Republic of Consciousness Prize
What an exciting evening for contemporary literature! Yesterday night, Influx Press won the young Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses, a literary prize designed for small publishing houses, employing no more than five full-time paid persons. The Prize was founded last year by author Neil Griffiths to reward small presses supporting "hard-core literary fiction and gorgeous prose". Last year’s inaugural winner was Fitzcarraldo Editions for Counternarratives by John Keene.
In this year's shortlist, which came out in February, you might have seen the following titles:
Die, My Love by Ariana Harwicz, tr. Sarah Moses & Carolina Orloff (Charco Press)
Gaudy Bauble by Isabel Waidner (Dostoyevsky Wannabe)
Blue Self-Portrait by Noémi Lefebvre, tr. Sophie Lewis (Les Fugitives)
We that are Young by Preti Taneja (Galley Beggar Press)
Attrib. and other stories by Eley Williams (Influx Press)
Darker with the Lights on by David Hayden (Little Island Press)
Since yesterday night, the winner is out, and the Book Office warmly congratulates Influx Press and Eley Williams, whose collection of short stories Attrib. and other stories made it to the Republic of Consciousness Prize!
On the French literary side, we'd also like to take the opportunity to focus on another book from the shortlist: Noémi Lefebvre's Blue Self-Portrait, whose translation by Sophie Lewis came out in June 2017, and which was in the spotlight, as was its publishing house, Les Fugitives. Congratulations to all!
Les Fugitives: books "fallen between the cracks"
Les Fugitives is a small publishing house headed by French translator Cécile Menon. Its aim is to enlarge the English-speaking literary landscape with short works by French-speaking women authors, whose talents are recognised in France, but who are pushed aside by other British publishing houses as they are judged too commercial or too "niche". Les Fugitives favours non-linear narratives, textes as it were, moving freely between genres. In Cécile Menon's words, Les Fugitives focuses on a type of writing which promotes a research in literature - which becomes obvious when you read the names of the authors which have been published: Ananda Devi, Nathalie Léger, Mireille Gansel and, of course, Noémi Lefebvre, whose Blue Self-Portrait made it to the RofC Prize shortlist.
This year, the catalogue will also include a man author, whose book about Louise Bourgeois fits perfectly with the other books published until now.
A little detour by Les Fugitives' website will give you a glimpse of the mission they have set for themselves, to bring original literature from French to English, right into your hands:
"Perhaps because we will be publishing no more than two to three titles a year, our translators and editors are provided with optimal conditions in which to perfect their work, far from usual commercial imperatives. Our books have all been critically acclaimed in France yet eluded the attention of more established publishers in the UK, ‘fallen between the cracks’ as it were.
[...] Traveling, wandering, deserting, running away… Les Fugitives are about stories of people who don’t fit in; stories raising old and new questions about gender and identity; stories about strangers, about almost-love, and about solidarity: today and in the second half of the last century."
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