Trade Talk

When Harvard Education Press (HEP) decided to launch a new trade series called 8 Story Street after decades of publishing primarily academic-focused books, it was no surprise that their debut trade author would be someone who bridged both worlds: the academic and the public.

The author, Marc Lamont Hill, is a professor of urban education and anthropology at City University of New York Graduate Center. He is also a host and commentator for media outlets like BET News and TheGrio, and the owner of a bookstore in Philadelphia called Uncle Bobbie’s. He even co-hosted reunion episodes of VH1s reality show, Basketball Wives. His new book, Schooling Against the Prison, comes out in November.

Steven Rodriguez, HEP’s marketing specialist, says an author like Lamont Hill — a renowned scholar and public intellectual — is ideal to launch the new trade series.

“His work reflects the qualities we hope will come to define 8 Story Street: intellectual rigor, accessibility, style, and a distinctive point of view,” he says. “Marc is also an amazing writer, and the book is really readable.”

The itch to start a trade series was something Jess Thomson started thinking about when she joined HEP as executive director in 2022 after more than 25 years in publishing. 

“When I first came, one of the immediate things I recognized was this need to broaden the kinds of books we’re publishing because you just can’t keep preaching to the choir,” she says. “We have had a very clear, distinct market. It’s people who are interested in education. It’s teachers. It’s practitioners. It’s administrators in both higher ed and K–12. And it’s time for us, as part of our growth strategy, to expand our reader base. Going into trade is the biggest, broadest market that you can attempt to reach.”

This means bringing in a new audience: the general public, says Rodriguez. “The trade books are not aimed at specialists. You don’t have to be immersed in the literature yourself.” The goal is to publish books that avoid jargon and instead value prose and communicate ideas clearly. “That’s really key for the series.” Trade books will also be smaller in size and sold at a lower price. HEP will approach marketing and publicity differently, pitching reviews to mainstream outlets like The New York Times and Kirkus and working with literary agents. 

Thomson says that doesn’t mean trade books won’t have heft. 

“The books that are going to be on the trade list will be based on research,” she says. “They will have that foundation and won’t be straying too far from our regular mission.”

Shannon Davis, executive editor of the press, says they will initially publish two or three trade books a year before expanding. After Lamont Hill’s Schooling Against the Prison, other topics include liberating education from its past, gentrification and childcare, and good intentions and bad incentives in higher education. “That's part of the aim of the series as well,” Davis says. “To broaden horizons a little bit, step outside of just education research, and look at all of these other spheres that are impacting how children grow up and learn.”

And now is the right time to do this with a new trade series, says Rodriguez, noting ongoing public debates about the value of higher education, equity, and attacks on teaching.

“This new series is partially trying to respond to some of those discussions and trying to make the knowledge accessible and available to everyone,” he says.

“This is not research that’s only accessible to people in the ivory tower — it’s responding to the current moment."