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  Goodreads Book Giveaway 21 by Mariusz Czubaj Giveaway ends June 14, 2013. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win   Read more »

We asked our award winning Polish crime author Mariusz Czubaj about his top ten crime novels. Here’s the list: 1. Boris Akunin’s The State Counsellor 2. John le Carrè’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold 3. Raymond Chandler’s The Long Good-Bye 4. Michael Connelly’s The Closers 5. Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho 6. [...] Read more »

We love it when our authors gain international recognition. Noémi Szécsi’s The Finno-Ugrian Vampire, translated by Peter Sherwood, was generating interest among agents and foreign publishers long before we published it in the UK in October 2012.     During European Literature Night at the British Library, Rosie Goldsmith, the BBC journalist, praised Noémi Szécsi’s [...] Read more »

  Goodreads Book Giveaway Mother Departs by Tadeusz Różewicz Giveaway ends April 30, 2013. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win   Read more »

An extracts of an essay about Polish cinema by Grażyna Plebanek, author of Illegal Liaisons, translated by Danusia Stok, in Kinoteka Polish Film Festival programme.     ‘They say we Poles are intense. We get heated up, gesticulate, ramble on in overly long sentences or hold back sullenly. We drown our sorrows, so says the [...] Read more »

Mother Departs is an extremely personal autobiographical work by one of the greatest writers of our time, set against the epic conflicts of the 20th century. It combines many genres – poetry, jokes, intimate diaries written through tears, ethnographic snapshots of peasant life,  and a dreamlike stream of consciousness – and it speaks in several [...] Read more »

Mariusz Czubaj’s nail-biting crime novel 21:37 is coming out in Germany this March, published by Prospero Verlag. The author emailed us this quite amazing cover.     Our English edition is due this April. 21:37, superbly translated by Anna Hyde, was awarded the High Calibre Award for the Best Polish Crime Novel in 2009. Rudolf [...] Read more »

‘I am wary of translations,’ comments one reader on the booklovers’ website Goodreads, which begs the question: what is the problem with books in translation? Is it really true that readers do not want to read translations? And where does this attitude come from? When we talked to a number of booksellers we were told people [...] Read more »

‘For PEN Atlas this week, Basia Howard writes about Tadeusz Różewicz, Poland’s most translated author, and considered by many to be of the same stature as Szymborska and Milosz. His memoir Mother Departs, published by Stork Press next month, describes the war he survived  his artistic journey and the experiences that forged his poetic conscience…’     [...] Read more »

We’re terribly delighted to have our forthcoming authors and books featured on PEN Atlas website – Publishers’ highlights 2013: Part 2. And do have a look at others as well as there are some really great books scheduled for 2013.   This year we’re trying something new, with our 2013 country focus on Poland. We [...] Read more »

Looking back at 2012 we were genuinely overwhelmed by the success of Stork Press. Some of you may know the story of how, one summer night back in 2011  (after two bottles of wine and a number of delightful martinis), we had the crazy idea of setting up a publishing house devoted to new, exciting [...] Read more »

Noémi Szécsi, the author of The Finno-Ugrian Vampire (translated by Peter Sherwood), responds to Hari Kunzru’s ‘The Frightening Hungarian Crackdown’ published in The New Yorker.   I was thirteen when I discovered that all things I had learnt in school about the history of my home country was a lie. All those young communist martyrs – swindlers to [...] Read more »

  Noémi Szécsi is at the heart of the new generation of Hungarian authors. In October 2012 we published Noémi’s first novel The Finno-Ugrian Vampire (Finnugor vámpír, 2002), translated by Peter Sherwood. In 2009 Noémi won the European Union Prize for Literature for her second novel Kommunista Monte Cristo (‘The Communist Monte Cristo’, 2006). The Finno-Ugrian Vampire has [...] Read more »

We are delighted to announce Anni Telford has won Stork Mini Short Story Competition for her short story entitled ‘The Pauli Exclusion Principle’. Our congratulations to Anni and all shortlisted authors. Also shortlisted were: Another Bloody Christmas by G W Colkitto Curry for Christmas by Ashley Meggitt More Blessed to Give than to Receive by [...] Read more »

We are proud to announce the shortlist of the Stork Mini Short Story Competition. The selected stories have shown originality and visual imagination that made them stand out for the judges, Joanna Zgadzaj and Nancy Roberts of Stork Press and writer and translator Julian Evans.   The shortlist comprises in alphabetical order: Another Bloody Christmas, [...] Read more »

On Thursday, 18 October we hosted the very special book launch of our Polish author Grażyna Plebanek’s Illegal Liaisons, translated by Danusia Stok, in the wonderful Belgravia Books. Grażyna was interviewed by the Orange-shortlisted, highly acclaimed British author Maggie Gee. The book launch of Plebanek’s Illegal Liaisons was part of Pole Position – Polish Book [...] Read more »

Philip Bell is a writer, father of two, and indie publisher at Beachy Books. He regularly visits schools and works with children to publish their own books. He’s published several Jack and Boo picture books that inspire children to go out into nature, learn and have fun. Find out more at www.beachybooks.com.   1. What [...] Read more »

Would you like to find out which Nigerian books to read? A.M. Bakalar, author of Madame Mephisto, writes about her passion for Nigerian literature and recommends her top ten favourite Nigerian books in a short feature article ‘My Top Ten Nigerian Novels’ on Litro Magazine. ‘I’ve always been a huge fan of Nigerian literature. A [...] Read more »

  Rosie Goldsmith is a journalist specializing in arts and current affairs, in the UK and abroad. Over 20 years’ working for the BBC, she has travelled the world, from Libya to Japan to East Timor. Rosie has covered events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of apartheid in South Africa [...] Read more »

Noémi Szécsi is one of the most exciting voices of contemporary Hungarian literature, author of four novels. In 2009 Noémi was awarded the European Union Prize for Literature for her second novel. The Finno-Ugrian Vampire is Noémi first novel translated into English by Peter Sherwood and it stole our hearts with its first pages. It [...] Read more »

We talk to one of the most loved and celebrated Polish authors, Grażyna Plebanek, about her forthcoming book Illegal Liaisons, translated by Danusia Stok. We knew straight away we wanted to publish Grażyna’s book – erotic fiction for intelligent readers – and teamed up with our wonderful translator Danusia who immediately agreed to work with [...] Read more »

Translating literature is not just rendering it into a different verbal language; it is transposing a certain context, culture, feel and situation to another with as little loss as possible.  This involves not choosing just the right words but also the appropriate tones, associations and sub-meanings. As a translator I’ve had the varied experience of [...] Read more »

  Magda Raczyńska (b. 1974) is a graduate of Sociology at Warsaw University (MA, PhD) and Goldsmiths (MA in Contemporary Art Theory), author of texts on art, culture and politics published in numerous magazines, newspapers, exhibition catalogues, books and the online blog whatevermaida.blogsome.com. She currently works at the Polish Cultural Institute in London where she curates the [...] Read more »

Petra Procházková is an award-winning Czech journalist, humanitarian worker and writer. We are delighted to publish her first novel Freshta, translated by Julia Sherwood, in November this year.  We talked to Petra about her novel which stole our hearts the moment we read it and her life in Afghanistan.     What inspired you to write [...] Read more »

You are an illustrator. Tell us a few words about yourself and your work; why did you decide to become an illustrator? I was born in Serbia, Nis, where I got my degree in graphic design and now I’m finishing up my Master’s Degree in Finland. I don’t think I decided to be an illustrator, [...] Read more »

I have long admired the work of the intrepid Petra Procházková, who has spent many years reporting from Russia, Chechnya and Afghanistan but it wasn’t until Stork Press approached me about translating Freshta that I discovered she wrote fiction as well. I immediately jumped at the chance to read her novel and, having read it, [...] Read more »

‘I was obsessed, while writing Madame Mephisto, trying to understand the  predicament of living in two countries, physically and mentally, and at the same time releasing my protagonist Magda, and myself as a writer, from any obligation towards my home country (…) The creative process for me comes with such intensity that the only responsibility [...] Read more »

A.M. Bakalar is the first Polish woman to publish a novel in English since Poland joined the EU. We talked to Asia about her debut novel Madame Mephisto. Why and when did you first start writing? How did you come up with the title? How do you write? Praise for Madame Mephisto ‘Over the five [...] Read more »

Last week, our own Stork Press author, the talented and beautiful face of the new wave of Hungarian literature, Noémi Szécsi, came to London for two very special events to celebrate the selection of The Finno-Ugrian Vampire for the 2012 European Literature Night in the British Library. Read more »

Noémi Szécsi’s The Finno-Ugrian Vampire is an exhilarating satirical romp that takes no prisoners: everything is under literary and linguistic attack, especially literary genres and language itself, with exquisitely deflating digs at historical and social stereotypes on the way, all presented with an assurance and flair quite remarkable in a first novel. I realized the [...] Read more »

You designed the Stork Press logo. Could you tell our readers about yourself. My name is Fort Rixon, and my life is a bit of a conundrum. I am an artist, an illustrator, and a raconteur but mostly a cultural stenographer; that is I visualize what I see in culture around me. I began painting [...] Read more »