Daunt Books Originals

Daunt Books Publishing is launching Daunt Books Originals, a new list for bold and inventive writing in English and in translation.

Daunt Books Originals will launch in 2020 with books including the debut novels Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin (translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins), Indelicacy by Amina Cain and Empty Houses by Brenda Navarro (translated by Sophie Hughes), and the short-story collection The Dominant Animal by Kathryn Scanlan. The list will publish a mixture of literary fiction and narrative non-fiction and will publish English-language authors alongside the finest international writers.

The list launches in the same year that Daunt Books Publishing will celebrate its ten-year anniversary. Daunt Books Publishing was established in 2010 and grew out of the independent bookshop chain, Daunt Books. It originally published out-of-print classics and was responsible for the revival of authors such as Sybille Bedford and Jirí Weil, before expanding to also publish contemporary writers. Recent successes have included the Pulitzer Prize nominated novel In the Distance by Hernan Diaz, the republication of the work of Natalia Ginzburg, and At the Pond, a collection of original essays about swimming at the Hampstead Ladies’ Pond, which has been a summer hit.

Publisher Željka Marosevic said, ‘The Originals list can best be described by the writing of the first authors we’ll publish: boldly original and formally daring. From Scanlan’s terrifyingly brilliant short stories and Navarro’s searing exploration of ambivalent motherhood, to Cain’s ghostly novel about class and artmaking and Dusapin’s exquisitely crafted debut set over one Korean winter, these are innovative and unexpected books that speak to each other across borders and languages. It was important to us not to distinguish between English-language books and books in translation – they’re all exceptional books we’re proud to publish. I’m excited to launch this list at the start of Daunt Books Publishing’s tenth anniversary year as we celebrate all the books we’ve published thus far and look to the future.’

Winter in Sokcho was acquired from Pierre Astier at Astier-Pécher Film & Literary Agency. Indelicacy was acquired from Devon Mazzone at FSG. Empty Houses was acquired from Paula Canal at Indent Agency. The Dominant Animal was acquired from Harriet Moore at David Higham Associates.

Daunt Books Originals will be published as paperback originals with French flaps and priced at £9.99.

Željka Marosevic and Sophie Missing will commission new titles for Daunt Books Originals. Becca Calf, currently publishing assistant at Daunt Books Publishing, takes on a new role as editorial assistant.

For more information please contact jimena@dauntbooks.co.uk.