On July 1, Niko Pfund assumed the directorship of Yale University Press, succeeding John Donatich, who led the book publisher - among the world's oldest and largest academic presses - for more than two decades before retiring last June.
A veteran of scholarly publishing, Pfund joined from Oxford University Press, where he worked in New York as global academic publisher and president of Oxford's U.S. division.
In this Q&A, he discusses his early months at Yale, the special role of university presses, the value of strong book titles, a recent Press bestseller, and how he's been thinking about AI. He also shares the benefits of his (flexible) one-book-in, one-book-out rule at home.
We met in his high-ceilinged, book-lined (of course) office in the Press's headquarters across from the New Haven Green.
The conversation, from late September, has been condensed and edited.
