FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Longtime University of Illinois Press Editor Receives a 2010 NEA National Heritage
Fellowship

Champaign, Ill., June 29, 2010 — Retired University of Illinois Press executive editor
Judy McCulloh is the 2010 recipient of the Bess Lomax Hawes Award from the National
Endowment for the Arts. McCulloh is honored for her significant contribution to the
preservation and awareness of cultural heritage. She is one of nine honorees to be
recognized this year by the NEA in the category of folk and traditional arts. Previous
Heritage Fellows include B.B. King, Mavis Staples, and Bill Monroe.

During McCulloh’s tenure at the Press she developed the venerable Music in American
Life series, which documents the place of music in American culture. Archie Green’s
Only a Miner: Studies in Recorded Coal-Mining Songs inaugurated the series which
subsequently featured Nolan Porterfield’s Jimmie Rodgers: The Life and Times of
America’s Blue Yodeler, Robert Pruter’s Chicago Soul, Barry Lee Pearson and Bill
McCulloch’s Robert Johnson: Lost and Found, Paul Bierley’s The Incredible Band of
John Philip Sousa, Neil Rosenberg’s Bluegrass: A History, and Rosenberg’s book with
Charles K. Wolfe, The Music of Bill Monroe. To date, more than 150 books have been
published in Music in American Life.

“Judy has been an ideal editor for American music, combining meticulous organizational
and editing skills with a lifelong love for music in all its forms, jams, fashions,
ensembles, and joys,” said Willis Regier, Director of the University of Illinois Press.

In 1987 McCulloh served as president of the American Folklore Society and in 1988 she
established the Folklore and Society series. She retired in 2007 after 35 years at the
University of Illinois Press but remains a familiar face at music festivals and conferences
throughout the year.

For Judy McCulloh’s complete bio, visit the NEA site:

http://www.nea.gov/honors/heritage/fellows/fellow.php?id=2010_06

Contact:
Michael Roux, Publicity Manager
University of Illinois Press
mroux@uillinois.edu
217-244-4689