Here at Tilted Axis Press, the journey towards the writers and translators that we work with is just as wonderful as the following creative adventures. Tice caught up with Co-Publisher Deborah about the story behind the 2020 publication list for Tilted Axis Press. lifting lid dramatic music
Killing Kanoko and Wild Grass on the Riverbank by Ito Hiromi' – these two collections were already published in Jeffrey Angles' English translations by Action Books in the US. Action were on my radar largely because they publish another giant of contemporary feminist poetry, South Korea's Kim Hyesoon. The publishers Johannes and Joyelle are based in Ohio, and while on a residency in Iowa we did an event together on Korean translations. So either they mentioned Ito Hiromi, I saw her on the Action Books website, or something popped up on social media – in any case, I was always going to jump at the idea of publishing one of Japan's most highly regarded poets, who is also a radical feminist with 'shamanistic qualities'.
Ito Hiromi
Where the Wild Ladies Are by Matsuda Aoko – I was asked by the organisers of the UK's Japan Now festival to chair an event featuring a filmmaker and Matsuda. To prepare I read what was available in English – the new chapbook from Norwich's Strangers Press (translated by Angus Turvill), and a Granta online story translated by Polly Barton. The following year, when I heard from friends at Norwich's National Centre for Writing that Matsuda had a residency there that would coincide with WIT month, I organised an event for her and Polly in Sheffield, where I was based at the time. I asked them both what would be good to publish, Polly suggested the story collection Where the Wild Ladies Are - a contemporary feminist retelling of Japanese myths and folk tales, in which ‘ghosts’ are almost always tragic, wronged women. Next steps: I asked her for a sample and synopsis, applied for English PEN funding, and then got a partial grant.
Matsuda Aoko
Arid Dreams by Duanwad Pimwana – we'd worked with translator Mui Poopoksakul before, on two books by Prabda Yoon. When she told us she'd sold two books by Duanwad Pimwana to the US, we were sure it wouldn't be long before someone snapped them up for the UK. Oddly enough, that didn't happen, so we were more than happy to have the opportunity to publish a story collection which “expands feminist narratives” and reveals the author as “a true master of the form”, as well as complementing Prabda's Bangkok tales by being set among Thailand's rural working class. Even better, this means getting to work with Mui again, and to finally share a title with Feminist Press, our radical sisters across the Atlantic.
Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge – Jeremy Tiang is one of the most respected translators from any language (the very first to be named Translator of the Fair at the London Book Fair, no less), so I made it a point to get his email whenever we first coincided at some event in the UK (which he visits fairly often) and have been hassling him ever since to find out what he's working on. In early 2018 I read an interview he did with Yan Ge for the US' Centre of the Art of Translation about her novel Strange Beasts of China, “a fable-like rendering of a Chinese city in which strange creatures live alongside humans, but it isn't always easy to tell the two apart”, which was being adapted into a TV series. I emailed him for more info / a sample (which he'd already done), and then got a partial grant from the wonderful English PEN!
Yan Ge
Women Dreaming by Salma – I'd read Salma's previous novel, translated into English by Lakshmi Holmstrom as The Hour After Midnight, and published in India by feminist legends Zubaan Press, whose catalogue I check periodically (like most books published by Indian presses, I'd had to buy it online). This was before I founded TAP, so it was pure curiosity as a reader. When I heard that she'd written another novel, again shining a light on the lives of Muslim Tamil women in a village in southern India, I knew I wanted to publish it. I emailed Meena Kandasamy, who I'd gotten in touch with early on to recommend potential Tamil titles (trusting her taste as a writer / reading, and knowing that she'd also done translations herself), who then told me that Manasi Subramaniam at Penguin RH India had already contacted her about translating (Lakshmi Holmstrom having sadly passed away). She said she'd had to turn it down because of the fee and schedule – Indian publishers seemingly pay translators a rate much lower than the UK's standard £95 / thousand words – we offered to make it feasible for her by splitting the costs with PRH India (though we're paying more). To cover those costs, we fortunately got another partial grant from English PEN.
And that’s some of the story for you! We are publishing 6 fantastic books in 2020, 5 by radical women writers and the sixth is ‘No Presents Please: Mumbai Stories’ by Jayant Kaikini. A Tilted Axis subscription is a great way to get our books hot off the press, and you’d be joining a community of subscribers who engage in active conversations around the writers and translators we work with, and the topics around their work. As you can see there are so many logistics around bringing our books to a wider audience but we are so grateful for the support we receive in publishing these dynamic and world leading voices.
Which of our 2020 titles are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments below or on social media @TiltedAxisPress.