Europa Editions

Europa Editions is an independent publisher of literary fiction, non-fiction, and high-end crime fiction. The company was founded in 2005 by Sandro Ferri and Sandra Ozzola Ferri, who are also the owners and publishers of the Italian press Edizioni E/O. Michael Reynolds, Editor in chief, directs the company's New York office. Kent Carroll, formerly Editorial Director at Grove Press and Publisher and Editor-in-Chief at Carroll & Graf Publishers, serves as Publisher-at-large. In 2013, the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association awarded Europa Editions its Paperback Book of the Year award.^[1]

In its first ten years, Europa has published books by authors from 26 countries, making it one of the leading US publishers of fiction in translation.^[2] In a 2013 interview, Sandro Ferri said the company was "born with the intention to create bridges between cultures."^[3] The company publishes about 35 titles per year.^[4] Among authors the company has published, Europa counts two ABA IndieBound bestsellers, two New York Times bestsellers, three Booker Prize-shortlisted novels, five New York Times Editors' Picks, two New York Times Notable Books of the Year, two Goncourt Prize winners, one German Book Prize winner,^[5] and two winners of The Strega Prize for Fiction.^[6]

Notable Successes

Europa's first publication, 2005's The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante (acquired by Sandra Ozzola and translated by Ann Goldstein), was compared favorably to Anna Karenina in the New York Times and became an Indie Bestseller.^[7] Other notable successes at Europa include Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog (translated by Alison Anderson), which spent over a year on the New York Times and IndieBound bestseller lists;^[8] Jane Gardam's Old Filth, named a notable book of the year by the New York Times;^[9] Alina Bronsky's The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine (translated by Tim Mohr), a Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal and San Francisco Chronicle favorite read of the year in 2011;,^[10] Steve Erickson's Zeroville (a best book of the year pick by the National Book Critics Circle and scheduled for release as a motion picture starring James Franco in 2016) and These Dreams of You (recipient of the Lannan Literary Award), and Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, which James Wood in The New Yorker described as, "intensely, violently personal."^[11]

Copyright Controversy

For several years, Europa Editions, which is the American branch of the Italian publisher, Edizioni e/o, has been criticized for its insistence upon taking the copyright of translators who translate many of the books Europa publishes, including all of Ferrante's books and the March 2017 translation, by Jhumpa Lahiri, of Ties by Domenico Starnone. Europa contractually requires translators to sign over their copyright in order to be hired. A 2015 research report (Copyright “Rustling” in English-Language Translation: How Translators Keep (and Lose) Rights to Their Work—Data from Translations Published in 2014) ^[12] describes this widespread practice in American publishing and identifies Europa as one of the industry's worst offenders.

Design

Europa has gained a reputation not only for publishing quality fiction but also for a level of brand recognition unusual for American publishers.^[13] Europa Editions publications maintain uniformity through a distinctive look for all its titles, with French flaps, a consistent font on the book spines and a logo of a stork that appears with the publisher's name on the front of each volume. Covers of titles published by Europa are all created by a single designer, Emanuele Ragnisco, owner and director of Rome-based Mekkanografici, and are the fruit of a comprehensive design project developed by Ragnisco and owners Sandro Ferri and Sandra Ozzola.

Tonga Books

Tonga books was an innovative editorial enterprise undertaken by Europa Editions in collaboration with American author Alice Sebold, who acquired and edited four works of fiction published by Europa under the series name Tonga Books.^[14] The first publication from Tonga Books gave Europa its second New York Times bestseller, Alexander Maksik’s You Deserve Nothing, a debut novel that provoked controversy because of its fictional treatment of a relationship between a teacher at an international school in Paris and one of his students. You Deserve Nothing was described by the New York Times as "rivetingly plotted and beautifully written."^[15] The Christian Science Monitor said Maksik's writing was "reminiscent of James Salter's in its sensuality, Francine Prose's capacious inquiry into difficult moral questions and Martin Amis's loose-limbed evocation of the perils of youth."^[16]

Europa World Noir

In 2013, Europa Editions launched its series of international crime fiction, Europa World Noir. Publishers Weekly wrote that the series signaled Europa’s “reaffirmed enthusiasm for noir.”^[17] Notable titles in the series include Gene Kerrigan’s Gold Dagger Award-winning The Rage, Jean-Claude Izzo’s Total Chaos, which launched the Mediterranean Noir movement, and the reissue of groundbreaking Scottish crime writer William McIlvanney’s Laidlaw books.

Europa UK

In 2012, Europa Editions opened its London office, which is directed by former literary agent, Daniela Petracco.^[18] The UK branch of the company publishes titles selected from those published by its American affiliate. Europa UK’s titles are distributed by Turnaround Publisher Services. Visit europaeditions.co.uk for more informations.

References

External links

• Europa Editions
• Europa Editions UK
• Edizioni E/O