Tilted Axis Press
 | |
| Status | Active |
|---|---|
| Founded | 6 June 2015 |
| Founder | |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Distribution | NBN International |
| Publication types | Books |
| Nonfiction topics | Asian literature |
| Official website | tiltedaxispress |
Tilted Axis Press is a non-profit British publishing house specializing in the publication of contemporary Asian literature.[1] Founded by Deborah Smith in 2015 following the success of her translation of Han Kang's The Vegetarian,[2] the organization has gone on to publish 42 books and several chapbooks translated from 18 languages.[3][4] Tilted Axis became known as the original translator and English language publisher of Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yu,[5] which went on to receive critical acclaim as both a book and translation.[6][7] Their profile rose higher in 2022, when Tomb of Sand, written by Geetanjali Shree and translated by Daisy Rockwell, won the International Booker Prize, marking the first novel written in Hindi to take the award.[8]
History
[edit]As of 2017, Tilted Axis Press made the largest share of their sales through traditional brick-and-mortar retail (35.1%), with the second largest channel being direct local and international sales through their website.[9] Although the press has only received limited distribution outside of the United Kingdom, some books have been co-published internationally. For example, in 2018 The Lifted Brow, under their Brow Books imprint, co-published their translation of "The Impossible Fairytale" in Australia.[10][11]
In 2021 Tilted Axis launched a crowdfunding campaign to support the translation and publication of several chapbooks covering feminist literature, raising over £5,000 in total. One of the collections in the series, Pa-Liwanag, received a positive review from CNN Philippines, who stated the book "proves that writings by farmers and peasants are overdue".[12]
In July 2022, following Tilted Axis's victory at The Booker International Prize, Deborah Smith announced that she was stepping down as Publisher and Managing Director. At the same time, Kristen Vida Alfaro was announced as her successor in these roles.[13]
The publisher has been noted for its choice in content, often "unconvential" with a focus on feminist and queer themes, and its focus on the translators themselves, who are prominently credited and given royalties from book sales. As of 2025 Tilted Axis has eight part time employees.[4]
Tilted Axis expanded its distribution network to the United States in February 2025. Previously, it had licensed works to American publishers.[4]
Titles
[edit]| Book index[14] | Title | Author | Translator | Publication Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Panty | Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay | Arunava Sinha | 2016 |
| 2 | One Hundred Shadows | Hwang Jungeun | Jung Yewon | 2016 |
| 3 | Indigenous Species | Khairani Barokka | 2016 | |
| 4 | The Sad Part Was | Prabda Yoon | Mui Poopoksakul | 2017 |
| 5 | The Impossible Fairytale | Han Yujoo | Janet Hong | 2017 |
| 6 | Abandon | Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay | Arunava Sinha | 2017 |
| 7 | The Devils’ Dance | Hamid Ismailov | Donald Rayfield | 2018 |
| 8 | Moving Parts | Prabda Yoon | Mui Poopoksakul | 2018 |
| 9 | I'll Go On | Hwang Jungeun | Emily Yae Won | 2018 |
| 10 | Tokyo Ueno Station | Yu Miri | Morgan Giles | 2019 |
| 11 | Sergius Seeks Bacchus | Norman Erikson Pasaribu | Tiffany Tsao | 2019 |
| 12 | The Yogini | Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay | Arunava Sinha | 2019 |
| 13 | Of Strangers and Bees | Hamid Ismailov | Shelley Fairweather-Vega | 2019 |
| 14 | Every Fire You Tend | Sema Kaygusuz | Nicholas Glastonbury | 2019 |
| Killing Kanoko / Wild Grass on the Riverbank | Itō Hiromi | Jeffrey Angles | 2020 | |
| 15 | Where the Wild Ladies Are | Matsuda Aoko | Polly Barton | 2020 |
| 16 | Arid Dreams | Duanwad Pimwana | Mui Poopoksakul | 2020 |
| 17 | No Presents Please | Jayant Kaikini | Tejaswini Niranjana | 2020 |
| 18 | Women Dreaming | Salma | Meena Kandasamy | 2020 |
| Pa-Liwanag (Translating Feminisms) | 2020 | |||
| Deviant Disciples (Translating Feminisms) | 2020 | |||
| 19 | Strange Beasts of China | Yan Ge | Jeremy Tiang | 2020 |
| 20 | Black Box | Shiori Ito | Allison Markin Powell | 2021 |
| 21 | Manaschi | Hamid Ismailov | Donald Rayfield | 2021 |
| 22 | Tomb of Sand | Geetanjali Shree | Daisy Rockwell | 2021 |
| 23 | Love in the Big City | Sang Young Park | Anton Hur | 2021 |
| 24 | Happy Stories, Mostly | Norman Erikson Pasaribu | Tiffany Tsao | 2021 |
| 25 | Chinatown | Thuận | Nguyễn An Lý | 2022 |
| 26 | Father May Be an Elephant and Mother a Small Basket, But... | Gogu Shyamala | Diia Rajan et al. | 2022 |
| Violent Phenomena: 21 Essays on Translation | 2022 | |||
| 27 | So Distant From My Life | Monique Ilboudo | Yarri Kamara | 2022 |
| 28 | Unexpected Vanilla | Lee Hyemi | Soje | 2022 |
| 29 | No Edges | Swahili Authors (various) | Various Translators | 2023 |
| 30 | I Belong To Nowhere | Kalani Thakur Charal | Sipra Mukherjee, Mrinmoy Pramanick | 2023 |
| 31 | The End of August | Yu Miri | Morgan Giles | 2023 |
| 32 | A Book, Untitled | Shushan Avagyan | Deanna Cachoian-Schanz | 2023 |
| 33 | dd’s Umbrella | Hwang Jungeun | e. yaewon | 2024 |
| 34 | Again I hear these waters | Shalim M. Hussain | 2024 | |
| 35 | To Hell with Poets | Baqytgul Sarmekova | Mirgul Kali | 2024 |
| 36 | Elevator in Sài Gòn | Thuận | Nguyễn An Lý | 2024 |
| 37 | My Dream Job | Norman Erikson Pasaribu | 2024 | |
| 38 | Delicious Hunger | Hai Fan | Jeremy Tiang | 2024 |
| 39 | On a Woman's Madness | Astrid Roemer | Lucy Scott | 2024 |
| 40 | Revathi: A Life in Trans Activism | A. Revathi | Nandini Murali | 2024 |
| 41 | Our City That Year | Geetanjali Shree | Daisy Rockwell | 2025 |
| 42 | Off-White | Astrid Roemer | Lucy Scott & David McKay | 2025 |
References
[edit]- ^ "About". Tilted Axis Press. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
- ^ "Translator Becomes Publisher: Deborah Smith and Tilted Axis Press". Publishing Perspectives. 25 August 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
- ^ Hession, Ronan (29 October 2020). "#TranslatedLit An Introduction to Tilted Axis Press". Global Literature in Libraries Initiative. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
- ^ a b c Alter, Alexandra (15 February 2025). "A Tiny Press Took a Big Risk on Experimental Books. It Paid Off". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 March 2025.
- ^ Rich, Motoko (27 November 2020). "Her Antenna Is Tuned to the Quietest Voices". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
- ^ "Review | Yu Miri's 'Tokyo Ueno Station' focuses its attention on the shamefully overlooked". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
- ^ "National Book Award winners announced". Books+Publishing. 23 November 2020. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
- ^ Marshall, Alex (26 May 2022). "Hindi Novel Wins International Booker Prize for the First Time". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
- ^ "The business of small presses: 4 things we learnt the hard way | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ Whitmore, Alice. "Australia's taste for translated literature is getting broader, and that's a good thing". The Conversation. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ "Brow Books begins co-publishing partnership with Tilted Axis Press". BROW BOOKS. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ "This new chapbook proves that writings by farmers and peasants are overdue". cnn. Archived from the original on 11 December 2020. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ Comerford, Ruth (7 July 2022). "Alfaro made sole m.d. and publisher at Tilted Axis as Smith steps back". The Bookseller. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
- ^ Tilted Axis Press numbers every major release. Chapbooks and other publishings of that sort are not indexed.