Stories from Europe and the Middle East
Independent publisher Comma Press's translation imprint is dedicated to delivering the best in contemporary short fiction, as part of its ongoing mission to champion the short story as a unique and divergent literary form.
Thanks to funding from the European Union’s Culture Programme 'Culture 2007' as well as from Arts Council England, the imprint will include four collections a year, plus an anthology of stories showcasing a cross-section of stories from around Europe and the Middle East.
The first anthology, Decapolis: Tales from Ten Cities was published earlier in 2007 and was followed by Elsewhere, a showcase for stories about small-town Europe – featured authors include Ingo Schulze (Germany), Frode Grytten (Norway), Olga Tokarczuk (Poland) and many others. A compendium of contemporary Middle Eastern short stories, Madinah, was published in December 2008.
As well as the anthologies, Comma has commissioned single-author collections by writers from Europe, the Middle East and beyond. The first year’s programme features:
I Love You When I’m Drunk by Empar Moliner (translated from Catalan by Peter Bush); Long Days by Maike Wetzel (translated from German by Lyn Marven); Amuse-Bouche by Arnon Grunberg (translated from Dutch by Lisa Friedman and Ron de Klerk); Stone Tree by Gyrdir Eliasson (translated from Icelandic by Victoria Cribb).
The imprint aims to 'explore both the short story’s family resemblances and its idiosyncrasies across cultures, whilst benefiting from its unique cultural "moveability". As a form grounded in the fleeting, the momentary and the singular, the short story lends itself as well as any literary form to translation, being rooted – despite its modern reinventions – in the mobility of the oral tradition.'
Editor Maria Crossan says, 'The establishment of this imprint gives Comma a great opportunity to inject some much-needed energy into UK readers’ experience of literature in translation, and equally to enrich and give context to the current short fiction scene in this country. It also allows us to build bridges between writers and readers, and start from the common ground that is the short story itself.'
The Independent on Sunday praised Decapolis for bringing some 'fresh and varied new literary voices' in European short fiction to UK readers. A Radio 3 discussion prompted by the publication praised the stall Comma had already set out for the ‘European Short Story’ as a concept, distinct from the more recognizable American Short Story, concluding the former 'is obviously in vigorous form' (Matthew Sweet, Nightwaves, R3).
AS Byatt in the Times commended the way the stories in this pilot project brought forward the history of the many cities represented, as opposed to the domestic nihilism of the Carver model: 'Europe is heavy with history and the trace left by cataclysm and upheaval,' she observed. 'These are present in these tales, and yet coexist with a kind of wry and knowing playfulness.'
