Sonya Bonczek

@sonyabonczek

Director of Publicity and Communications at UNC Press 📚📣 Currently reading: Fed Up: A History of Why You're So Stressed About What to Feed the Kids by Carla Cevasco (Spring 27, a W. Hodding Carter III book) and Maria, Maria by Jennifer Galvão (2/27, RHPG)

963 Folgt1.747 Follower717 Posts

Website Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir sonyabonczek.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· 13d

If I had to pick one??

Sea of tranquility
In the Woods
Fourth Wing
Wellness

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Jun 21

If you know the particular mix of love, sacrifice, expectation, and guilt that comes with immigrant parents, please read this one. Out Sept 15. And happy Father’s Day! @aadeleon.bsky.social

Advance Review Copy of Notes from a Wayward Son by Adrian De Leon.

“A masterfully written exploration of fatherhood, migration, identity, and masculinity. De Leon writes with the poet’s eye and the historian’s precision, crafting a deeply personal story that illuminates larger truths about family and belonging.” — Anthony Christian Ocampo, author of Brown and Gay in L.A. A Memoir.

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Jun 3

📕Advance Review Copies📕 of THE POLITICAL SUPREME COURT: A FORGOTTEN HISTORY by @rachelshelden.bsky.social are finally here!* Who needs a copy?**

Advance reader copy cover for The Political Supreme Court: A Forgotten History by Rachel A. Shelden (W. Hodding Carter III Books, an imprint of the University of North Carolina Press, on-sale October 2026). The front cover features the title in large black type on a white background, with the subtitle set against a torn red newspaper-style banner. The back cover describes Shelden's argument that the nineteenth-century US Supreme Court was openly political and deeply engaged in public life. An author photo and biography appear on the back cover, along with publication details and an "Advance Reader Copy" badge.

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· May 25

Kid enjoyed training with the 2d Virginia Regiment

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· May 25

Company of Comedians (comediennes) was a highlight

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· May 25

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· May 25

Memorial Day weekend in colonial Williamsburg

Tour guides dressed in colonial garb in front of the Governor’s Palace

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· May 21

If I wasn't flying out to Seattle for @aupresses.bsky.social conference the next day I would be hauling myself up to DC for this conversation between @gauthamrao.bsky.social and @ibramxk.bsky.social at @politicsprose.bsky.social next month! politics-prose.com/gautham-rao-...

Politics & Prose Presents: Gautham Rao with Ibram X. Kendi, discussing WHITE POWER. Thursday, June 11, 7pm, Conn Ave store.

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· May 20

¯_(ツ)_/¯

NYT Critic's Notebook: Where Have All the Book Reviews Gone? What the rise of A.I. and the gutting of books coverage across US media will mean for literature.

WSJ: Dad Books Are a Dying Breed. Sales have been sliding for nonfiction titles about politics, biographies and other books often aimed at men.

NPR trims jobs in newsroom overhaul as it confronts era without public funding.

Page-Turner. The Death of Book World. What the closing of the Washington Post's books section means for readers.

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· May 19

I just held the n button

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· May 16

My 10yo earned his Black Belt today 🥋🥹

United Taekwondo Academy - John Bonczek - Black Belt

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· May 7

Hot off the press: @gauthamrao.bsky.social’s WHITE POWER: POLICING AMERICAN SLAVERY, a sweeping history for the present, is finally here!

White Power: Policing American History by Gautham Rao

Blurbs from Annette Gordon-Reed, Alan Taylor, Justene Hill Edwards, Ryan Quintana, and Stephanie McCurry. A W. Hodding Carter III Book. The University of North Carolina Press.

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· May 1

Ask me about my least favorite dead person. Go on. I’M READY. New summer uniform is here 😎 @thisguysucked.com @ceaubin.com

This Guy Sucked podcast merch: wearing “hating for the love of the game” hat and “ask me about my least favorite dead person” t-shirt 😎

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Apr 21

Little sneak preview of @uncpress.bsky.social's gorgeous new seasonal catalog...isn't she lovely? 😍📚✍️

UNC Press Fall & Winter 2026 catalog cover

The Political Supreme Court: A Forgotten History by Rachel A. Shelden

Radical Souths book series, featuring If We Must Die: A Novel by Junius Edwards and backlist titles

This Insurgent Ground by Kathryn Benjamin Golden and Able to be American by Hannah E. Zaves-Greene

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Apr 17

Had a few drinks and made @rparkinson.bsky.social do a video. He is a good sport 🫶 and everyone should read The Common Cause AND Thirteen Clocks!!

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Apr 16

Sonya Bonczek Reporting Live is back, baby 😅🎙️📚 @uncpress.bsky.social editor Andrew Winters, who tells us about a new book exploring The Trinity: the iconic trio of portraits of JFK, MLK Jr., and Jesus that graced the walls of Black American homes from the mid-20th century through the 1990s.

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Mar 11

Mary Mendoza's DEADLY DIVIDE (April) brilliantly shows that ideas about race and ideas about nature have always been intertwined at the border, revealing how environments and bodies shaped a contested landscape. Historians of the US‑Mexico borderlands, the environment, and race-relations: take note!

Deadly Divide: How Insects, Pathogens, and People Defied the US-Mexico Border by Mary E. Mendoza (UNC Press; April 2026)

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Mar 7

Beautiful.

Publishers Weekly, March 9, 2026

How This Book Was Made

Center image: The book cover for Thy Will Be Done by John Garrison Marks, Univ. of North Carolina, Apr.

Author John Garrison Marks
“Our recent arguments about how to remember the founding fathers’ involvement in slavery may seem new, but nothing could be further from the truth. Americans have been arguing about George Washington and slavery for nearly 250 years.”

Art Director, University of North Carolina Press — Lindsay Starr
“The author secured permission from Titus Kaphar to use his painting Absconded from the Household of the President of the United States. Kaphar’s layered composition is the centerpiece: a traditional portrait of Washington overlaid with a shredded reproduction of his 1796 runaway ad for Ona Judge. That visual tension—portrait and erasure—perfectly echoes the book’s interrogation of historical silences.”

President, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates — Dan Mandel
“John wrote one of the most engaging query letters I have received in some time. Publishers are always on the lookout for authors who can bring history to life, and I was very excited to discover someone who could also be so mindful of the contemporary reader.”

Executive Editor, University of North Carolina Press — Andrew Kinney
“Marks’s book stood out from the crowd. There is an endless stream of books about Washington, but Marks’s keen sense of the American public’s shifting relationship with our first president gave his writing such a distinctive perspective. It was obvious that his book would tell us something new.”

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Feb 26

Winter Institute 2026 was a joy!Booksellers, publishers, authors brought real energy. Thanks to @gauthamrao.bsky.social and @johngmarks.com for making the trip to Pittsburgh and engaging booksellers from all over the country in convos about their important new books.

Team UNC Press and authors John Marks and Gautham Rao before the author luncheon and galley signing at Winter Institute

UNC PressPublicity director Sonya and Sales Manager Liz with authors John and Gautham at breakfast

Author Gautham Rao holding an ARC of his forthcoming book White Power

Author John Garrison Marks ready to sign ARCs of his forthcoming book Thy Will Be Done

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Feb 6

A marathon, not a sprint

74% of the way through Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Feb 3

Being Palestinian is not an identity crisis. From Rana Barakat's Ongoing Return: Mapping Memory and Storytelling in Palestine.

"Being Palestinian is not an identity crisis. It is not exceptional. It is about living with expectations and navigating the constant blend of hope and disappointment. The journey of this book is a journey of return. Being Palestinian means learning that we are always returning to Palestine. Ongoing return is a commitment to vitality surrounded by death and the apocalypse. It is not a vacation or a holiday; it not a simple equation to be rehearsed and then repeated. Return as a practice is embedded in the humility of never discovering the past
but instead always uncovering our pasts. That work is the method of this book." -Rana Barakat, Ongoing Return: Mapping Memory and Storytelling in Palestine

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Jan 21

So these beauties just landed on my desk. If you need an ARC for review or feature, LMK! @gauthamrao.bsky.social

Advance Review Copies of Gautham Rao's WHITE POWER: POLICING AMERICAN SLAVERY (inaugural book in UNC Press's W. Hodding Carter III trade imprint). On-sale May 12, 2026.

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Jan 14

Have to share the whole Publishers Weekly review because it's chef's kiss 💜 Snippet: "@drrashadshabazz.bsky.social's innovative music analysis imbued with geography, history, & social science deserves a standing ovation." PRINCE'S MINNEAPOLIS officially drops Feb 17!

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Jan 7

When the news moves fast, we turn to eminent scholars for context. @uncpress.bsky.social panel on Cuba, Venezuela, and US foreign policy happening now and will be shared soon. @renatakeller.bsky.social @cmcknichols.bsky.social @mateojarquin.bsky.social

Zoom panel discussion with multiple scholars during a virtual event about US policy, Cuba, and Venezuela.

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Dec 18

Reading a physical book >>> reading a Word doc on a computer @johngmarks.com

Advance Review Copy of Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory by John Garrison Marks (UNC Press; April 7, 2026)

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Dec 5

😤😤😤 (Just kidding, I love media that responds—even if it’s a pass 🫶)

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Nov 27

Watching the Ken Burns doc and yelling out every historian whose book I’ve worked on before their name hits the screen 🤓

Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at a tv screen

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Nov 18

LUX, but make it U N C P — featuring our religion titles draped around our printing press. And yes, that's a @uncpress.bsky.social tote bag on Stacy's head 😭

UNC Press employee re-creates Rosalía's iconic LUX album cover, while colleagues stage a dramatic Berghain music video scene around a real printing press covered in religion books, lolllllllll

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Nov 10

Exactly what I imagine would greet me at the gates of hell

Ross Douthat interviewing Helen Andrews and Leah Libresco Sargeant

Sonya Bonczek@sonyabonczek· Nov 7

Pressed play on Rosalía and immediately left the mortal realm