Pallas Editora was founded by Antonio Carlos Fernandes in 1975. It publishes works on religion and popular culture. In 1992, Cristina Fernandes Warth launched a project to connect Afro-Brazilian culture with topics previously not covered; she then started to publish books on anthropology, sociology, and ethnology. Pallas Editora has now forged a strong reputation for its work on African heritage, the candomblé, and popular Brazilian culture. Mariana Warth joined the publishing house in 2002; it is considered state-of-the-art in publishing fiction for children, youth, and adults in the universe of Afro-Brazilian and African cultures.

To read:

• “Brazilian Market In The View Of An Independent (Good-Humoured) Publisher” by Mariana Warth
• “Brazilian Publishers’ Translation Grant: Rio to Mozambique”, Publishing Perspectives, July, 2022

Ku Si Mon Editora is a private institution created in Bissau in 1994, following the political liberalization and the beginning of multi-partisanism. Its principal interests are literature (novels, stories, and essays), oral tradition (collections of stories, proverbs, and riddles) and ethno-linguistics (dictionaries). With an artisanal character, it continues thanks to the volunteer work from its members. Overhead costs (facility, electricity, small publishing materials) are also assured by the members, and revenue is used to publish new titles. Sales are limited, taking into account the high rate of illiteracy in Guinea-Bissau, and the publishing house relies on occasional funding to print certain texts.

Read here the interview with Abdulai Sila, published in partnership with ActuaLitté (May 17, 2018).

Chá de Caxinde publishing house and bookshop was founded in 1999 by a small group of people who were members of the cultural organization Chá de Caxinde in Luanda, working in the cultural domain for nearly a decade. The social objective of this publishing house is publishing, production, and distribution of books and magazines, to distribute Angolan authors in Angola and internationally, but also to publish foreign authors in Angola, at prices that are affordable for the local readership. Their catalogue includes around 100 titles, of children’s and adult literature, as well as of works in the human and social sciences.

Boitempo is the title of a short poem by Carlos Drummond de Andrade, on the topic of his childhood. Naming our publishing house after this poem was a way of paying tribute to one of the greatest Brazilian poets. Founded in 1995, Boitempo has made its mark as a quality publisher, both in the choice of publications, and in the printing and presentation of the works. We seek to put together a consistent catalogue, with a clear-cut editorial line: human sciences, literature (acknowledged works and first-time writers), historical and contemporary essays. Our Web site www.boitempoeditorial.com.br presents an up-to-date version of our catalogue. We take great care in the publication of our works, and we strive to respect our readership.

Read here the interview with Ivana Jinkings, published in partnership with ActuaLitté (July 6, 2017).

The Network of Colombian Independent Publishers, Red de Editoriales Independientes Colombianas (REIC), was created to respond to the concerns of a group of publishers eager to strengthen independent publishing in Colombia. The Ministry of Culture and CERLALC (Regional Center for the Development of the Book in Latin America) have demonstrated a clear commitment to national independent publishing by joining efforts to support the creation of the Network of Colombian Independent Publishers. This initiative initially brought together some 30 publishing houses, rallied around the notion of bibliodiversity and the need to sensitize the country to the fact that independent publishers exist, allowing Colombian writers, and others, to express themselves. Since its creation, the REIC has ensured that independent publishers receive state support to promote the allocation of public libraries, to encourage fairer commercial conditions, etc. Colombian independent publishers, unlike major publishing groups, have shown that they are active advocates for Colombian authors, and that they are major players in bibliodiversity. On April 28, 2008, the REIC was established as a legal entity headquartered in Bogota, and in association with independent Latin American collectives. Through the Spanish-speaking network of the International Alliance of independent publishers (AIEI), the REIC contributes to the Ibero-American regional editorial integration.

Here, an interview of Gustavo Mauricio García, president of the REIC, directed by the CERLALC, September 2018.

Since 1987, Txalaparta has been the name of a free and independent Basque publisher. Txalaparta is committed to the cultural and editorial sovereignty of our country, Euskal Herria (the Basque Country). We also try to be the voice of whatever literary creation that improves the relations between the people of the planet, that helps to transform reality, that guards our historical memory, that opens paths towards diversity, to utopias…

We publish on average between 30 to 40 books a year in Basque and Spanish: Basque and world literature, political and historical essays, social criticism, classics of the political left, historical encyclopaedias. Our most distinctive feature is the wide base of readers who support Txalaparta´s projects by subscribing to one of our collections. Under the name of “editores independientes” we work and publish together with various publishers in other countries (Era in Mexico, LOM in Chile, Trilce in Uruguay) in order to guarantee our editorial freedom and diversity against monopolies and unified thought.

Founded in 1985, Trilce has published some 600 titles and continues to publish 30 to 40 titles every year. Although initially focused on fiction – which is still an important element today – essays have taken on increasing importance in Trilce’s catalogue. These essays discuss national identity or identities, and report on debates aimed at finding solutions to today’s challenges in the areas of culture, political science or history.
Because it firmly believes that independent publishing is crucial to the preservation of cultural diversity, Trilce has been a member of “Independent Publishers” since 1998, which includes Lom in Santiago, Chile, Era in Mexico and Txalaparta in Spain – Basque country. What is more, Trilce has been a member of the Alliance of Independent Publishers since its inception.

Plural Editores is the most active publishing house in Bolivia, with annual output of 90 works, divided into 34 collections. Founded in 1987 as an Information Centre for Development (CID), it started publishing social science and human science books as Plural Editores in 1992, and as from 1999, it consolidated its position as an independent publishing house. Plural Editores has published over 500 works to date, many of these in co-publication with academic institutions, research centres, multilateral organisations, NGOs and artistic bodies. Moreover, the firm has opened two bookshops, one in Cochabamba and the other in La Paz. Plural has co-organised the Yolanda Bedregal National Poetry Award since 2000 and the Franz Tamayo National Tale Award since 2006.

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LOM Ediciones, a publishing house founded in 1990, started out by working to preserve the social, political, literary and cultural heritage of Chile in the last decades of the 20^th century; LOM aims to foster creativity, thinking and criticism. Lom publishes poetry, accounts, theatre, works on human sciences, education and photography, by well-known authors as well as new ones. LOM has an up-to-date catalogue of 850 works, and every year publishes 80 new works by Chilean, Latin American and other authors. Lom is a member of the network of independent publishers, with Era, Trilce and Txalaparta, and of the Chile Publishers Association.

LOM significa sol en la lengua de los Yamanas o Yaganes, pueblo nómade del extremo sur de América. Con el gesto de recuperar su voz, el rostro de una de ellos en el logo de la editorial, buscamos mantener en la memoria sus miradas; fortalecer la creación, la reflexión, y el pensamiento crítico a través de la palabra escrita, desde el sur.

To listen: an interview of Paulo Slachevsky, during the Forum of Scientific Publishers of Chile, in 2017 and here an interview on the theme of “Diversity” (Ivoox, August 26, 2020).

This publishing house was founded in 2000 by Octavio Kulesz, philosopher, and his brother Lopoldo, mathematician. Their first publication, Leyendo a Euclides (Reading Euclid), by the great Italo-Argentine mathematician Beppo Levi, met with success (three editions, all out of print). Gradually, Libros del Zorzal has added to its catalogue authors of both national and international renown, such as Silvia Bleichmar, Ivonne Bordelois, Alain Badiou, Pierre Bourdieu and Immanuel Wallerstein. Today, over 130 works have been published, written by authors from all over Latin America and Spain. Some have been translated into French, Italian and Portuguese.

This publishing house was founded in 2000 by Octavio Kulesz, philosopher, and his brother Lopoldo, mathematician. Their first publication, Leyendo a Euclides (Reading Euclid), by the great Italo-Argentine mathematician Beppo Levi, met with success (three editions, all out of print). Gradually, Libros del Zorzal has added to its catalogue authors of both national and international renown, such as Silvia Bleichmar, Ivonne Bordelois, Alain Badiou, Pierre Bourdieu and Immanuel Wallerstein. Today, over 130 works have been published, written by authors from all over Latin America and Spain. Some have been translated into French, Italian and Portuguese.

Libros de la Araucaria, an independent publishing house, was founded in 2004. It mainly publishes works in the following areas: anthropology, human and social sciences, philosophy, literature and religious debate.

Hay muchas variedades, son unos árboles muy antiguos que crecen en la Patagonia argentina y chilena. Son una sabia combinación de fortaleza y belleza.

Founded on 1992 by Guido Indij, la marca editora is an independent publisher specialized in art, photography, essays and poetry. In the last few years it has ventured into the publication of multiple numbered portfolios and experimental art books, along with more famous authors such as Michel Foucault, J-F Lyotard, Paul Virilio, J-L Nancy, Sylviane Agacinscki. The main innovation of la marca editora is to experience in the relation between formats and contents. Thus, in each project it looks to extend the limits of the concept of what is known as a “book“.

Cuando creamos la marca hace 25 años, sabíamos que queríamos producir cultura y creatividad. Y sabíamos que para eso debíamos forjar una marca. El primer sistema de isologos que nos entregó el estudio de diseño incluía la marca videos, la marca cine, la marca música, la marca diseño y la marca editora. Aunque desde que alineamos una estrategia de trabajo y solo usamos el último...

Listen here the interview with Guido Indij, directed by the CERLALC, September 2018.

El Conejo is a not-for-profit publishing house, focussing on the publication of books by Ecuadorian authors and the promotion of reading to children, young people and adults. Since its inception in 1979, it has added considerably to its backlist and has become the leading publishing house in Ecuador. It boasts some 500 works in its catalogue, including books, cultural supplements and fascicules, with as its backdrop the protection of liberty and democracy. Its editorial line is to promote Ecuadorian and Latin-American literature, in a wide variety of genres: novels, short stories, poetry, plays, human and social sciences. It has gained respect and support from Ecuadorian institutions and intellectuals.

Ankur Prakashani started its journey in the year 1984 as a publisher of books on various topics. Now Ankur has established itself as one of the leading publishers in Bangladesh. Particular focus areas are books on social development issues, women liberalization, health, fiction and nonfiction, as well as children’s and youth literature.

Ankur arranges co-publications with renowned foreign publishers: Tulika (India), South Asia Publication (India), UBSPD (India), and Impart (U.K). Ankur publishes Bengali versions of quality bestselling books and also imports and exports books and journals on a wide range of subjects.

Ankur publishes books of renowned national and international authors like: Dr. Sirajul Islam Chowdhury, Dr. Kamal Hossain Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury, Humayun Ahmed, Taslima Nasrin, Syed Shamsul Haque, Dr. Ali Riaz, Dr. Hasanuzzaman, Dr. Ali Manwar, Dr. Fazlul Alam, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Dr. Heide Richter, Shorodindu Shekhar Chakma, Sunil Gangapadhyay, Astrid Lindgren, J.K. Rowling, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Zellige: enamel-coated chips of terra cotta set into plaster, used to decorate monuments and home interiors in the Arab world.

With a firmly international focus, and a deliberately diversified catalogue (novels, essays and albums), Zellige aims to develop close partnerships with publishers, bookstore managers and distributors in the French-speaking world. So the works can be published simultaneously in all the countries involved. And at prices tailored to local buying power.
Steering clear of the centralising mindset, programmes are not systematically initiated in France. Out of the thirty titles featuring in this catalogue, half have originated from one of Zellige’s partners, in Algeria, Haiti, Morocco, Tunisia, Belgium or Lebanon.
Furthermore, Zellige has expanded into graphic design and communications, with customers sometimes hailing from other walks of life than publishing.

As for the publishing house’s name, recalling mosaics, it expresses its sharing, partnership-focussed, open attitude.

Yomad was founded end 1998. It is a small publishing house specialising in books for young people. Its means are tiny but its ambition is huge, stemming from the dearth of local creation witnessed in literature for young people. It is true that the children’s departments in bookstores are crammed with books from elsewhere, books filled with references which are completely foreign to the culture and environment of Moroccan children. Whereas children need to set down roots in order to forge their identity and live in harmony with society. This is what underpins Yomad.
An initial collection, “mini Yemma”, of three books by Driss Chraïbi and a second collection, entitled “Yemma”, comprising two books by Habib Mazini were published in March 1999. With Driss Chraïbi as the star author in the catalogue, Yomad was able to get noticed quickly. Next came Zaïna et le fils du vent which proved highly popular among young readers. It received the high-school children’s Grand Atlas 2001 award. Further to requests from young readers, a second volume was published: Le défi de Zaïna.

The Yomad catalogue now features 10 collections comprising 40 books. The collections “Hikayat”, “Mini-Yemma”, “Mini-Yemma novels”, “Yemma”, “Contes du Maroc” (Moroccan folk tales), “Rêves d’enfants” (Children’s dreams), “Yemma junior”, “Raconte-moi l’Histoire” (Tell me a story), “Mini-plume” and “Nostalgie”.

Heavyweights in Moroccan and Algerian literature have contributed several of their own writings, including Driss Chraïbi, Fouad Laroui, Abdellatif Laâbi, Abdelhak Serhane, Zakya Daoud, Mohamed Dib and other less well-known authors such as Jocelyne Laâbi, Habib Mazini, Mehdi Degraincourt, Ouadia Bennis, Charlotte Bousquet, Véronique Abt, Dominique Logié, Françoise Chémaô, Christian Devèze, Zidrou, Samia Benatya, Keltoum Mosdik, Majid Al Amiri and Florence Deville-Patte. The illustrators who have provided pretty decorations for the texts are Nathalie Logié, Alexis Logié, Virginie Soumagnac, Abdellatif Mitari, Moshine Drissi, Saïd Boucetta, Karim Yahia, Noureddine Lahrech, Tasneem Allouch, Carole Gourat, Saïd Oumouloud, Jean-Paul Favreau, Pierre Léger and Orélie Gouel.

Je suis partie de « nomade » car pour moi, l’éditeur, l’écrivain, le lecteur, le livre sont tous des nomades. Le nom n’a pas été accepté, car il existait déjà. J’ai juste retiré le N et je l’ai remplacé par Y. Je trouve que Yomad a une belle sonorité.

Women Unlimited is an associate of Kali for Women, India’s first and oldest feminist press, which publishes scholarly and academic books in the social sciences; fiction; general interest non-fiction; autobiographies, reminiscences and memoirs; oral histories; books for young adults; pamphlets and monographs; and activist material. The Kali for Women/ Women Unlimited list combines the best of Kali’s titles published between 1984 and 2004, and an exciting range of books and authors commissioned by Women Unlimited. Women Unlimited has close links with the women’s movement, and the women’s studies in India, South Asia, and internationally. We participate in campaigns, nationally and regionally, and have organised extensively on issues to do with alternative media, women’s writing, and gender-based censorship. We consider all this as just an extension of our publishing activity.

WU is an active and organizing partner of the Independent Publishers’ Group (IPG), a collective of 10 Delhi-based independent publishers formed in March 2005; and of the Independent Publishers’ Distribution Alternatives (IPD Alternatives), a partnership of 8 independent Indian publishers set up in late 2005, which handles the distribution of titles published by nearly 20 small/independent publishers (including those of the 8 partners).

Read here the interviews with Ritu Menon:

• Interview published with ActuaLitté : Women Unlimited : notre ligne éditoriale, c’est la cause des femmes (May 30, 2017);
• Interview published by Firstpost: ’Feminist publishing is a development activity. It is not just about producing books’ (July 13, 2021).

Tulika Books is an independent publisher based in Delhi, India, specializing in non-fiction, academic books in the social sciences and humanities. Established more than 10 years ago, it has published nearly 65 titles to date, and has been able to attract reputed scholars from various disciplines — such as history, economics, development studies, literary theory, cultural studies, art, sociology and politics — as its authors.

Tulika Books is an active and organizing partner of the Independent Publishers’ Group (IPG), a collective of 10 Delhi-based independent publishers formed in March 2005; and of the Independent Publishers’ Distribution Alternatives (IPD Alternatives), a partnership of 8 independent Indian publishers set up in late 2005, which handles the distribution of titles published by nearly 20 small/independent publishers (including those of the 8 partners).

Listen here the interview of Indira Chandrasekhar - interview by Frederick Noronha at the workshop on ’Spreading the Word: Copyright, Dissemination and Independent Publishing’ organized by the Independent Publishers’ Distribution Alternatives (IPDA) in collaboration with Alternative Law Forum, 24–25 June 2010, Bangalore.

Vents d’ailleurs was founded in 1999 by Gilles Colleu and Jutta Hepke. Publishing professionals for about 25 years, our starting point was when we noticed a great emptiness, a great shortage in the publishing industry. Book supply is substantial in France, yet many cultures are missing or under-represented. We are convinced that the knowledge of cultures from abroad, the others’ cultures, helps build a society with more solidarity and enriches any human being in his quest for humanity. It is therefore important to build bridges and to make available to everybody the tools to become or to be a citizen of today’s world. Written works, literature, arts, books contribute to this.
We want to contribute to building tomorrow’s world, to opening doors and windows wide to other visions of the world. We have thus opened our door to authors and illustrators, to visions and ideas from abroad, so as to continue together, on the long term, the journey of creation and literature.

Our editorial policy focuses on books telling stories from the “inside”, texts, narratives which do not contemplate other cultures or faraway fantasies – but which, on the contrary, come to us from elsewhere. These stories make us dream and wonder, they question us. The approach is reversed; shifting the point of view changes everything. Our representations, here in France, in a rich Northern country, are questioned, and our landmarks shifted away. Imaginations, languages, ideas, images, cultural expressions clash, cross, permeate each other.

Vents d’ailleurs is a member of the Alliance of independent publishers, the association Éditeurs sans frontières and the association Jedi Paca. Vents d’ailleurs is distributed in Haiti by Communication Plus and in Canada by Dimédia.