Publishers

This week I've been reading a short novel published by And Other Stories. In the 10 years since they came into being they have published 100 books, funding that publication partly through a subscription model. Publishing is always expanding into different means of funding, for instance Unbound, also a decade old, uses a crowdfunding model to publish both fiction and non-fiction books. Quite different from the older, established publishing companies. These newer approaches can only be a good thing, expanding the stories available to us all beyond the limits of the mass-market, so that we have a greater range of books to read. However in the course of this project I've noticed that it remains extremely difficult to read novels from some countries. There is only one North Korean novel published in the English language, there are many French novel but I have not found many novels translated into English that have been written in French-speaking countries in the African continent. My search for this kind of work continues, hopefully the story of my search will become more positive, less frustrated.

Most of the African novels that are widely available in the UK seem to have been written in English and many of them are Nigerian. I certainly wouldn't argue for a reduction in the amount of Nigerian fiction available but I would also like to see more translated work readily available in small bookshops and in my fantasy life I imagine more dynamic bookshops, chains that circulate and switch their stock between local stores a bit more readily so we, the readers, travel less but still get to explore a broad range of books in store from week to week. The sensation of holding the book, the ability to check that the typeface is good, well spaced, that the quality of paper is appropriate to the lifetime we desire to spend with the object, is invaluable when you are a reader.

In the last couple of years I have read 30 books for this project and the list of publishers is long and diverse, demonstrating the ongoing strength and potential of literary translations.

John Murray Press, Small Beer Press, Pushkin Press, Bloomsbury, Sceptre, Penguin, Yale University Press, Slavica, Faber, Europa Editions, Fitzcarraldo Editions, Open Letter, Feminist Press, Charco... all of these publishers and more sit on my shelves. I can only hope that as I continue to read my way around the world I will discover more publishers of contemporary translated fiction. My greatest hope is that finding books from many more countries will become easier over the the next few years.