RofC Newsletter Number 7
Free Inclusion and Diversity training for small presses, a call to crowd-fund the work of a major writer, a thriller from Corylus Books, a short story collection from Holland Park
As usual a range of small press news. I want to urge everyone to support the work of Paul Griffiths, published by Henningham Family Press.
Paul is a broadly Oulipian writer, fiercely intelligent and deeply human. It seems there isn’t any setting from which he cannot make a novel: Beethoven in America, the guards of Jesus’s tomb, the life of Ophelia.
It’s important to accept, I think, that we’re now in a world where not every important writer is going to be published by a mainstream house. And that if we’re to ensure the biodiversity of literature continues flourish, other models of financing books need to become the norm. There is something both paradoxical and ironic that crowdfunding has become so important to literary fiction, with its connotation of the masses rather than an elite; that it’s a bottom-up process: anyone with a few quid to spare is contributing to the production of an artwork, rather than being reliant on the largesse of a wealthy benefactor. It might be the long way round, but it’s the right way round.
Also, it is my prediction that Paul’s oeuvre will be regarded as an important and singular contribution to the novel in years to come.
Indie Novella
Indie Novella is non profit social enterprise based in North London and they do a lot of things. Least of all they are offering Inclusion and Diversity training to small business in books. In partnership with the Arts Council, The Diversity in Publishing Partnership is a large scale initiative to bring together various key actors in publishing such as literary agents, independent publishers, booksellers and authors, to discuss diversity and inclusion and how we can champion it and better reach underrepresented writers.
If you’re interested, everything is explained here: https://www.indienovella.co.uk/diversity-partnership
Henningham Family Press
Henningham Family Press are fundraising now for two new books by Paul Griffiths. The author was longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize in 2021 with Mr. Beethoven, which was also shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. His brand new novel 'let me go on' is published alongside a 15th anniversary re-issue of his seminal book 'let me tell you', in which Ophelia tells her own story, yet limited to the words allocated to her by Shakespeare.
Please help support our studio by pre-ordering the paperback or limited editions here(https://henninghamfamilypress.co.uk/crowdfunding) Our last two handmade editions sold out before we even started making them, so don't delay!
“Paul Griffiths is one of a handful of fine writers to find the secret passage leading from restriction to richness.” Adam Mars-Jones
“She speaks as if feeling for the edges of her world. Her consciousness matures as she moves towards a fate that is already decided, yet we see her decidedly take control of her fate.” Caroline Clark, author of Own Sweet Time
Corylus Books
Corylus Books has acquired Argentinian author Elsa Drucaroff’s novel Rodolfo Walsh’s Last Case, in a translation by Slava Faybysh which completes the work begun by the late David William Foster.
The events of Rodolfo Walsh’s Last Case take place during Argentina's military dictatorship, dramatising the real-life mysteries around the murders of iconic journalist Rodolfo Walsh and his daughter María Victoria. Both were members of the clandestine Peronist Montoneros movement which clashed with government forces throughout the 1970s, although he was starting to question the principles and methods of the group in the last few years of his life.
The contract for the book was signed directly with the author – appropriately – on 24th March, Argentina’s Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice.
Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Elsa Drucaroff is a professor of Languages and Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. She is the author of four novels and a collection of short stories. A prolific essayist, Drucaroff has written books on the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin, on Argentine novelist Roberto Arlt, and on youth politics in the post-dictatorship period. She has also published numerous academic and non-academic articles on topics such as Argentine literature, literary criticism, and feminism. Her work has been translated into many languages, but will now be appearing for the first time in English with this exciting translation for Corylus Books.
The book is scheduled for release in spring 2024.
Holland Park Press
We’re delighted to announce the publication of Over the Edge, a new poetry collection by Norbert Hirschhorn.
Norbert had a distinguished career as a national health physician, commended in 1993 Bill Clinton as an American Health Hero and the 2023 recipient of the Pupin Medal, conferred by Columbia University, before embarking on a career in poetry.
Over the Edge is a very personal collection inspired by Hirshhorn’s move back to the USA after having divided his time between London and Beirut for quite a few years.
Moving to a new place puts things into a new perspective and makes one aware of passing time and can lead to a form of alienation. Themes like these play a role in the first set of poems.
In 1944, the Hirschhorn family emigrated from England to the USA, to an apartment in New York. The very personal poems in the 853 Riverside Drive section reflect on this event from the father’s, mother’s and son’s point of view with a lament about the sister who never made it to New York.
Aspects of being in exile are being explored in the third section drawing on Hirschhorn’s roots in the Middle East and Finland. This section also features a few poems by his friend Fouad M Fouad, an exile from Aleppo, co-translated from the Arabic.
The last section puts everything in a wider perspective based on what’s gone before, different spiritual experiences and memory. ‘A vast small book, multi-vocal, rooted in past and present, in Mittel-Europa, New York, and Lebanon, everywhere humane and brotherly in its words and vision.’ – Marilyn Hacker
‘A mature and searching work that takes you by the hand and walks with you through doubt, and darkness into wonder and mystery.’ – Jacqueline Saphra
Over the Edge, ISBN 9781907320996, 67 pages, £10.00, will be published by Holland Park Press on 22 June 2023.