Sheffield-based And Other Stories is one such example, having won this year’s International Booker prize with Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi. It was “instructive” that this year’s shortlist was entirely indies, says the press’s publicist Michael Watson. Indies are “frequently the ones publishing the most interesting and exciting writers and books in innovative ways, often in the face of enormous challenges”.
You may recognise the stripped-back design of And Other Stories books, with a black and white text-based cover, launched in 2023. Distinctive, homogenous covers are a running theme across many indie presses: Fitzcarraldo Editions publishes its fiction in an International Klein Blue cover, its nonfiction in white. While this perhaps simply comes down to financial constraints, the streamlining means titles are instantly recognisable for readers browsing bookshops.
[...]The Southbank Centre’s first Indie Night will take place in February next year, hosted by Okechukwu Nzelu, author of The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney, and Eliza Clark, author of Boy Parts. The series aims to celebrate indie presses and their authors. “Independent publishing is the nutrient base from which everything positive and progressive grows in UK literature,” says Max Porter, resident artist at the Southbank. “Without our indie presses we have no counter culture.”
If you’re wanting to dig into some exciting work by UK indies, Bogen suggests looking out for Fosse’s first novel since winning the Nobel, Vaim, translated by Damion Searls and publishing next month, while Watson nominates Dreaming of Dead People by Rosalind Belben, published in August (which “rivals anything by Virginia Woolf”, according to Melissa Harrison’s Guardian review).
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