michael reynolds – Three Percent

Interview with Michael Reynolds about Europa’s Nonfiction Line

Chad Post — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 17:00:54 +0000

Thanks to AWP I’m a few days behind in my April posts, but as will be explained in full tomorrow, this month’s main focus is going to be on nonfiction in translation. Our (use NONFICTION at checkout), and I’ll be writing a lot about recent nonfiction titles, various trends, and why my statistics are incomplete (and what you can do to make them more complete). In addition, I have a few interviews lined up—some written, some bonus episodes of the podcast. So stay tuned!��

Also, I have two really fun/goofy ideas for posts that I think people will like. And a follow-up to the International Writers Hall of Fame.

Busy month! And I haven’t even mentioned season eight of the Two Month Review featuring Sjón’s�� . . .

Anyway, here’s an interview with Michael Reynolds of Europa Editions on their new nonfiction series.��

Chad W. Post: What prompted Europa’s decision to start a line of nonfiction in translation?

Michael Reynolds: As always, a combination of factors. Personal tastes and interests first of all. Several of us in-house are or have become of late avid readers of short- and long-form nonfiction, and as editors or publishers, whenever you’re reading something great, you can’t escape the “I wish I could publish/had published this” feeling. When those books are part of an entire genre that you’re not currently publishing in, well, you have to create a new imprint!

Probably one of the reasons we are reading so much narrative nonfiction is because there is a prevailing global sense of philosophical or idealogical disorientation at the moment. Politically, it’s a shit show. Culturally, things are shifting dramatically, in most cases in a positive direction, but this still creates confusion and kind of cultural light-headedness. There are global crises — global to a degree that crises never have been before — that make the ground beneath our feet quake. These kinds of things render is eager for answers, or at least guidance, or, somehow paradoxically, alternative viewpoints. I will always think that the best books in which to “find answers” are novels. But finding answers in fiction is hard work, the work of a lifetime, and right now I’m finding it necessary to strike a more even balance in my own reading between fiction and nonfiction, in order to keep myself grounded, in a way. And the gamble with Compass is that I’m not alone. The Compass titles will be very much geared to the kinds of readers who also enjoy the fiction titles on our list. They will be very narrative, informative, erudite, most of all, entertaining, but will address some big questions more directly than our fiction titles seem to do.

Another reason we’re interesting in publishing international nonfiction is the dire paucity of nonfiction in translation in the American market. I mean, you and I both know how tragic the situation is for fiction and poetry in translation. It’s ten times worse for nonfiction (and 100 times worse for YA and middle grade in translation). As the translator Esther Allen recently commented—it really resonated with me—this leaves readers with the impression that fact is the sole property of English (I’m paraphrasing). I felt that addressing that paucity fit with the conversation that Europa has been attempting to have with readers here for the past fifteen years.

Finally, two considerations: the quality of nonfiction being written these days—It’s just astounding how much great work in this area is out there—and the fact that most of it is being written in languages other than English, and written in ways that by and large are not being adopted or utilized by Anglo-American writers of nonfiction. The possibility of injecting the American market and American writing with a shot of new narrative models for nonfiction is exciting.

CWP: Is there a particular type of nonfiction book that you’re seeking out?

MR: We’re starting out with subjects ranging from pop-history, philosophy, and art history to literary travel writing and subjects of general interest written by scholars, journos, and experts in their respective fields with a talent for storytelling. It’s got to be very narrative, for, as I said, we’re hoping to bridge between general fiction- narrative nonfiction-readers. Most of the books we’ll be bring out with Compass will be on the shorter side—under 200 pp. This is a form that has a long, illustrious tradition in many parts of the world (and one that I love) and, I think, has been catching on in this market of late.

CWP: Do you have any sense of how nonfiction in translation is received compared to fiction?

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MR: Not yet! I’ll let you know when I do have an idea.

CWP: What specific challenges do you see with launching a new line of this sort?

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MR: Many nonfiction titles in this market do well because their authors have a strong, preexisting platform — they’re talking heads, university professors, online celebrities, rich people with influence, etc. It’s not really the strength of their writing or the force of their ideas that make the books successful. The books and book sales are just sort of accessories to a successful rise to celebrity status thanks to other endeavors. There are notable exceptions of course, indeed too many to list.

At least in terms of our nonfiction titles in translation, we don’t anticipate having the luxury of that kind of author platform. So, that’s going to be a challenge. That said, most of our fiction authors are either “absent,” reticent, anonymous, or have names that are impossible to pronounce, and things are going okay so far. So, we’re optimistic.

CWP: Speculate widely about this statement: The market for fiction in translation is saturated; more publishers will be expanding into nonfiction, YA, and kids books over the next decade.��

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MR: No, I don’t think the market for fiction in translation is saturated. Perhaps the market is saturated for fiction . . . or for books . . . in general. There is no denying that publishers are publishing waaaay too many books and this makes it difficult for anything of any real quality to emerge, remain, and create consensus and/or conversation. In this, our industry is playing into and fomenting the general sense of atomization and disintegration and we should stop it! But fiction in translation is hardly the culprit. I think publishers of works in translation will start branching into other genres because it’s time, because it’s part of the process of normalization of the market and its relationship to international works.

CWP: Which titles do you have lined up for your series?

MR: —Antoine Compagnon spends a summer reading and reflecting on Montaigne, in 30 short chapters he takes readers on a stroll through key moments, key points/.

—The cultural, social, political and economic factors that allowed an unruly aggregation of city-states to become, during the Italian Renaissance, the center of the westerners world and exert an outsized influenced on modernity.

The Ingenious Language: Nine Epic Reasons to Love Greek (via nine of its most intriguing quirks). A��surprise and mega bestseller in Italy, by Andrea Marcolongo.

A New Sublime: Ten Lessons on the Classics by Italian classicist Pietro Boitani.

Berezina by Sylvain Tesson—Four friends (2 French, 2 Russian) retrace Napoleon’s epic fail on motorbike and side car, reflections on history and modern europa, friendship and adversity.

Poets & Writers Roundtable on Publishing Translations

Chad Post — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 18:28:41 +0000

A few months ago, Jeremiah Chamberlain invited me to participate in an indie-press roundtable on publishing translations with Barbara Epler from New Directions, Michael Reynolds of Europa Editions, Jill Schoolman of Archipelago Press, and CJ Evans of Two Lines. This ended up being a long, sprawling email conversation, that just was included in the most recent issue of

It’s a really long piece, I know, I know, but one that’s loaded with great information from the other people on the panel. Here are a few samples:

What issues do you feel are most pressing for independent publishers in general and those working with literature in translation in particular?

Michael Reynolds (Europa): In my mind, the No. 1 issue concerning the publication of work in translation is that of discoverability and promotion. I’m not entirely convinced that we have to dramatically increase the number of books in translation published here at all costs, but I definitely think that we need to grow the audience for those books that are published. Over the past ten to twenty years it seems to me that the focus has been on printing as many titles in translation as possible. But printing is not the same as publishing. I would like to see us all work more, and together, on innovative and effective ways of getting our books into the hands of a larger number of readers. [. . .]

Barbara Epler (New Directions): I agree, and also, I think the main concern is finding readers for amazing books. Not necessarily flooding the market with more and more translations—as if that vision of emulating the flood of new English-language titles will get anyone anywhere. Say we wanted to have the German ratio of translated titles. Really? If we approach 40 or 50 percent, then we would have, say, 100,000 new translated titles annually. That also seems crackers.

Jill Schoolman (Archipelago): I’d say the most mysterious [issue] is how to survive. Someone should write a how-to book on the subject. How to keep our authors and translators writing, and how to stay afloat as a press when what trickles in doesn’t always amount to what’s flowing out in various directions. Because the dimensions of the industry—publishers, booksellers, librarians, reviewers and bloggers, distributors, readers, writers, agents, translators, educators—are changing so rapidly we need to find new ways of collaborating. [. . .]

Michael Reynolds (Europa): I’d like to talk a bit about the work of “outreach.” Obviously, this kind of activity fits more squarely into the mission of a nonprofit or a press connected with a university in the way Open Letter is. But I think it is also something that all presses should engage in. We have lost the ability to talk about books in meaningful ways. Most people are unable to go much further than a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down, or appraise a work of literature with more than “I hated it” or “I loved it.” As a culture—I mean outside of our very limited clique—we have become critically illiterate; we no longer know how to understand, let alone express, the social, political, cultural, historical significance of a book. For that matter, we are almost incapable of expressing its significance for us even on a personal level. It may just be the way of the world—I think many people are conversant on the social and cultural significance of Breaking Bad, for example—and I should get over it. At the same time, I think a more critically literate readership would not only be important for the culture but would also mean that presses like ours would sell more books. Thus, perhaps efforts to grow this kind of critical literacy should be calculated more explicitly as part of our marketing budget. We are, after all, not simply trying to “break into the market” but also attempting to shape that market.

Let’s talk about a “critically literate readership,” the decline of which people often attribute, at least in part, to the shuttering of book pages in newspapers and decreased coverage for literature in periodicals. But at the same time, as the editor in chief of Fiction Writers Review, I also know that there are a number of venues out there for thoughtful discussion of books. So where are people having the sorts of conversations about books that you wished more readers were aware of? Or what avenues for outreach would you either direct people toward to widen those conversations or propose creating, if you’re not already engaged in doing so?

Michael Reynolds (Europa): I think you’re opening up a can of worms with this one. The conversation is long, deep, and broad. I’m going to try to condense some of my thoughts into morsels.

You’ll have to go to the to find those morsels . . .

Feature on Europa Editions

Chad Post — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:54:55 +0000

has a special feature on one of the coolest presses out there. It’s mostly an interview with editor (and translator) Michael Reynolds, who recently moved to New York from Rome to work in Europa’s U.S. office.

PP: How would you characterize Europa’s publishing philosophy?

Michael Reynolds: It’s an extension of the original idea of Sandro Ferri and Sandra Ozzola. They started publishing authors from Eastern Europe in Italy about 35 years ago, when very few other publishers were doing so. Europa Editions is an extension of this same idea. Six years ago when the company was founded there were so few non-anglophone authors being published in America. It struck us as a shame that readers had no access to these authors, and, at the same time, it presented itself as a business opportunity.

PP: How have you developed such an avid fan base in such a short time?

MR: We publish for readers. The kinds of books we acquire, the way we package them, the way that we do outreach and try to create a dialogue with our readers, as opposed to publishing for critical acclaim or academic acceptance; we have our readers in mind at every stage of the process. We have been rewarded for this approach by their enthusiasm. Booksellers, too, are a very important part of that. We give them books that they can feel passionate about, that they can be proud to display, and most importantly that they can sell.

PP: How would you describe your readers?

MR: I would probably put them into two groups. There are those who are curious to read something from another country because it is from another country, and then there is a larger group of readers who don’t really care where a book comes from or what language it was written in. They are interested in an entertaining read, food for thought, quality fiction, a strong story — more or less the same things they look for when they chose any book, by an international author or otherwise. There are many publishers doing work in translation that are really good at reaching the first group of readers, but perhaps less expert in reaching the second group.

Click to read the entire piece.