Swan Isle Press is an independent, not-for-profit, 501 (c)(3) literary and academic publisher dedicated to publishing works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry in translation that inspire and educate while advancing the knowledge and appreciation of literature, art, and culture. Since its inception in 2000, a special interest of Swan Isle Press is publishing books related to Spanish and Latin American literature, art, and culture. Swan Isle Press’s single-language English translations as well as our bilingual editions make contemporary and classic texts more accessible to a variety of readers. Our bilingual editions recognize the still largely unmet publication needs of the important and growing Spanish-speaking population within the United States.
Swan Isle Press’s current list of titles includes works translated from the original Spanish, Catalan, French, and Italian. We look forward to expanding our book list with translations from other languages and cultures. Swan Isle Press is proud that many of our books are highly valued by educators who use our books for their own scholarly research, cite them in bibliographies, and adopt them within the courses they teach at universities, colleges, and schools.
Swan Isle Press has endeavored to fulfill our mission by publishing and introducing readers to diverse authors and exceptional works of literature. Several of our authors and translators are deeply connected to the African Diaspora, such as Peruvian author Lucía Charún-Illescas and her novel, Malambo, Cuban author Inés María Martiatu’s brave collection of short stories, Over the Waves and Other Stories, and Equatorial Guinean author Donato Ndongo’s acclaimed novel, Shadows of Your Black Memory. Indeed, Shadows of Your Black Memory is considered the first novel by an Equatorial Guinean author to have been translated and published in English. All three books are now well on their way to becoming classics in their own right. For Swan Isle Press, “first” English translations of contemporary and classic international authors is at the very essence of our mission to introduce new voices and transcend borders.
Swan Isle Press’s book list includes a majority representation of women authors and translators because Swan Isle Press is focused on publishing literary works of excellence based on merit open to the world community of artists. While there are some in the literary community who despair that “translated fiction by women must stop being a minority in a minority,” there is no glass ceiling at Swan Isle Press.
Swan Isle Press books are marketed and distributed by The University of Chicago Press, nationally and internationally.
Swan Isle Press was founded by David Rade who serves as its director and editor.