The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

With the rich publication history of Two Lines serving as its foundation, Two Lines Press specializes in exceptional new writing and overlooked classics that have not previously been translated into English. With books such as Naja Marie Aidt’s Baboon (translated by Denise Newman), which won the 2015 PEN Translation Prize, and Marie NDiaye’s Self-Portrait in Green (translated by Jordan Stump), which won the 2015 CLMP Firecracker Award, Two Lines Press seeks to publish daring and original voices in striking editions.

The biannual journal Two Lines amplifies the aims of the press by capturing the most exciting work being done today by the world’s best translators—and by forging a space to celebrate the art of translation. Within our pages you’ll find work by writers such as Yuri Herrera, Kim Hyesoon, Christos Ikonomou, Rabee Jaber, Emmanuel Moses, Anne Parian, Chika Sagawa, Enrique Vila-Matas, and Jan Wagner—in translations by Lisa Dillman, Don Mee Choi, Karen Emmerich, Kareem Abu-Zeid, Marilyn Hacker, Emma Ramadan, Sawako Nakayasu, Margaret Jull Costa, and David Keplinger, respectively. You’ll also encounter arresting insights on language, literature, and translation from the point of view of writers such as Lydia Davis, Johannes Göransson, Wayne Miller, and Jeffrey Yang.

I wanted a good press for translations to support and since Two Lines published Wolfgang Hilbig I chose a subscription for 2019 as my Christmas gift from my husband. There are some interesting sounding books coming out in 2019.

I have been a subscriber for 2017 and 2018 and renewed for 2019. Their output is impressive and they are also one of the few US presses that offer a reasonable rate for overseas subscribers. Although they have had to significantly hike subscription prices this year - they were actually losing money on them historically: I was happier to pay the higher price as I wasn’t expecting a subsidy.

Right, we don’t subscribe to get a deal, we subscribe to support the press and writers and to get a lovely book every month and half or so.

I wasn’t sure which press to subscribe to, but I thought it was a good choice. I will resubscribe to Galley Beggar when this subscription is up. As you mentioned overseas shipping is quite a bit extra, but Galley Beggar is worth it and it will be the only UK press I will subscribe to. I’ll also subscribe to nyrb.

Paul wrote: "they are also one of the few US presses that offer a reasonable rate for overseas subscribers."

This is what I noticed too when I was looking for a press to subscribe to (in addition to my current subscription to Fitzcarraldo), and so I decided on Two Lines.

Also their lineup for next year looks very good. My fiancée (Swedish-speaking Finn) loves the novels they’re publishing by Bjørn Rasmussen and Johannes Anyuru so I’m eager to read those finally. The latter I also heard talking at an event recently and seemed like an interesting author.

That is good to hear re the Bjørn Rasmussen and Johannes Anyuru novels

FYI here are the Goodreads links for 5 of the 6 books in 2019 - only one currently has the English edition there, so I've added originals for other 4

Lord
Oltre Babilonia
Huden er det elastiske hylster der omgiver hele legemet
De kommer att drunkna i sina mödrars tårar
Un temps de saison Suivi de La Trublionne de Pierre Lepape

I can't yet find the 6th - Bright by Duanwad Pimwana (tr. Mui Poopoksakul) - on Goodreads

This might be a stupid question, but I have never heard of people subscribing to a publisher before and am not sure even what it would mean to subscribe to a publisher. Can someone help me out with this? Thanks.

Perfectly reasonable question

A lot of smaller publishers operate a subscription model.

Typical way it works is one pays an amount up front (usually close to cost of books plus postage less a small discount), then receives all of the books that publisher produces in the year as they come out.

Some offer variations - e.g. subscribing for next x books, or paying in instalments, or only certain defined books in subscription (eg fiction only) etc.

Sometimes perks - free tote bags, advanced proof or free e-copies, name printed in back of book, special editions etc.

For publisher gives them certainly of sales and upfront cashflows - indeed a number of small independent publishers rely on subscriptions to keep going.

Some more discussion - and suggestions - here from another forum where the members tend to subscribe to presses as a group so they can buddy read the books:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

You can only do this if the publisher offers a subscription, and it is done by small presses which may not be financially viable if everyone bought their books via discount from Amazon - presses which have a specialist or artistic mission that means most of their output will appeal to the same set of readers. You can't subscribe to Penguin for instance.

They seem to have grown in popularity in recent years with the number of small presses.

The publishers often offer different numbers of books for various prices, or perhaps selected divisions of their books, such as Fitzcarraldo's fiction or non-fiction subscriptions:
https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/subs...

And Other Stories has hypothecated subscriptions where the money goes to support specfic books the subscriber will receive: https://www.andotherstories.org/subsc...

One of the US publishers that seems to have been doing it for longer is Open Letter: https://www.openletterbooks.org/colle...

They are also a way for better-off readers to support these publishers - the prices via subscription are pretty high as prices for paperback books go and won't be affordable for everyone.

Thanks both for the answers. I guess because I don't often think much about publishers at all it surprises me that a publisher could print a small enough number of books in a year and survive that a subscription would make sense. But I can also see how a publisher that is small and you share a taste for books with could make sense to want to subscribe to.

The pay-in-advance model sounds a lot like various sorts of crowdfunding which has been successful in other media. No reason it shouldn't work with books.

They aren't subscription only, but it certainly helps.

And several are quite major publishers - indeed Tramp Press, Fitzcarraldo and Galley Beggar between them have won pretty much every UK literary prize.

1000 books is actually a good sales figure for literary fiction (in the UK) - most Booker longlist books aren't on that until longlisted.

As an example Galley Beggar (Women’s Prize for Fiction, The Wellcome Book Prize, The Goldsmiths Prize, The Desmond Elliott Prize, The The Folio Prize, The Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize) have about 150 subscribers. That gives them a head start on cashflows and sales each time they publish a new book.

I just received two books in the mail today that were ordered for me through Amazon, both published by New Directions: Belladonna and Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants. I wouldn’t mind a subscription to New Direction! They are a US press which saves me on shipping. I wonder if they have an arrangement with Fitzcarraldo?

Sadly, David, shipping to CA from US presses is quite steep. Nyrb classics is $150 for US subscribers and $240 for Canadian subscribers.

I resubscribed to Two Lines. I wasn’t 100% sure if should renew or buy titles as they came out, since it auto-renews I decided I would let the universe decide and if it billed a credit card that didn’t need to be updated I was meant to have it, if it billed a credit card that expired then I wasn’t.
I am excited about their 2020 schedule:
b, Book, and Me
Lake Like a Mirror
That We May Live: Speculative Chinese Fiction
On Lighthouses
Echo on the Bay- super excited about this one!
That Time of Year by Marie NDiaye
Home: New Arabic Poems on Everyday Life (the 2nd in their Calico series)
Harmada by João Gilberto Noll

I renewed my subscription when I saw that the translations would be from Spanish, Arabic, French, Portuguese (Margaret Jill Costa) and a Hilbig novel.

My first book of 2021 is Rabbit Island and as a subscriber I received the edition that comes in a white fur slipcase. It’s silly, but fun.

I received from Two Lines 3 prints on thick stock paper that were made in honor of Nancy being released. I attached photos of the 3 prints to my photos. I know nothing about art, but to me these look like something a kid in a high school computer class would make if they were bored. However, maybe they really are art so if anyone would like them I will ship them to you, my treat.

I read about a third of the book and it just isn’t for me.

I take it I’m right and these aren’t really art.

30% sale on for books and collections (not subscriptions)

There are some wonderful books in their backlist and also forthcoming.

I found that other than Wolfgang Hilbig and Marie NDiaye, and the Calico series, the novels Two Lines published the last two years just don’t appeal to me. As hard as it is for me to withdraw support of an indie press I can’t justify the cost for books I don’t read. Too bad because of all the indie presses Two Lines gives the most gifts, they’ve always listed translator on the cover with the author (hence “two lines,”) and the books are well made.

I always loved (most of) their books although for me there was overlap with some UK published ones and the UK-US postage got extortionate, so I stopped subscribing and buy individual copies of the ones that interest me - e.g. the new Hilbig recently.

I’d rather buy a la carte from Two Lines.

I feel like this musy be Paul's perfect press - I assume they only publish flash fiction?

Also is it only me that finds themselves singing "Two Lines on a shirt" everytime someone mentions this publisher?

Lost on me that reference. Only song I remember singing in 1996 at Wembley was Deutschlandlied.

I received a tote today from Two Lines today with a quote from The Interim, “Will we survive this century? asked the lonely reader in his train compartment. Yes, surely we’ll survive this one last century.” On both sides with their cat logo and THE INTERIM Wolfgang Hilbig, translated by Isabel Fargo Cole at the bottom. How could I fail to continue my support for this press? I renewed my subscription.

Jealous!!!

Of the tote or the subscription? I will gladly send you this tote bag, Paul, it is almost literally the least I can do to repay your kindness to me.

Both! The bag would be wonderful. I ought to resubscribe to the press.

The US subscription is $140, for international it’s $190 (£152.60)
They do a lot for subscribers, in 2021 we received 8 books, two of which were hard covers, 4 of the Calico series of poetry, and little gifts: bookmarks with every book, totes, a fur covered slipcase for one book, and three prints (which I didn’t care for, but perhaps I’m more philistine than I know.)

Here’s what’s planned for 2022 https://www.catranslation.org/shop/su...

Since Influx stopped their subscription service and my Fitzcarraldo one finished in January ( Im not sure if EU member states can resubscribe) im shopping for something new - I was thinking of Charco, RoFC or Two Lines

If I could only choose one of those three I would choose RofC. It’s an excellent mix of books. Charco is all Latin American and Two Lines choices aren’t quite as consistently good, in my opinion, as RofC.

US wise I am torn between this and Open Letter. (I’d love to subscribe to New Directions but they don’t send books outside US/Canada)

And yes I could do both. Isn’t so much cost as reading capacity - I don’t like not reading books I receive or having a growing TBR pile.

The seeming demise of the BTBA (have to assume it is dead as no news whatsoever) is unfortunate in that it tended to highlight the work of all these presses in the translated sphere. Indeed it was essentially Open Letter who ran it.

I heard somewhere that the National Book Critics Circle will start doing an award for translated fiction, so that may fill the gap with the BTBA on hiatus. The NBA and PEN/America still do awards for translated fiction.

Not the right topic for this but some of the translations released in the U.S.

https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/...

David wrote: "I heard somewhere that the National Book Critics Circle will start doing an award for translated fiction, so that may fill the gap with the BTBA on hiatus. The NBA and PEN/America still do awards f..."

Yes I feel they may have been a bit squeezed out - as we've discussed elsewhere the newish NBA Translated Literature award is doing a great job.

Vs those, the TBA was more at the small press / innovative end of the spectrum. But then the USRofC will likely fill that gap.

I just checked the books Two Lines subscribers are getting in 2022. 8 books for $140, two of the books are paperback copies of the hardback editions we got with our 2021 subscription. I think I would be justified in asking them to extend my subscription by 2 of 2023 books since they’re sending me the same books, but of less quality!

I shouldn’t ever complain about Two Lines, they do send lots of surprise gifts to subscribers, today I got a pamphlet listing the number of books and authors they’ve been able to translate and the programs they’ve hosted all from money provided by subscribers, fortunately I double checked the envelope I was throwing away because they included a coupon for a free book from their website. I ordered My Heart Hemmed In.