Publishing Commons^™

Building A Humanities-Focused Creative Industries Minor At Portland State University, Kathi Inman Berens

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

"Building a Humanities-Centered Creative Industries Minor at Portland State University" is a presentation made by Kathi Inman Berens representing collective work by Berens, Dr. Rachel Noorda and Dr. Susan Kirtley (all of Portland State; see slide 2). Identifies opportunities for a humanities-focused minor in creative industries instruction in the U.S., using Ooligan Press of the PSU Book Publishing Master's program as a curricular model of experiential learning.

The Pacific Sentinel, January 2023, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Dan Chilton

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter From the Editor
• Jeffrey Gibson at the Portland Art Museum
• Dakota Modern Exhibit
• Defining Abolition With Walidah Imarisha
• We Keep Us Safe
• Psilocybin Solution
• The Case For ACAB
• Something Needs to Be Done
• Comic

The Pacific Sentinel, January 2023, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Dan Chilton

Articles in this issue include:

• Wednesday & the Challenges of Adaptation
• First Impressions: A Newcomer's Guide to Portland
• Ooligan Press's Comic Debut
• The Land, the Water, the Sky
• Notes From Behind the Bar
• A Chat with ChatGPT
• Measure 110 & the Roadblocks of Negative Perceptions
• Pre-Covid: It's a Jungle out there. Post-Covid: It's a Jungle in Here

The Pacific Sentinel: Fall 2022, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Dan Chilton

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter From the Editor
• Stranged Writing
• Rock Band Help Finds Time to Breathe Through the Chaos
• Titane
• Hurray for the Riff Raff
• The Work to Resolve Houselessness
• Doctrine Urbi Serviat
• Notes from Behind the Bar
• A very Modest Proposal
• Comic

Systemic Barriers That Exclude Bipoc Authors From Literary Awards And The Proposed Solutions To Evoke Change, Devyn Yan Radke

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

This research aims to 1) provide an in-depth analysis of the National Book Award (NBA), with a focus on Lisa Lucas, her commitment to diversity, and how it has impacted the awards, 2) identify the systemic barriers BIPOC authors may experience that are setbacks from being recognized in literary awards, and 3) the importance of diversity in book publishing professional executive positions.

International Cross-Media Adaptation: A Case Study Of The Witcher, Alexa Schmidt

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

As consumer media habits further diverge with the introduction of new technologies and social spaces, literature has increasingly been adapted in new mediums. Adaptations of written works have the exposure and visual appeal to draw in a larger audience than the pages of the original would.

This research question is extremely relevant to the shift the industry has made with the introduction of new technologies for cross-media storytelling through video games, film and television. Increasingly, publishers, like Level 4 Press, look for stories that will translate well into a TV series or movie, and cross-media stories and adaptations have been …

Artificial Intelligence As A Content Creator In The Publishing Industry, John Huston

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

Several methods were used in my research. A literature review was used to define artificial intelligence (AI) in general and in relation to how it’s used in literature today. I also relied heavily on Dr Leah Henrickson’s work on Natural Language Generation (NLG), which discusses authorship and roles between authors and readers.

Several case studies were used in my research. Liam Porr’s Guardian Op-ed was reviewed as his team used humans to edit GPT-3 output for a coherent article, much like I used it in a focus group. The Kimagure Artificial Intelligence Writer’s Project was also evaluated. The writing for …

The Rise Of Xr Storytelling And The Contribution Of Consumer Accessibility, Cost Efficiency, & Intrinsic Value To Feasibility, Sarah Moffatt

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

This research assesses the current state of XR (extended reality) publishing and its feasibility within an exceptionally virtual landscape. Feasibility is measured upon the challenges and opportunities posed by accessibility, cost efficiency, demand, and intrinsic value.

Through market analysis of past and ongoing XR storytelling projects, as well as qualitative methods which include industry interviews and public surveys, it has been found that publishers would do well to first adopt augmented reality storytelling methods before venturing further into virtual reality storytelling. Because augmented reality is generally more accessible and cost efficient, its adoption contributes to increased …

Book Deserts Of Litlandia: A Case Study Of Book Deserts In The Literary City Of Portland, Oregon In Relation To Book Waste From It’S Largest Independent Bookstore, Megan Jessop

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

The goal of this project was to look at book waste from a local independent bookstore, Powell’s Books, in Portland, Oregon and compare local donation and literacy programs—such as Little Free Libraries (LFL), Children’s Book Bank, and programs with the Multnomah County Library (MCL) to see if there were books or print materials that were being thrown away, recycled, and/or turned into pulp that could have been utilized in other ways towards literacy efforts. Through a process of interviews with staff at Portland’s largest local independent bookstore, MCL, a LFL steward, and Children’s Book Bank, as well as analysis of …

The Many Moving Parts Behind Brandon Sanderson’S Record-Breaking Kickstarter Campaign, Kathi Inman Berens

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

The creation and fulfillment of Sanderson’s Kickstarter relies on a crack team managing massive amounts of data as well as all aspects of production. Sanderson had been running a multi-million-dollar, mid-sized publishing company well before his March 1, 2022 Kickstarter shot north of $28 million in two weeks, making it the biggest campaign—for now—in Kickstarter history.

Killer Serials: Amazon’S Kindle Vella, Kathi Inman Berens

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

Can Amazon's Kindle Vella Break Through With Younger Readers? From its inception, Amazon has pushed book publishing toward a digital future that other entertainment industries such as video games and streaming media have been quicker to embrace. Kindle Vella, one of Amazon’s most recent digital programs, is worth watching.

Kindle Vella is a serialized reading experience folded into Amazon’s Kindle app. It quietly launched in July 2021. If it can catch on, it has enormous potential to capture the attention of a new generation of readers and writers already engaging serialized stories in apps like Webtoons and Wattpad--GenZers reading serialized …

Publishing In The Pacific Northwest, Kathi Inman Berens, Rachel Noorda, Nathalie Op De Beeck

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

Overview of how 11 Pacific Northwest booksellers survived Covid, and continue to thrive after pandemic lockdowns have lifted. After many consumers shifted to online book buying, what techniques are these book stores using to attract and keep customers?

The Pacific Sentinel: November/December 2021, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Vivian Veidt

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter From the Editor
• Police Resistance to Federal Vaccine Mandates
• COVID on Campus
• Death of the Damsel in Distress
• Game Night at the Dysfunctional Family
• Same Old Story, Different Title
• Socially Alive
• The 2021 Portland Book Festival
• PSU Student Feature: Nikki James
• Notes From Behind the Bar
• A Far Reach for Greater Idaho
• The Truth Pandemic

The Pacific Sentinel: September 2021, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Vivian Veidt

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter From the Editor
• The Opaque Places of Cinema
• A “PIG” in Portland
• Jazzed to be Back
• Notes from Behind the Bar
• The Predicament of Mayor Wheeler
• The City of Portland Must Cut Ties With Israel

Book Readers Who Are Buccaneers And Buyers, Rachel Noorda, Kathi Inman Berens, Chris Kenneally

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

These readers buy, subscribe to, and borrow books at higher rates than the general population. They engage at higher rates in fan fiction and discover new authors across multiple media, including streaming movies and television. These readers are also pirates.

Immersive Media and Books 2020 is the first study to capture data expressly about how people engage with books, video games, film, and TV. The final report focuses sharply on reader behavior across a wide range of demographic groups, based on surveys conducted before and during the pandemic.

Co-authors Dr. Rachel Noorda and Dr. Kathi Inman Berens probe especially for …

The Pacific Sentinel: May/June, Mini Issue, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Vivian Veidt

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter From the Editor
• Vaccine Hesitancy
• Campus Policing and the Call for Abolition
• Goodbye Afghanistan Palestine
• Where Memes and Cinema Collide

The Patriarchy In Publishing: Examining Effects Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Women (Non-Men) In The Publishing Industry, Grace E. Hansen

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

The purpose of my research was to determine how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted non-men in the publishing industry, and what this impact means for the patriarchal institutions in publishing in regards to the wage-gap, workplace sexism, and other factors explored in this paper. The research conducted includes anonymous survey data from thirty-four publishing employees, interviews with three professional women in management and other publishing industry leadership roles, and secondary research to substantiate my findings. A data overview suggests aspects of the patriarchal infrastructure in the professional world have been worsening with the pandemic for non-men: work-life balance, salary gaps, and …

Pride, Prejudice, And Diversity: The Retelling Culture The Development And Analysis Of Best Practices For Diverse Modern Re-Imaginings Of The Classics, Hannah Boettcher

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the publishing industry—in possession of predominately white authors, characters, and staff—must be in want of more diversity. At least, it should be such a truth because understanding is the first sentence of a much longer novel: the industry as a whole must be recast to represent all readers. From classic works to current bestsellers, there is an inherent need for not just more diverse books, but also an acceptance that the system requires more than just “surface level” solutions. This paper proposes four diverse modern retellings of Pride and Prejudice as a case …

Diversity And Representation In Oregon’S Battle Of The Books, Catharine Brown

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

This paper will examine the Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB) reading lists for the last five years, evaluating the diversity and representation within the books. An initial survey of the titles chosen for the OBOB reading list from 2016-2021 suggests that there has been more of an effort to choose diverse books in the most recent years, indicating that the titles being chosen are responding to the greater call for decentering whiteness within United States literacy programs. Literacy programs encourage students to read outside of the classroom. The competition-style program Battle of the Books offers game-based learning and allows …

The Influence Of Ursula K. Le Guin, Bailey Potter

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

The aim of this research study was to examine how Ursula K. Le Guin and her oeuvre were influential to contemporary and future writers, as well as what her influence was on the literary and publishing communities. Study was conducted through a qualitative interview process with seven Portlanders who have in some way been influenced by and/or who personally knew Le Guin. Using the transcripts from the interviews, I separated the information into themes and wrote out each section, synthesizing interviewee answers and using supplemental information to build my results. Ursula K. Le Guin influenced the literary and publishing communities …

Uncovering The Dirt On Cancel Culture: An In-Depth Analysis Of Publishing’S Relationship With Controversy, Alix Martinez

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

Cancel culture is a social phenomenon that has risen from the massive amounts of online users finding common issues and speaking up about them en masse on social media platforms. In recent years, this has become even more obvious as it is reported that social media users’ consumption has risen up to 72 percent more from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. This has brought the topic into the forefront of many debates and people are taking issue with it. These issues can vary but one thing is for sure: cancel culture does not appear to be slowing down anytime …

Covid-19 And Open Access In The Humanities: Impacts And Emerging Trends, Olivia Rollins

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

Discussions of open-access publishing tend to center the scientific disciplines, and this trend has continued during the Covid-19 pandemic. But while the pandemic has certainly shed new light on the importance of openly accessible medical research, its effects—from economic impacts to attitudinal shifts—have been felt and speculated about across disciplines. This paper presents an investigation into present and future impacts of the pandemic on open-access publishing in the humanities, which have historically been slower to adopt open-access models than other disciplines. A survey distributed to scholarly publishing professionals, academic librarians, and others working in open-access humanities publishing sought to determine …

Something Old, Something New: How Chapbooks And Crowdfunding Can Reduce Financial Risk For Small Publishers, Jennifer Lindsay

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

Small publishing houses often follow lean and nimble business models, yet the financial risk inherent in publishing for niche readerships can be a barrier for such entrepreneurial practices. Exploring the dual conditions of a less expensive and more eco-friendly format of a chapbook instead of an initial hardcover illustrated book, while determining pre-order interest through a crowdfunding platform, this paper looks at a process to reduce financial risk for small publishers who can’t necessarily do accurate comparative analysis for their sales projections. Common terminology is defined, supplemented by a literature review and a detailed ethnographic approach, including a case study …

What Compels Millennial Parents To Buy Books For Their Children?, Emma Wolf

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

Millennials (those born between 1981-1996) make up the largest generation in U.S. history, and due to their relatively recent entrance into parenthood, there is little preexisting information available about their purchasing habits, which differ greatly from those of previous generations (McGee). Now that millennials are becoming parents, companies targeting the children of this generation—including those in the book publishing industry—would benefit from a better understanding of how and why this demographic chooses products; this paper focuses on how they buy books for their children. Through academic research and a survey of 150 participants, several indicators were discovered regarding how millennial …

Consent Is Sexy: A Look Into The Influence The ‘Me Too.’ Movement Had On The Romance Genre Through Smart Bitches Trashy Books, Mary Williams

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

Romance has been a mainstream genre for centuries that has evolved and redefined itself throughout its existence. Often, especially in the last fifty years, readers of romance, and the genre itself, face the stigma of only being for bored housewives and therefore less legitimate than other fiction works. This is due to several factors: how controversial the content can be when it comes to consent in intimate moments, that the storyline can disturb the status quo of a patriarchal society, and that the female protagonist and her needs are considered more important than her male counterpart. Because of this stigma, …

The Pacific Sentinel: March/April 2021, Mini Issue, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Vivian Veidt

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter From the Editor
• Royalty Notwithstanding
• A Man, a Plan, and a Virus
• United We Stand?
• Dreamhouse and Other Horrors
• The Art of the Podcast

Immersive Media & Books: Consumer Behavior And Experience With Multiple Media Forms, Panorama Project, Rachel Noorda, Kathi Inman Berens

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

This is the first study to capture data about how people engage with books, video games and TV/movies. The study’s main emphasis is on behavior with books, with demographic data in three age groups, five U.S. regions, and seven racial/ethnic groups. Books exist in a connected media ecosystem where the most important customers are avid: avid book engagers (4+ books per month), but also avid consumers of other media. It is possible that these people are the ones who drove the 8.2% increase in book sales during 2020. This study finds that customers who engage avidly with books do so …

Ooligan Press: Building And Sustaining A Feminist Digital Humanities Lab At A R-2, Kathi Inman Berens, Abbey Gaterud, Rachel Noorda

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

How can practitioners outside of R-1s afford to build a DH lab? How to connect a lab’s output to the communities it serves? This essay is a case study of Ooligan Press, a student-run trade press housed within a R-2, teaching-intensive university. Two elements make Ooligan Press distinctive as a DH lab. First, Ooligan is a not-for-profit business folded into a Master’s program in Book Publishing. Profits from sale of Ooligan Press books sustain the lab, which would collapse if its books were steadily unprofitable. Second, the essay uses the DH feminism “M.E.A.L.S.” framework to explain how Ooligan's horizontal management …

The Pacific Sentinel, February 2021, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Vivian Veidt

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter from the Editor
• Georgia On Everyone’s Mind
• A Minimum Requirement of Neutrality
• An Unspoken Norm
• Pigs Saving Lives
• COVID-19 Affecting the Workplace
• Why Did President Trump Kill Federal Inmates on His Way Out?
• Reconstructing America

Entrepreneurial Identity In Us Book Publishing In The Twenty-First Century, Rachel Noorda

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

Entrepreneurship underpins many roles within the publishing industry, from freelancing to bookselling. Entrepreneurs are shaped by the contexts in which their entrepreneurship is situated (social, political, economic, and national). Additionally, entrepreneurship is integral to occupational identity for book publishing entrepreneurs. This Element examines entrepreneurship through the lens of identity and narrative based on interview data with book publishing entrepreneurs in the US Book publishing entrepreneurship narratives of independence, culture over commerce, accidental profession, place, risk, (in)stability, busyness, and freedom are examined in this Element.