Celebrating Indie Presses 2023
Here are some of the many independent presses worth discovering this week.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to find a new book to read, and to seek out new exciting writers outside the handful represented in the major newspapers, one must seek out indie presses.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all readers are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of great literature. That, to secure these rights, presses are instituted among people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the dedicated readers who buy their books.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that readers flock to presses that are mighty and powerful, with large catalogues and advertising space abundant.
But, when this system means that the most exciting, daring literary voices are neglected for the more marketable ones, it is our right, our duty, to seek out alternative presses, to support them by buying, reading, reviewing, and recommending their books to our friends.
We, therefore, at the Center for the Art of Translation and Two Lines Press, do wholeheartedly salute our fellow indie presses! We further declare that as small and independent presses we have full power to publish original, daring, and groundbreaking work, and to do all other things that free and independent presses may of right do. — And in the spirit of this Declaration, we pledge to actively seek out work by underrepresented and emerging presses, authors, translators, and books.
Archipelago Books
(opens in a new tab)Try: Dawn(opens in a new tab) by Sevgi Soysal, translated from Turkish by Maureen Freely
City Lights Publishers(opens in a new tab)
Try: Forgotten Journey (opens in a new tab)by Silvina Ocampo, translated from Spanish by Suzanne Jill Levine
co•(opens in a new tab)im(opens in a new tab)•press(opens in a new tab)
Try: The Loose Pearl(opens in a new tab) by Paula Ilabaca Núñez, translated from Spanish by Daniel Borzutzk
Deep (opens in a new tab)Vellum(opens in a new tab)
Try: Sweet Undoings(opens in a new tab) by Yanick Lahens, translated from French by Kaiama L. Glover
Dorothy Project(opens in a new tab)
Try: Me & Other Writing(opens in a new tab) by Marguerite Duras, translated from French by Olivia Baes & Emma Ramadan
(opens in a new tab)Kaya Press(opens in a new tab)
Try: Lament in the Night(opens in a new tab) Shōshon Nagahara, translated from Japanese by Andrew Leong
Milkweed Editions(opens in a new tab)
Try: Stone-Garland: Six Poets from the Greek Lyrical Tradition(opens in a new tab), translated by Dan Beachy-Quick
The Song Cave(opens in a new tab)
Try: Paper Bells(opens in a new tab) by Phan Nhiên Hạo, translated from Vietnamese by Hai-Dang Phan
Transit Books(opens in a new tab)
Try: Siblings(opens in a new tab) by Brigitte Reimann, translated from German by Lucy Jones
Ugly Duckling Presse(opens in a new tab)
Try: I Named Him Me: Selected Poems of Ma Yan(opens in a new tab), translated from Chinese by Stephen Nashef
