Fitzcarraldo Editions

Fitzcarraldo Editions
StatusActive
Founded2014; 10 years ago (2014)
FounderJacques Testard
Country of origin United Kingdom
Headquarters locationDeptford, London
DistributionGrantham Book Services
Publication typesFiction
Essays
Official websitefitzcarraldoeditions.com

Fitzcarraldo Editions is an independent British book publisher based in Deptford, London, specialising in literary fiction and long-form essays in both translation and English-language originals.[1] It focuses on ambitious, imaginative, and innovative writing by little-known and neglected authors.[2] Fitzcarraldo Editions currently publishes twenty-two titles a year.[3] Four of Fitzcarraldo's authors have gone on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature: Svetlana Alexievich (2015), Olga Tokarczuk (2018), Annie Ernaux (2022) and Jon Fosse (2023).

History

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Fitzcarraldo Editions was founded in 2014 when Jacques Testard bought the English-language rights to Second-Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich for £3500 at the Frankfurt Book Fair.[4] Alexievich later won the Nobel Prize, netting a "six-figure" sum for the publisher. The name comes from the 1982 Werner Herzog film Fitzcarraldo.

The books are designed by Ray O’Meara, using a custom serif typeface called Fitzcarraldo.[5][4] The books are known for their minimalist design, with fiction titles deploying plain covers in International Klein Blue with white text and non-fiction using the reverse: white covers with text in International Klein Blue.[6]

Fitzcarraldo Editions publishes the work of Svetlana Alexievich, Alejandro Zambra, Mathias Énard, Annie Ernaux,[7] Joshua Cohen, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, Olga Tokarczuk, Jon Fosse, Fernanda Melchor, Ian Penman and Paul B. Preciado, among other authors.[4][8]

Along with New Directions Publishing and Giramando Publishing, Fitzcarraldo Editions hosts the Novel Prize, a biennial award for a book-length work of literary fiction written in English by published and unpublished writers.[9] Fitzcarraldo Editions also hosts the annual Essay Prize, in conjuction with Mahler & LeWitt Studios.[10]

The company's logo shows a bell with the letters F and Z, and relates to the film Fitzcarraldo; it has been described as "a nod to the challenges and commitment necessary to run a successful independent press" with "a play on early printers marks, with the initials F and Z, recalling the symbols of the earliest printed books".[11]

References

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  1. ^ Batey, Angus (15 September 2019). "Features | Tome On The Range | Pushing The Boat Out: Art & Business The Fitzcarraldo Way". The Quietus. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  2. ^ Marshall, Alex (13 October 2022). "How a Tiny British Publisher Became the Home of Nobel Laureates". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
  3. ^ "Fitzcarraldo Editions". fitzcarraldoeditions.com. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Studemann, Frederick (11 October 2019). "How a tiny London publisher picked two Nobel Prize winners". Financial Times.
  5. ^ Arsenault, Kerri (13 April 2017). "Interview with a Gatekeeper: Jacques Testard". LitHub.
  6. ^ "How Fitzcarraldo Editions made the most beautiful books on the shelf". The Face. 17 August 2020. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
  7. ^ Cafolla, Anna (10 October 2022). "Four Nobels and counting: Fitzcarraldo, the little publisher that could". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
  8. ^ Featherstone, Kay (10 October 2019). "Tokarczuk and Handke win Nobel Prizes in Literature". The Bookseller. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  9. ^ "The Novel Prize". www.thenovelprize.com. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
  10. ^ "Essay prize | Fitzcarraldo Editions". fitzcarraldoeditions.com. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
  11. ^ Brown, Dylan (24 August 2021). "An Unofficial Ranking of Publishing Colophons". Literary Hub. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
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