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The History of Uplift Press
Louise Hart’s first book, The Winning Family: Increasing Self-Esteem in Your Children—and Yourself, was published by Dodd, Mead in 1987, and they went out of business in 1990. With her daughter, Kristen Caven, she acquired the rights and founded Lifeskills Press so she could continue her speaking career. By the time Celestial Arts took it over in 1993, about 50,000 copies had already been sold; Celestial arts sold about 20,000 more. The Winning Family was translated into Portuguese (in Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, and Australian (the “moms” were changed to “mums”). We believe nearly 100,000 copies were sold internationally.
Louise’s second book, On the Wings of Self-Esteem, was also published by Celestial Arts in 1994. It was also published in Spain and Russia. When our beloved editor, David Hines, died, Celestial Arts was purchased by Random House, and after a few years, everything but cookbooks were discontinued. We created Uplift Press to rescue Wings! In 2010 we also re-printed two books by Dr. Pat Palmer, which were originally published by Impact Publishers. Liking Myself and The Mouse, the Monster, and Me are excellent companion guides for children that complement our books for parents. We turned the rights over to Bolden Publishing and continue to promote these excellent guides for teaching self-esteem and relational skills with great pride.
When Louise approached Hazelden Publishing about re-releasing The Winning Family, they requested a book on bullying, instead. Co-writing with Kristen, Louise wrote The Bullying Antidote: Superpower Your Kids For Life and launched The Zorgos Reader as a companion to the book, an online resource for changing thinking about bullying. In a curious turn of events, the nation elected a bully and publishers stopped selling books on bullying. Kristen asked Hazelden to donate the remainders to a non-profit, Oakland Parents Together, published a discussion guide, and created a citywide give-away culminating in The Zorgos Awards.
Meanwhile Kristen, who had been working on a musical version of Cinderella, novelized her story and published The Souls of Her Feet as a fundraiser. The story was so well-liked that Uplift Press released a new version in 2015, and in 2019 partnered with Bublish to give this book a wider audience.
In 2017, Louise and Kristen also published More Time to Love, an inspiring memoir by family friend Joseph L. Wions, whose children helped shape his story about living longer with ALS.
Louise has always dubbed Kristen “The Vision Department.” In the 1980s, Kristen coined the term “positive parenting” to help promote Louise’s presentations such as Win-Win Kids in a Win-Lose World, and to distinguish them from the popular Positive Discipline books and concept. Louise’s Shaping Great Kids with Positive Parenting class became her biggest hit and the term is now used by many parent educators worldwide, though not often in conjunction with Positive Psychology.
Louise Hart and Kristen Caven are a mother-daughter team of writers and educators who have collaborated on a number of books, the most recent being The Bullying Antidote (Hazelden, 2013). They created Uplift Press to expand access to inspiring books that resonate with one another and provide hope and positivity skills and resources.