The Apprenticeship Program

Unpaid internships have long caused disparities in equity and representation within the arts, effectively denying a valuable first credential to those who cannot afford to work for free. To address the effects of this in independent publishing, UDP created an intensive apprenticeship that is compensated at a fair wage. Launched in 2018 with private foundation support and grant funding from the New York State Council on the Arts and the NY Regional Economic Development Councils, UDP’s Apprenticeship Program gives an annually selected cohort of two to three early-career artists and literary professionals the skills to launch careers in publishing, nonprofit administration, graphic design, and the arts while earning $19 per hour for a two-day-a-week position.

Our program places apprentices at the center of the book production process. Over the course of the year, they participate in all stages of book publication—everything from design, typesetting, and proofreading to post-publication marketing and distribution. Apprentices assist with typesetting books and designing covers; they learn the basics of hand-setting and printing in our letterpress workshop. In addition to essential tasks like shipping orders, review galleys, and desk copies, they maintain the Presse’s website and social media accounts, publicizing our authors and our books and reposting poetry, translation, and small press news. Apprentices compose press releases for new titles and prepare promotional copy for our online and print catalogs; they research academic contacts and new partnerships with bookstores and libraries.

In this learning-by-doing approach, apprentices play an essential role in the day-to-day operations of a nonprofit publisher. However, with guidance from our editorial collective, they also propose and undertake their own projects—like interviewing UDP authors, facilitating in-studio workshops, and researching organizational partnerships—making direct, individual contributions to UDP’s mission. Apprentices also manage a blog where they post original features about our backlist titles, compose photo-essays about our events and archival materials, and advocate on behalf of small press concerns.

UDP’s mission carries forward small press traditions of autonomy and invention; the Apprenticeship, like all our educational programs, emphasizes the cultural importance of editor- and artist-run publishing collectives. As a nonprofit publisher with a letterpress workshop in-house and an output of more than twenty-five titles a year, UDP provides a working experience that is broadly recognized and valued. Our apprentices and interns have gone on to positions at WW Norton, Oxford University Press, Zone Books, and more; others have used the experience to launch careers as freelance photographers, graphic designers, letterpress artists, and editors, and some went on to found their own literary magazines, chapbook presses, and other independent, nonprofit, and collective artistic ventures.

Apprenticeships typically start in the fall and end in the spring. To receive information about applying to the Apprenticeship Program, please sign up for our newsletter.

For short-term internships and volunteer opportunities, please visit our Opportunities page.

You can also sign up to receive notice of volunteer “Presse Days” and other opportunities by joining the Volunteers Mailing List.