Our Purpose

Rice Universe Publishing publishes books and other materials by Lowell and Joan Uda. With our publications, convening of Writers' Groups, teaching, and speaking, we want to celebrate story and language and to show how the stories of our individual lives and traditions create meaning for our diverse communities.

 

How We Came to Be  

We are a very small, self-publishing venture based in the Helena, Montana area.  We began in July, 2007, for the express purpose of publishing Joan Uda's first book, At the Water's Edge, God's Grace in Everyday Life, a collection of Joan's short inspirational stories about her own life and the lives of others she knows.  Many of Joan's stories appeared first in the weekly inspirational column she writes for the Helena Independent Record and the Great Falls Tribune. Since the publication of the first volume of At the Water's Edge, we have publlished a second volume, At the Water's Edge, God's Grace in Everyday Life, Vol. II, more of Joan's stories (Dec. 1, 2008). In addition we have published an audio book collection of Joan's Christmas stories called Christmas at the Water's Edge: Joan Uda's Christmas Stories Read by Joan and Friends.

Where We Are Going

In the fall of 2012, we began publishing some of Lowell Uda's writings as e-books at Smashwords.com. These books include an expanded version of Under the Hala Tree, Twice Told Polynesian Myths and Legends, Keeping Shop and Other Early Poems, Yoga and Other Poems, and Valley of Blue Hope, a collection of poems about living in the Helena valley of Montana. We also published Kindle Editions of Joan Uda's At the Water's Edge, God's Grace in Everyday Life, Vol. I & Vol. 2, What Gifts Does the Christ Child Bring, a collection of Advent and Christmas stories), and The Jade Locket, a Memoir, Joan's memoir about her father, Warren W. McAllister, based primarily on her father's WWII war records, focusing on his service on Okinawa and in post-war Korea. These books will also be published as e-books at Smashwords.com.