Craig Gill Interview
Craig Gill is the director of University Press of Mississippi. He’s been working in the academic world for more than three decades, with stints at Northwestern University Press, University of Chicago Press, and University Press of Kentucky. He’s been at Mississippi since 1997.
How did you get to where you are today, professionally?
I have been working in the university press world for 33 years, starting in August 1990 when I took a leave of absence from graduate school at the University of Chicago and found a job as a Marketing Assistant at Northwestern University Press. I never went back to graduate school but found a home in publishing. From there, I went to the University of Chicago Press, where I was an editorial assistant and promotions manager, University Press of Kentucky, which was my first job as an acquisitions editor, and then University Press of Mississippi in October 1997, where I have been ever since.
My interest in music books goes back to Chicago, where I was the assistant working on several great books like Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation by Paul F. Berliner and the whole range of titles in the Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology Series. From the ethnomusicology list, my most memorable moment was a Manu Dibango concert in Chicago celebrating the release of his book, Three Kilos of Coffee, which came out right before I left Chicago. With those titles as my starting point, I have been acquiring music titles for three decades.