imagine taking a book-publishing course or participating in an undergraduate student club and receiving a copy of the book you helped to publish. At Loyola College, what you imagine can become reality. Apprentice House is the only undergraduate student-run press in the United States and exemplifies the Department of Communication’s emphasis on experiential learning. Apprentice House offers students exciting opportunities to build their professional portfolios while learning about the practice of book publishing. Such advanced level learning experiences generally are not available to students through internships.

History

Apprentice House began in 2004 as an experiential learning initiative, headed by Prof. Andrew Ciofalo and Dr. Kevin Atticks of the Dept. of Communication. Apprentice House was initiated as a practice learning experience for students of CM382, the Communication Department’s  book publishing course taught by Prof. Andrew Ciofalo each Fall semester. This course was previously a survey of publishing concepts and theories. Students learned how to publish books, but were not able to do so because of constraints of the course and the industry. With the onset of new technologies in the book publishing field, it was now possible for the book publishing students actually to create, to design and to publish books. Prof. Ciofalo asked Dr. Atticks – who started his own press called Resonant Publishing in 1998 – to set up a publication manual and design a construct for Apprentice House. The Fall 2004 book publishing course was Apprentice House’s inaugural staff. Students performed duties such as manuscript development, marketing and book design.

Book publications:

• What Would You Die For? Perpetua's Passion, edited and introduction by Dr. Joesph Walsh (December 2005)
• Captured Lightning: Award-Winning Student Magazine Articles, Volume I, edited by Ann deG Marshall and Allison J. Wright (December 2005)
• Passioni: Documenting Authentic Italian Life, edited by Joanna Walsh (December 2005)
• From Luababa to Polk County: Zora Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress, edited by Jean Cole and Charles Mitchell (March 2005)
• Overtime: A Collection of Short Stories, edited by Jeff Bradley and Marion Goodworth (June 2005)
• Reinventing The Feature Story: Mythic Cycles in American Literary Journalism, by Stephanie Shapiro (April 2005)
• Wandering through Virginia's Vineyards, by Walker Elliott Rowe (March 2005)
• The Wit and Wisdom of an Old Muskrat Trapper: Essays and Stories, by Ray M. Theuret (June 2005)

Events:

• Book release event for Zora Neale Hurston’s book in April 2005
• Apprentice House “launch” celebration/author readings in April 2006

Organizational

• Created “Aperio Series: Loyola Humane Texts” series to publish high-level works translated or compiled by Loyola students with faculty supervision.
• Recently hired experienced publisher and Loyola alumnus to advise Apprentice House student staff.

• Eager Street: A Life on the Corner and Behind Bars by Maryland Correctional Institute inmate Arlando "Tray" Jones, imprisoned for a drug-related murder in 1990.
• Tonight at Six: A Daily Show Masquerading as Local TV News by Baltimore Examiner columnist Michael Olesker, who for 20 years provided commentaries on WJZ-13, once the country's highest rated local news broadcast.
• Reading Lips: And Other Ways to Overcome a Disability edited by National Book Critics Circle member Diane Scharper and which collects the winners of the first annual Helen Keller Foundation essay contest.
• Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare gets a contemporary translation courtesy of students in Loyola's Classics Department. The book will be part of the college's Spring symposium.

• Publish 4-6 titles each year.
• Further develop Aperio Series with new projects.
• Create weeklong summer publishing institute.
• Create “Apprentice House professor of Publishing” or publisher-in-residence endowment for CM department.

Unveiling Celebration

Apprentice House recently celebrated unveiling Poetry of Color / Poesia de Color, written by young participants in [Baltimore's] CityLit Espanol's Libro-en-un-Mes (Book-in-a-Month) program.

Apprentice House In Big Apple

Student Book Publication launch in NYC with Special Peace Event. Learn More