Prospective Authors

If you are interested in submitting a manuscript to the Press for consideration for publication, please first send an initial query letter and a book proposal to the appropriate acquiring editor, listed below. Choose the editor whose subject areas most closely match the topic of your manuscript. If interested in pursuing your manuscript further, the acquiring editor will request additional materials from you. Please note that, due to the high volume of manuscript submissions that the University of New Mexico Press receives annually, we cannot respond to all unsolicited queries and proposals. The University of New Mexico Press does not accept queries for unsolicited fiction, poetry, or children’s books.

Your query letter should address the following:

  1. Describe the subject of your book, including what issues or problems it addresses, and be clear about why your subject is an important topic.
  2. Discuss the need for a book on this subject, including what the book will contribute to its field of study. Please tell us why the manuscript should be published and how it differs from other works on the subject.
  3. Define the audience for the book—that is, the people or institutions most likely to buy it.
  4. Outline the work’s scope and contents, including the page length (or word count) and whether you intend to include illustrations (if so, describe what kinds of images and how many of them); provide a general outline of the book’s content and any special features that characterize your treatment of the topic. Please also attach a table of contents.
  5. Address your timeline for completion of the project. If the manuscript is not yet finished, let us know when you intend to have it done. Let us know, also, if there are any scheduling priorities we need to consider for publication of the work, such as events, conferences, or exhibits.

Please send your query letter via email to the appropriate editor, listed here:

Stephen Hull, Director
Email: [email protected]
Subject areas: Science; Field Guides; Nature and Outdoors; Natural History; Western Film; General Trade
Series: High Desert Field Guides; Southwest Adventure; Reel West; Red Planet

Elise McHugh, Senior Acquisitions Editor
Email: [email protected]
Subject areas: Literary criticism; Pop Culture; Art, Photography, and Architecture; Border, Latinx, and Chicana/o Studies; Poetry; Memoir; Creative Nonfiction; Writing Guides; Fiction
Series: Contextos; Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry; Paso por Aqui; Recencies; River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize

Michael Millman, Senior Acquisitions Editor
Email: [email protected]
Subject areas: American, US Western, and Military History; Anthropology and Archaeology; Environmental Studies; Latin American Studies; Native Studies
Series: Archaeologies of Landscape in the Americas; Diálogos; Religions of the Americas; Studies in Indigenous Community Building

Sonia Dickey, Acquisitions Editor
Email: [email protected]
Subject Areas: Environmental Studies; Southwestern Studies; Historical Archaeology; Gardening; Landscape Studies
Series: Querencias; New Century Gardens and Landscapes of the American Southwest

If you submit a proposal with a query letter, it will be considered. If the Press decides to pursue the project, you should receive a response within about four weeks. All books published by the University of New Mexico Press are thoroughly reviewed in manuscript form by one or more editors on our staff. If the manuscript seems appropriate, it is then read by two or more outside readers with expertise in the manuscript’s subject. The Press normally requests that outside readers submit reports in about ten weeks. The complete review process usually takes approximately four to six months. If favorable reviews are granted from the outside readers, the acquisitions editor presents the manuscript for final approval to the University Press Committee, which is composed of twelve University of New Mexico faculty members who represent a variety of subject disciplines. If the committee approves the project, the Press will then offer a publishing contract.