Our Mission
Ooligan Press is a student-run trade press rooted in the Pacific Northwest dedicated to cultivating the next generation of publishing professionals. We prioritize literary equity and inclusion. Ooligan strives to publish culturally relevant titles from our local, marginalized voices in order to make literature accessible and redefine who has a place within its pages.
Green Press Initiative/OpenBook
Ooligan Press is a proud publisher of books produced using sustainable methods and materials. Surrounded as we are by the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest, we are acutely aware of the importance of responsible and conservative use of natural resources through sustainable practices. In order to minimize our impact upon the environment, we have joined the effort of the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit program that aims to incorporate more environmentally sound practices into the book- and newspaper-publishing industries. For more information, visit the Green Press Initiative website.
The OpenBook Series is all about transparency and accountability in publishing. Our OpenBook titles undergo environmental audits, which Ooligan Press makes possible by keeping careful records of every publishing decision we make. Our dedication to sustainability allows us to operate with clear conscience, and to promote the cause by educating others in the community about the importance of environmentally responsible publishing practices.
What Does Ooligan Mean?
The name Ooligan is adopted from a Native American word for a smelt otherwise known as the candlefish. The ooligan was an abundant natural resource in Pacific Northwest rivers. It may well be the word from which the name Oregon was derived. During the trade of the valuable fish oil to tribes east of the Rockies, the L in Ooligan was replaced with an R, giving us the sound Ooregon. Gradually, this usage became the name of a place and assumed its current spelling of Oregon in the course of history.
Contact Us
Have questions? Comments? Compliments (yep, those are our favorites)? We’d love to hear from you! Leave us a message, and Ooligan’s publisher’s assistants will respond within forty-eight hours.
If you’d like to get in contact with us directly, click here (or copy and paste our address: ooligan@ooliganpress.pdx.edu).
You can also contact Ooligan Press via snail mail:
Ooligan Press
P.O. Box 751
Portland, Oregon 97207
Phone: 503.725.9748
Fax: 503.725.3561
If you would like to receive regular updates about what’s going on both at Ooligan Press and Portland State’s graduate program in book publishing, subscribing to our newsletter is any easy way to do so.
Acknowledgements
“Portland State University is located in the heart of downtown Portland, Oregon in Multnomah County. We honor the Indigenous people whose traditional and ancestral homelands we stand on, the Multnomah, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Tumwater, Watlala bands of the Chinook, the Tualatin Kalapuya and many other indigenous nations of the Columbia River. It is important to acknowledge the ancestors of this place and to recognize that we are here because of the sacrifices forced upon them. In remembering these communities, we honor their legacy, their lives, and their descendants.”