Archipelago Books

The critical reception and reader response to our Books continued to be positive, with reviews in the new york times, the wall street journal, harper's magazine, the los angeles review of Books, world literature today, the tls, kirkus reviews, library journal, among many other publications. Over the course of 2022 we published 13 new titles: distant transit by maja haderlap, translated from german by tess lewis; blaze and the castle cake for bertha day by claude ponti, translated from french by alyson waters & margot kerlidou (elsewhere); salka valka by halldr laxness, translated from icelandic by philip roughton; moldy strawberries by caio fernando abreu, translated from portuguese by bruna dantas lobato; a postcard for annie by ida jessen, translated from danish by martin aitken; what feelings do when no one is looking by tina oziewicz, illustrated by aleksandra zaj?c and translated from polish by jennifer croft (elsewhere); brenner by hermann burger, translated from german by adrian nathan west; ti amo by hanne rstavik, translated from norwegian by martin aitken (named a financial times best book of the year), kibogo by scholastique mukasonga, translated from french by mark polizzotti, joo by a thread by roger mello, translated from portuguese by daniel hahn (elsewhere); the last days of terranova by manuel rivas, translated from galician by jacob rogers; dawn by sevgi soysal, translated from turkish by maureen freeley; and the last pomegranate tree by bachtyar ali, translated from kurdish by kareem abdulrahman. We reprinted four titles: job by joseph roth, translated by ross benjamin; pan tadeusz by adam mickiewicz, translated by bill johnston; journal of an everyday grief (translated by jeffrey sacks) and in the presence of absence (translated by sinan antoon) both by mahmoud darwish.we aim to reach a wide array of readers: lovers of literature, educators, students, translators, immigrant communities, activists, young readers, prison populations, and anyone interested in exploring other cultures. Our Books and events illuminate voices on the margins by presenting a diverse, far-reaching stories (in terms of race, gender, and queer representation) to an ever-growing, similarly diverse audience. Readings (in-person & virtual) with our authors, translators, and a variety of interlocutors (including merve emre, alexandra kleeman & andrea lawlor, edmund white, among others), offered our readers access to a diverse range of literary traditions. We distributed 300 to 400 advance reading copies of each title to booksellers, critics, librarians, bloggers, radio producers, and writers. We also solicited endorsements for every book, handpicking writers whose names were most relevant to the audience we believed the book would appeal to most. Our marketing budget also included the production and distribution of 8000 print catalogs. We donated 300 Books to prison programs and 200 Books to boys and girls clubs.in 2022, book sales were strong, particularly for laxness's salka valka, oziewicz and zaj?c's what feelings do, and mukasonga's kibogo. While our distributors take 30%, these steady sales throughout the year allowed the press to find financial footing in this challenging publishing landscape, which is still feeling the pain of supply-chain realities. It has become increasingly difficult to keep all of our backlist in print. The cost of paper and production continues to rise (by about 45% over the last three years). Lannan foundation, one of our most committed funders, has announced that it will be closing its doors, so we are continuing to broaden our fundraising efforts (by seeking new foundation support and reaching out to new potential donors) with energy and creativity. The press is in good financial health, with sales on the rise and a strong press coverage and our growing membership program, but steep printing and shipping costs along with inflation make it difficult to expand our staff (and offer our core staff pay raises), take on new initiatives, cover the expenses of reprints, or establish a cash reserve for the future.