The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publisher with distinguished books in several academic areas and in poetry and short fiction, as well as books about Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania for general readers, scholars, and students.

The Press was founded in 1936 with funding from the A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, the Buhl Foundation, the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, and the University of Pittsburgh.

Our mission is to "extend the reach and reputation of the University through the publication of scholarly, artistic, and educational books that advance learning and knowledge and through the publication of regional books that contribute to an understanding of and are of special benefit to western Pennsylvania and the Upper Ohio Valley region."

In its efforts to acquire the best available scholarship, the Press has focused its scholarly titles in selected academic areas: history, political science, international studies, Latin American studies, Russian and East European studies, composition and literacy studies, and history and philosophy of science.

Books about Pittsburgh and the region include history, art, photography, biography, and guidebooks.

Special series include the renowned Pitt Poetry Series; the Pitt Latin American Series; Illuminations: Cultural Formations of the Americas; Security Continuum:  Global Politics in the Modern Age, the Pitt Series in Russian and East European Studies; the Pittsburgh Series in Composition, Literacy, and Culture; the Pittsburgh-Konstanz Series in the Philosophy and History of Science; and History of the Urban Environment. Annual publications include volumes in Milton Studies and Cuban Studies and the winners of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, the Donald Hall Award Series in Poetry, and the Drue Heinz Literature Prize.

Working with the cultural institutions in the community, the Press distributes and copublishes selected titles with the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the Carnegie Library, the Helen Clay Frick Foundation, the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, the Frick Art and Historical Center, and the Mattress Factory.