In 2006 Comma Press announced the launch of a new translation imprint dedicated to delivering the best in contemporary short fiction, as part of Comma's on-going commitment to the short story as a unique and divergent literary form.

With support from Arts Council England, the new imprint began four anthologies showcasing a cross-section of stories from around Europe and the Middle East. The first of this anthology series, Decapolis: Tales from Ten Cities was published in 2006 year, as a pilot edition, and was followed in Oct 07 by a second Elsewhere: Stories from Small Town Europe, featuring Ingo Schulze (Germany), Frode Grytten (Norway), Jean Sprackland (UK) and many others.

In 2008 these were followed by ReBerth, a port cities anthology, looking at six cities around Europe, produced in conjunction with Liverpool's Capital of Culure year, and Madinah, a compendium of contemporary Middle Eastern short stories, edited by the Lebanese poet and critic Joumana Haddad. The former was also launched in conjunction with a student creative writing and translation pilot scheme. More here.

As well as the anthologies, in 2008 Comma launched four single-author collections from short story practitioners from Europe, with assistance from the European Culture Programme, 'Culture 2007'. In 2009 with support from English PEN, Comma launched it's first single author collection from the Middle East, Hassan Blasim's 'The Madman of Freedom Square'.

The first five single author collections were:

Long Days
by Maike Wetzel
Translated from the German by Lyn Marven.
Read on.

I Love You When I'm Drunk
by Empar Moliner
Translated from the Catalan by Peter Bush.
Read on.

Stone Tree
by Gyrdir Eliasson
Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb.
Read on.

Amuse-Bouche
by Arnon Grunberg
Translated from the Dutch by Ron de Klerk & Lisa Friedman.
Read on.

The Madman of Freedom Square
by Hassan Blasim
Translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright.
Read on.

The aim of the imprint will be to explore both the short story’s family resemblances and its idiosyncrasies across cultures, whilst benefiting from its unique cultural ‘moveability’. As a form grounded in the fleeting, the momentary and the singular, the short story lends itself as well as any literary form to translation, being rooted – despite its modern reinventions – in the mobility of the oral tradition. Comma Translation will be committed to developing a resolutely contemporary list from the outset, with the aim of keeping the cultural exchange fresh, vital and relevant. All publications will be accompanied by author tours, discussions and innovative live readings (with authors reading in the original against projected English surtitles).

Imprint editor Maria Crossan says, “The establishment of this imprint gives Comma a great opportunity to inject some much-needed energy into UK readers’ experience of literature in translation, and equally to enrich and give context to the current short fiction scene in this country. It also allows us to build bridges between writers and readers, and start from the common ground that is the short story itself.”

Decapolis: Tales from Ten Cities – the imprint’s pilot project – was championed for bringing some “fresh and varied new literary voices” in European short fiction to UK readers (Independent on Sunday). A Radio 3 discussion prompted by the publication praised the stall Comma had already set out for the ‘European Short Story’ as a concept, distinct from the more recognizable American Short Story, concluding the former “is obviously in vigorous form” (Matthew Sweet, Nightwaves, R3). A.S. Byatt in The Times commended the way the stories in this pilot project brought forward the history of the many cities represented, as opposed to the domestic nihilism of the Carver model: “Europe is heavy with history and the trace left by cataclysm and upheaval,” she observed. “These are present in these tales, and yet coexist with a kind of wry and knowing playfulness.”

For more information on Comma's Translation Policy (useful for translators) click here.