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Across 2022, the Year of Stories, we are spotlighting Publishing Scotland members, who will share their own story in their own words. Get to know Charco Press, the award-winning independent publisher specialising in contemporary Latin American literature in translation.

What’s your story?

Charco Press is an award-winning independent publisher of exceptional contemporary Latin American literature in translation. Launched in Edinburgh in 2017 by Carolina Orloff and Samuel McDowell, our goal is to shine a light on the rich array of fiction currently coming out of Latin America. We aim to bring the region’s most exciting contemporary writers to new readers in the English-speaking world, publishing books that are entertaining, engaging and thought provoking. Charco Press meticulously seeks out the perfect translators to bring their authors’ work to life for English readers, often championing new and emerging translators, as well as established names.

Charco Press has already achieved international recognition, with one book longlisted and two shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, and the publishing house being named Scotland Small Press of the Year 2019 and 2021 at the British Book Awards. Marking its fifth birthday in 2022, Charco Press has recently launched an English-first series, ‘Untranslated’, embracing texts by English-speaking authors linked to Latin American culture, as well as its first Spanish-language OriginalES editions.

Tell us about some of your key stories.

We have to start with one of our very first titles, which put us in the spotlight straight away. Die, My Love, by Argentine writer Ariana Harwicz, was longlisted for the then Man Booker International Prize in 2018, and so provided an immediate profile boost for Charco. Further success in this prize has followed since with The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara and then Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro being shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2020 and 2022 respectively.

Prize success aside, there are several other key titles that help set out Charco’s vision. Dead Girls by Selva Almada is a work of journalistic fiction investigating the separate femicides of three girls in rural Argentina, and the societal conditions that result in these crimes remaining unsolved to this day. Resistance by Brazilian author Julián Fuks asks what it means to belong, through an exploration of exile and adoption. A Musical Offering by Luis Sagasti (and translated by Scottish translator Fionn Petch) is a playful yet serious trip through selected events in history, and the role that music played.

In 2022 we published Never Did the Fire by Chilean author Diamela Eltit, and alongside this we published a diary kept by the translator, Daniel Hahn, titled Catching Fire. This diary lays bare the process Danny followed as he translated Eltit’s novel – the challenges, the frustrations and the successes – in a very entertaining and enlightening work. Both are standalone works, or they can be seen as companions. This illustrates Charco’s focus on both the importance of translation and the role of translators, and our goal to demystify the process and make the world of translated fiction more accessible.

What draws you to a story? What makes a good story?

We are drawn to stories about the human experience, perhaps that shine a light on areas such as social justice or inequality. Part of the excitement in publishing stories in translation is seeing readers recognise and react to these experiences, even though they are set in a different world, and were originally written in a different language. When readers identify with a character or a situation it acts to reinforce the understanding that we all share so many challenges and emotions, no matter where we are from. This is part of what Charco is about. Beyond the focus of the story itself, we are also drawn to the author – to their style, their structure, their ability to play with language. A story has to, above all, entertain. These two aspects go hand in hand in order to really shine – a good story needs good writing, and good writing needs a good story.

What stories should we look forward to or check out this year?

Where to start! Salt Crystals by Cristina Bendek is set on the Caribbean island of San Andreas and is a wonderful exploration of the juxtapositions that exist there: Colombian territory, but closer to Nicaragua; ruled separately at times by the French, the British and the Spanish; a key port of call for the slave trade. A jumble of cultures, languages and races that have resulted in this island still seeking to understand its own identity today. Homesick by Jennifer Croft is the first novel in our Untranslated series – where we are providing a space for English-original works by translators or English speaking Latin American authors. It is a beautiful tale of growing up, sisterhood and language. The Forgery by Ave Barrera is a mad caper across a city in Mexico, with some nefarious characters along the way. Most recently we published Dislocations by Syliva Molloy. This is a beautiful investigation into memory and identity, through a friendship interrupted by dementia. Molloy, a legend in Latin American literature, unfortunately passed away just one month before the book was published – her first in English.

2023 is shaping up to be incredible. We have eight titles coming, including new works from Claudia Piñeiro and Margarita García Robayo – two favourites of ours. We also have gothic short stories from Bolivia in Fresh Dirt From the Grave by Giovanna Rivero, contemplations on life from the top of the Himalayas in Two Sherpas by Sebastián Martínez Daniell, and brutality of life at an abattoir in the Brazilian interior in Of Cattle and Men by Ana Paula Maia. Much to look forward to!

Learn more about Charco Press at @CharcoPress and charcopress.com.

Across 2022, the Year of Stories, we are spotlighting Publishing Scotland members, who will share their own story in their own words. Get to know Ailsapress, the Isle of Islay-based publisher aiming to produce work that reflects indigenous island life, and offers a memento to visitors who come to the island.

What’s your story?

Ailsapress is probably one of the smallest of Publishing Scotland’s Members, yet I think the story we have to tell could encourage others who are not looking to make it “big-time”, but want to enable creativity in the form of writing and/or illustration in their local community. 

At the start, I myself was an author unsuccessfully looking for a publishing outlet for what turned out to be our first book, The Tail of Ailsa, by myself Catherine Wilson and artist Ruth McLean. We had worked on the book 17 years before it finally came out under our imprint “Ailsapress” – named after the cat who belonged to Ruth! The book, a combination of verse and image, showed Ailsa about her daily business, sleeping, eating, watching birds and her fascination with water.

It was 2007 when the book came out. Ruth often says, by waiting so long to publish, we were able to take advantage of the advances made in digital programming both of images and publishing formats. In any case, I was immediately thrust on a steep learning curve – so much to learn! I hadn’t even thought about distribution when we started. But we were lucky enough to show the book to Matthew Perren of Bookspeed and he liked the book well enough to take it on.

I knew from the start that I wanted Ailsapress to serve as a publishing outlet in the Isle of Islay where I had recently retired. Islay had been a family basking ground from my earliest years. I know the island well and I imagined lots of books we could publish, especially as we have a busy tourist trade which, with the increasing number of Whisky Distilleries, is fast becoming a year-round trade rather than just seasonal.

Tell us about some of your key stories.

Back then, such was my ignorance that I did not realise that to become a publishing member of Publishing Scotland, one needed to have at least two authors other than yourself. Of course it makes perfect sense but talk about putting the cart before the horse! Anyway whilst I was waiting for my first ‘other’ authors, Ruth and I set about creating a young children’s series based on the adventures of two Islay ponies, Bramble and Coultoon. Then in 2011, Mary McGregor, a local Ileach who had been born and raised on Islay, approached me with some of her writing. I was delighted. She is a natural story-teller and her stories are about the crofting farm of her early years. Her writing is very fresh and apt for both our local community and our tourist visitors. 

My second ‘other’ author was Stuart Graham who wrote an account of Islay at the time of World War 1. So many Ileachs lost their lives in this war, their names are inscribed on the War Memorials but the detail of their lives is otherwise easily forgotten. Stuart took his title from a poem by Wilfred Owen, These Men are Worth Your Tears (2015). In 2016 we published Martine Nouet’s À Table: Whisky from Glass to Plate. Martine came to Islay as a whisky and drink journalist, malt whisky being one of the principle industries. She fell in love with the island decided to make her home here. There are so many places that remain wild and solitary on the island, and wherever you go, there will be some encounter to surprise you, a golden eagle, a double rainbow, or the sound of singing seals. 

In 2017, the Tom Thomson Gallery of Owen Sound suggested that Ruth and I do a book about the Canadian artist Tom Thomson and his dog. They had been selling our Bramble and Coultoon books and rightly envisaged that Tom and his dog would make a good story for younger readers. This came out in 2018 with the title Eulalie’s Journey to Algonquin with Tom Thomson. Our last two books are Mary McGregor’s The Seasons with Cindy and Lucy – Old Farming Ways on Islay published 2022, and Emily Carr and Raven – In the Darkness of Her Dreams by myself and Ruth MacLean published 2021.

What draws you to a story? What makes a good story? 

Since becoming a publishing member of Publishing Scotland, I have often been approached by budding authors and illustrators or sometimes by someone who wants a re-print of their book. I always answer such queries but so far nothing has tempted me. Partly this is because I wish to remain a publisher offering books that accord with Islay. As I am now in my early eighties, I would love to pass Ailsapress on to a younger person who has the same interest at heart. But there’s a funny twist: Ailsapress has found an outlet in Canada!

What’s next in the Ailsapress story?

In fact, right now at the time of writing, I am in Canada. Ruth and I are in the middle of a reading tour, mostly for our Emily Carr book but we’ve presented the Tom Thomson book in a couple of places too. Our book on Emily Carr is for the young adult reader and older. It tells the life story of Emily Carr (1871-1945) from an unusual angle which blends fact with fiction. She comes into this life as a lost tree soul and this determines her search to become “a real artist” to use her own words. It also accords with her love of trees. The story is very topical for present-day Canada. As well as her close relationship with the trees, Emily had a true empathy with the First Nations people. We have found audiences sympathetic and enthusiastic. We were especially happy with the response of teenage pupils in two Ontario High Schools and have already sold a class set to one school. It would be great to have our book come into its own as an educational tool. I should also mention that since her first collage interpretations of Ailsa her cat, Ruth’s collage work has become increasingly subtle. She is now using beautiful fibre papers from Japan – a treat to behold – and on this tour we have also done collage workshops. 

Learn more about Ailsapress at ailsapress.com.

Across 2022, the Year of Stories, we are spotlighting Publishing Scotland members who will share their own story in their own words. Get to know Swan & Horn, who focus on educating and publishing on health-related topics, with recent expansions into publishing for children.

What’s your story?

Behind a modest wooden door of an old weavers’ cottage in a sleepy Ayrshire town, Maria Carter can be found seven days a week beavering away at her publishing business. There’s no sign over the door, no carpark filled with staff cars, no payroll software on the computer. Swan & Horn is too small for all that. Small though it is, it’s perfectly formed. This international healthcare publishing business is run solely by Maria, with occasional support from a team of reliable Scottish freelancers. Husband Hugh provides endless cups of tea, makes trips to the post office to fulfil orders and organises couriers and gives priceless support at events. It used to be much more of a family business, involving their two daughters too before they launched off into their own careers.

Maria is an unusual publisher because she loves creating the books herself, from cover to cover – a lover of words, ideas and learning, who never wanted to lose touch with ‘content’. She only outsources proofreading and the odd bit of typesetting when she’s completely overwhelmed. Her route to publishing was also different, starting of as a medical scientist in the 1980s, with a masters in eye disease research, until Taylor and Francis offered her a job she couldn’t refuse, and set her off on a lifelong career in STM publishing. That was back in the days of hot metal, when authors were still wined and dined by lifelong Editors, who were their only contact through the publishing process. Maria decided to take her editorial and writing skills home in the early 1990s, to the best office in the world – in a high tower on the shore of Loch Long. Work flowed in to this first company, Shoreline BioMedical, from the major academic publishers and increasing numbers of academics, researchers and health professionals across the world. Over time, she was invited to write chapters for multicontributor books, and her clients asked for more production and design services. So when one highly satisfied client asked her to publish their coursebooks on patient safety (the NHS, in this case) she jumped in with both feet and Swan & Horn was born.

Tell us about some of your key stories.

Today you will find Maria commissioning just a couple of really useful books each year – her schedule doesn’t allow for more. She is also writing and co-writing several health-related books, and has long-term contracts with the World Health Organization and the Economist Health Intelligence Unit. Occasionally she takes on new client projects, but only if the topics are irresistible, such as Benjamin Black’s Belly Woman and Mair Crouch’s Law & Genetics (note that Maria did not design the cover of the latter). The last couple of years have been madder than ever as the covid pandemic brought in a deluge of extremely important work relating to vaccinations, and also required Maria to manage the set-up of a publishing wing for a clinical-training provider in Turkey.

She still harbours a romantic vision of the publisher/editor–author relationship, so she has always engaged totally with her authors, discussing initial content and ongoing strategies over meals; staying close by their sides through the whole process ­– because she is also the editor, indexer, typesetter, designer, blurb writer, illustrator, metadata originator, marketing strategist and more. Authors flourish with this rich collaboration, of course, and they love that just one person works with them and every word they write, knowing them and their content inside out. For her part, Maria finds nothing more satisfying than taking the nugget of an idea or the rough draft of a book, polishing it, wrapping it up, sorting out its future, sending it out into the world, and taking it to the readers who need the information. It perhaps isn’t the best business model, but that isn’t the company’s aim or ethos.

Swan & Horn’s authors also love the fact that Maria tore up the publishing rule book long ago, allowing room for complete flexibility and creativity, not just in editorial terms (“If it’s needed, we can do it”), but also in terms of inventive promotion – pop-up shops and educational events, presence at international medical conferences, designing courses, getting books onto university curricula and exploring documentary televisation; then there’s the poetry readings by Irvine Welsh, live surgical demonstrations, performing dogs (after learning to walk again), storytelling videos and woodland treasure hunts for children’s books.

What draws you to a story? What makes a good story? 

Swan & Horn champions voices that have to be heard, and attempts to fill niche needs and gaping holes: not least the need for medics to try acupuncture for lost (patient) causes; the need to prevent millions of child deaths from malnutrition each year; the need to address institutional racism and mental health in schools; the need to help victims of war; the need to improve child mental health (and teacher mental health) through appropriate schooling, lifestyle and parenting(!); the need to prevent chronic back pain from extended sitting; the need to prevent errors in doctoring and operating; the need to address bullying in all its forms; the need to fight against prejudice and stigmatism and improve inclusivity!

Maria also tries to keep things local, not just the freelancers and printers she uses, but also her authorship. Most of her authors are Scots – such a learned bunch, comprising international opinion leaders, globally acclaimed academics and clinicians, professors, surgeons, educationalists and psychologists; several with OBEs for their services to healthcare. The talented authors and illustrators of her new range of children’s wellbeing books are homegrown too, inspired by Scottish landscapes and the need for children to engage with nature and develop resilience.

What stories should we look forward to or check out this year?

Shortly coming out is a book by a Dundee-based professor on the global nightmare that is infant-feeding policy and the inappropriateness of current breastfeeding advice, both of which contribute to the ridiculously high infant-mortality rate (millions a year), wasting, stunting and cognitive problems. Also based in Dundee is one of the authors of their forthcoming humanitarian surgery book, to be distributed by the David Nott Foundation. The other author is David Nott himself, author of bestselling memoir War Doctor. This is not mainstream content, but a how-to manual in stain-resistant loose-leaf binder format for surgeons to use in the field (literally) in active, resource-poor war zones, to make life-saving decisions that are simply not taught in medical schools. Other publishers turned down it down; “If it’s needed, we can do it.” There is no firm deadline for completion because of the unpredictability of the authors’ lives, having to shoot off at short notice to deliver training to surgeons in the furthest flung corners of the world, and notably Ukraine in the past year where they have already upskilled nearly three-hundred surgeons.

Maria is proud of her harder-hitting books (both published and planned) for the difference they can make to the world. Her ambitions simply relate to saving lives, and making life better for people whose lives aren’t so obviously threatened. One of her ambitions is for one of her titles to win the BMA Book Awards, like some of the other books she has worked on over the years. Her only regret is that she didn’t begin publishing a decade earlier.

Learn more about Swan & Horn at swanandhorn.com.

Across 2022, the Year of Stories, we are spotlighting Publishing Scotland members, who will share their own story in their own words. Get to know the Scottish Book Trust, who deliver a number of programmes across Scotland, including BookBug and their New Writers Awards, to inspire and empower readers and writers at all ages and stages.

What’s your story?

Scottish Book Trust has been bringing the benefits of reading and writing to everyone in Scotland since 1998. Every year, we deliver our world-class programmes and annual awards to well over two million people. From introducing books and storytelling to pre-school children to inspiring and empowering adult readers and writers, we believe it’s never too early – or too late – to begin a magical journey with words.

We deliver our programmes in every local authority area in Scotland and we work with partners ranging from small community groups to the Scottish Government. You’ll find us in schools and libraries and at community events. You’ll find us in towns and cities and in isolated, rural communities. And you’ll find us bringing books to life for children in care, families living in challenging circumstances and people in prison. In short, you’ll find us wherever we’re needed most.

Tell us about some of your key stories

Every year, a select group of unpublished writers are accepted on to our New Writers Award programme, which gives them a cash bursary as well as a year of mentorship and a chance to share their work with agents and publishers. We publish samples of their work in a collection called New Writing each year, with previous volumes including writing by Gail Honeyman, Graeme Macrae Burnet, Kirsty Logan, Nadine Aisha Jassat, Kirstin Innes and Helen Sedgwick.

As part of Book Week Scotland’s annual celebrations, we publish a book which gathers real-life stories from people across Scotland on that year’s theme. We received hundreds of entries this year through our Your Stories project, and 25 were selected to feature in the published book – but all the entries are available to read on our website.

This year’s book, Scotland’s Stories, as part of Scotland’s Year of Stories, will be available to collect for free from libraries and other community spaces across the country during Book Week Scotland (14–20 November), and ebook and audio formats are available online. The books also feature commissioned stories from published writers, and this year’s includes pieces by Angus Peter Campbell, Raman Mundair, Graeme Armstrong and Helen Fields.

What draws you to a story? What makes a good story?

We always want to hear stories from across Scotland, from people from all walks of life. We love exciting storytelling in all its formats, and work hard to make sure we amplify the voices of those who are often under-represented in publishing. The New Writers Award selection panels change each year, calling on the expertise of brilliant writers to help us find brilliant voices. The award also offers an access fund to help support awardees with additional barriers, for example covering childcare costs or buying assistive technology.

We apply a similar ethos to Your Stories and the Book Week Scotland book – we encourage people across Scotland to share their stories, from those who write regularly to those who haven’t written before. We believe every person has a story to tell and that telling that story is powerful. Every year we use a different theme to help people write about their lives, their way, and we share those stories far and wide.

What stories should we look forward to or check out this year?

Scotland’s Stories will be out and about across Scotland during Book Week Scotland on 14–20 November – you can find copies at libraries and other community spaces, and digital and audio versions are available on our website.

Volume 14 of New Writing will be released in January 2023, featuring writing from the 2022–23 cohort of New Writers Awardees, which will be available to read digitally on our website. New Writers Awardees from previous years have recently published books or have books coming up: the Booker-longlisted Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet, The Pharmacist by Rachelle Atalla, Ace Voices by Eris Young (December 2022), Now She is Witch by Kirsty Logan (January 2023) and Weak Teeth by Lynsey May (July 2023).

Learn more about the Scottish Book Trust at @ScottishBkTrust and scottishbooktrust.com.

Across 2022, the Year of Stories, we are spotlighting Publishing Scotland members, who will share their own story in their own words. Get to know Arkbound, the literature and media social enterprise that publishes books whilst seeking to improve social inclusion, environmental awareness and diversity.

What’s your story?

Arkbound was founded with the support of the Princes’ Trust in 2015, and later was registered as a charity in 2017. Our focus from the beginning has been empowering people from the most disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds to have their voices heard through writing. In particular, work that covers some important environmental or social theme. For us, it has always been about recognising the power of writing for  both writers’ own wellbeing and the wider readership, in terms of raising awareness of pressing issues and dispelling stereotypes or discrimination. 

Being a small charity and publisher has of course been fraught with challenges, somewhat reminiscent of the same obstacles that those we work with often face: lack of finance, limited resources, stretched capacity, and so on. But we have gone on to deliver a series of activities, supporting over 35 disadvantaged authors, and are also proud of our ongoing focus on the environment, with tree planting initiatives (2000 oak saplings planted so far since 2019) and publications that cover various aspects of climate change. In 2021 we became the UK’s only accredited organisation in the literature sector by the United Nations Environmental Programme; we’ve also received diverse support from a variety of bodies, including Big Issue, Creative Scotland, Resonance, and the Council of Europe. Through this support, we have managed to develop new initiatives, such as Crowdbound – a new crowdfunding platform for books and projects that has successfully funded over 5 campaigns since being launched in July this year. Our imprint, Palavro, also enables the distribution of books in Europe – which formerly was a challenge to us due to the import fees caused as a result of Brexit.

Tell us about some of your key stories. 

We have published a diverse range of titles that generally share the same theme of being by a disadvantaged or under-represented author, who is writing about an important social or environmental theme. These include fiction and non-fiction. Some books, such as David Onamade’s ‘Sorrow, Tears and Blood’, cover what it is like to experience street homelessness (David’s book was shortlisted for the Kavya Prize in Glasgow earlier this year). Other books explore the impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities and how people can adapt using nature-based solutions, such as ‘Great Adaptations’ by Dr Morgan Phillips (recently to be translated in Japan). We are also proud of supporting groups who would otherwise face great challenges in accessing publishing: for example, Lauren Smith’s ‘Tick Tock: It’s Time to Listen’ showcases what it’s like for a teenager with autism in the education system, whilst our anthology of ‘Writing Within Walls’ was the result of a national writing competition for serving prisoners to convey what gave them hope. On another level, our fiction list has included titles like ‘Lullaby in the Desert’ by Mojgan Azar, who uses her own experience to tell the story of a woman journeying through the Middle East to find freedom.

What draws you to a story? What makes a good story? 

We love stories by those with lived experience of disadvantage or who have been under-represented in publishing. They can convey powerful and unique perspectives that would otherwise go unheard, and can play a crucial role in informing the wider public on issues that they might not have prior full understanding of, or been deliberately misinformed of by some press outlets. There is no greater power in literature than when a widespread perception is turned on its head, revealing an entirely new dimension to society and sometimes to reality itself. This can be done both through fiction and non-fiction, as shown by some of the greatest literary works across history – still read hundreds and even thousands of years after they’ve been written. Of course, finding such a title is always a publisher’s dream, and ultimately only time determines which ones these turn out to be.

What stories should we look forward to or check out this year? 

Our next title, ‘Prickelus Gets Caught’, is the heart-warming story of a hedgehog that reminds readers of the importance of tenacity and the kindness of humans who are willing to help. An illustrated children’s book, it combines the elements of a thrilling adventure, alongside puzzles, autumn crafts and tasty recipes – all written by an author experiencing a significant disability. In 2023, we also welcome ‘Beggar Bee Nameless’ – another fiction title that follows the work of a Deceased Affairs Officer who is investigating cases of the ‘Nameless’, people who have died but are unidentified. It is a battle against the odds – an interweaving tale of grief, hope and redemption – and we hope readers will love it!

Learn more about Arkbound at @arkbounduk and arkbound.com.