You think being a small indie publisher
is challenging? Then trying being a small indie publisher who focuses on translations
from Chinese! Today, Nicky Harman interviews Roh-Suan Tung, of Balestier Press, about what
propelled him into publishing, his favourite books and his hopes for the future.
Founded in 2013,
Balestier Press is an independent publisher of Asian literature and books
related to Asia, including novels,
essays and picture books, for children, young adults and adults. Balestier aims
to provide a diverse platform for the different voices in Asia by publishing
the best and most innovative Asian literature. Director Roh-Suan Tung says: “We
hope to promote a greater cultural understanding and awareness of Asia, to tell the story of an evolving Asia through its people, culture, literature and artistic
expressions."
NH Can you tell me how and why you got
into publishing? I understand you came from a science background.
RT
I started by publishing newsletters on
media freedom in Taiwan in the 80s. I then became a theoretical physicist and
served as editor for international journals and academic publishing for a few years.
I enjoyed exploring the frontiers of physics and our understanding of the
cosmos, and I appreciate the value of science, but I’ve always felt the need for
more English-language publications in literary arts and humanities. Partly
because I’ve lived in quite a few major cities in the east and the west.
NH What was the first book you
published? And your favourite book?
RT
The first book we published was The
Bear Whispers to Me (by Chang Ying-tai, translated by Darryl Sterk), a children’s novel
and Darryl’s first translation for us. The Bear went on to receive the 2015 Lennox Robinson Literary
Award at Cork. It’s about a story of Taiwanese aboriginal boy who finds an
album belonging to his father and retraces his father’s childhood in the
forest. And Darryl is now one of our regular translators: Horace Ho’s The
Tree Fort on Carnation Lane and Shih Chiung-Yu’s Wedding in Autumn
were both translated by him.
I like all the books we published. If I
need to highlight a few, I like your translations of Crystal
Wedding (Xu Xiaobin) and The
Chilli Bean Paste Clan (by Yan Ge), both of which gained an English PEN
Translates award, and also Masked
Dolls (by Shih Chiung-Yu, translated by XL Wang and P Toland), The
Ventriloquist’s Daughter (by Lin Man-Chiu, translated by Helen Wang), Liv
(by Roger Pulvers) and Costume
(by Yeng Pway Ngon, translated by Jeremy Tiang). They have some elements that
resonate with me, and take us deep into the human spirit and experience, and
human strengths and weaknesses.
NH When I first got to know Balestier,
the first thing I noticed was that you had some very good and famous
translators on board. How did you build up your relationships with translators?
And do you rely on their collaboration to promote your books?
RT
We aim to select the best work by very
good writers that haven’t yet been represented in English, and get them translated
by very good translators. Sometimes we select the work first then contact
translators, sometimes a work comes recommended by a translator. A book is an
art form created by writers and translators together.
Yes, as an indie publisher, we rely on
close collaboration with writers and translators to promote the books. Starting
from publishing excerpts, social media, to book launches and literary
festivals, translators have played a very important role in the promotion. I
would especially like to thank you for your advice and brilliant promotion
ideas from the start of Balestier Press. In addition to help from translators,
the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing
has helped us by inviting our authors and reviewing our books.
NH What kinds of help exist to support
indie publishers. And what are the difficulties they face?
RT
There are translation grants from
English PEN and Arts Councils of various countries to support publication for
their writers, but these grants are limited and competition is fierce, so most
of our books do not receive any support. Ideally, we want to get more readers
to know about our wonderful books but in practice, it’s actually getting harder
for titles published by indie publishers to reach major bookstores. There have
been some good ideas which aim to overcome this problem. For instance, we
recently teamed up with nine other indie publishers and went on the Bookblast 10 x 10 Tour
in England organised by BookBlast’s
Georgia de Chamberet. There’s also the possibility of crowdsourcing to get
more titles translated. Things have changed slightly over the last few years.
There are more and more people who like to read translated literature, and
there is a growing interest in these writings from Asia. I’m optimistic about
the future.
NH What of future plans?
RT
We plan to explore more ways, including
crowdsourcing, to get more good titles translated.
And we plan to develop our new
non-fiction book series called Hearing
Others’ Voices, a transcultural and transdisciplinary series on new ways
of thinking, areas of the world that have not attracted much attention in the
past, and key issues of the day, aimed particularly at young adults.
