In response to the report of the Symons Royal Commission on Canadian Studies, the Alberta Provincial Government provided enough funding for the Press to hire its first permanent staff member in 1978.
UAlberta Press acquires and publishes scholarly books as well as works of poetry and literary nonfiction.
Some of the most prominent titles include: In addition to scholarship, UAlberta Press publishes works of poetry and creative nonfiction.
Named in honour of Officer of the Order of Canada and Professor Henry Kreisel, these short books are dedicated to nurturing public as well as scholarly engagement with the pressing concerns of writers in Canada, including Indigenous resurgence, oppression and social justice, cultural identity, place and displacement, the spoils of history, storytelling, censorship, language, reading in a digital age, literary history, personal memory, and, most recently, art during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some of the most prominent authors and titles published by UAlberta Press under this series include Cherie Dimaline (An Anthology of Monsters, 2023),[38][34] Vivek Shraya (Next Time There’s a Pandemic, 2022),[39] Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (A Short History of the Blockade, 2021),[40] Dionne Brand (An Autobiography of the Autobiography of Reading, 2020),[41] Heather O'Neill (Wisdom in Nonsense, 2018),[42] Margaret Atwood (The Burgess Shale, 2017),[43][circular reference] Tomson Highway (A Tale of Monstrous Extravagance, 2015),[44] Esi Edugyan (Dreaming of Elsewhere, 2014),[45] Lawrence Hill (Dear Sir, Intend to Burn Your Book, 2013),[46] and Eden Robinson (The Sasquatch at Home, 2011, winner of the Alcuin Society Citations for Excellence in Book Design for non-fiction and the Publishers Association of the West Design and Production Awards for Short Stories & Poetry).
Titles published thus far include Madeeha Hafez Albatta’s A White Lie (2020),[53] and Sahbaa Al-Barbari’s Light the Road of Freedom (2021).
UAlberta Press celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2019 by introducing a refreshed visual identity, with a new logo and colophon designed by Susan Colberg.