Publisher du Jour – Al Manar Éditions

Al Manar Éditions
Illustration by Rachid Koraïchi  for Le Livre de la frontière (2006)

Al Manar Éditions is an independent publishing house dedicated to the art and literatures of the Mediterranean with a notable focus on the Arab world. Established in 1996 within the Galerie Al Manar in Casablanca, directed by Alain and Christine Gorius from 1994 to 2003, the editorial house is now based in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, and has published nearly 400 titles to date. Whether in translation or in original language, the majority of their books are in French. Well-known writers in their catalog from the global south include Vénus Khoury-Ghata, Adonis, Abdelkebir Khatibi, Mohammed Bennis, Abdellatif Laâbi, Mostafa Nissabouri, and Salah Stétié. From Europe and among others, there is Sylvie Germain, Jean-Pierre Millecam, Nicole de Pontcharra, as well as Kabila, a French painter of Andalusian Roma origin. Others include Syrian poets Aïcha Arnaout and Maram Al-Masri, Lebanese writers Etel Adnan, Georgia Makhlouf, Leïla Sebbar and Albert Bensoussan, who, by virtue of their family origins and their background, belong to both shores of the Mediterranean, like Anne Rothschild, an Ashkenazi poet and engraver who is often met in Tahar Bekri Ramallah—a Tunisian poet, or Özdemir Ince a—Turkish poet and man of letters as well as the Catalan translator and literary critic Jaume Pont.

Al Manar serves as a reputable vehicle of dissemination for the staggering diversity of thought and creative talent in the Mediterranean region. The UC Berkeley Library is proud to hold more than 40 of its imprints with several of the more precious artists’ books shelved in The Bancroft Library. The publishing house regularly exhibits at the Codex Book Fair and Symposium held biannually in Richmond and Berkeley.


Featured Publisher – Edizioni e/o

The independent publishing house Edizioni e/o was founded in Rome in 1979 by Sandro Ferria and Sandra Ozzola who had a profound interest in cultural dialogue and exchange. Early on they focused on literary translations into Italian, particularly with writers from Eastern Europe, but soon began to publish writers from their own country as Lia Levi, Gioconda Belli, and Elena Ferrante. In 2005, the founders launched Europa Editions which brings into the English-speaking world some of the Europe’s best contemporary writers. Here are a few of the latest Edizioni e/o titles in Italian that can be found in Berkeley’s collection:

 

 


Aristas Martínez Ediciones

Aristas Martínez

Established in 2010 in Badajoz, Extremadura the independent Spanish publishing house Aristas Martínez declares that it exists for both readers and booksellers, avoiding classification by genres by delving into the boundary between fiction and non-fiction. It traces editorial lines and poses challenges to its authors in placing difficult projects. These include works by Javier Calvo, Jorge Carrión, Laura Fernández, and  Colectivo Juan de Madre.


Publisher du Jour – Tinta da China

 

Tinta da China ediçôes

This is a new blog sub-thread I thought might bring attention to publishers, both large and small, that constitute so many of the books of interest in UC Berkeley’s diverse international collection. Edições Tinta da China, based in Lisbon, publishes a varied selection of books in translation and in the original Portuguese by authors like José Eduardo Agualusa, Rui Tavares, António Ventura, Luiz Pacheco, and more.