A Publisher's Perspective: the Pushkin Press and Fantasy in Translation Part 1 of 2 - Guest Daniel Seton

0:06 Hello, and welcome to myth makers. Myth makers is the podcast for fantasy fans and fantasy creatives brought to you by the Oxford center for fantasy. My name is Julia Golding. I'm an author, but I also run the center and today I'm joined by someone from the publishing world. Uh, so please meet Daniel Seton who works for a very interesting publisher in the UK called the Pushkin press. So hello to Daniel. Hello. Thanks very much for having me on. It's very exciting. So, uh, many people who are, um, you know, keen on fantasy could imagine themselves working in the world of publishing fantasy books and other kinds of books. So how did you as a, as a young man actually get into publishing, what was your route?

0:55 Well, I suspect it's quite a common route, really. Um, uh, university, I, I studied French and philosophy. Um, so I came out of university without a, you know, an obvious, there was no obvious career path for that, um, degree necessarily. So I was, had to think about, you know, what do I really love? And what I really loved was reading and books had done since for all my life really, or my life I can remember. Um, and, um, and so I started working in publishing and, um, because of, uh, I've been studying a language at university, it seemed natural to go into, um, the area of publishing that focuses on translations, um, which is what I did.

1:39 Um, and after a few years I ended up at Pushkin press, uh, almost that's coming up for 12 years now, 12 years ago that I, um, that I came here and now I'm an editor. And in that time we've really gone from strength to strength. It's been a great place to work. So what is the place of fantasy within the rafter things that you publish at Pushkin? Well, we, it's not, we don't specialize in, in publishing fantasy. Um, we're not that sort of publisher, but, um, I think there are elements of fantasy in all of the different strands of what we publish. Uh, so what we originally, um, were founded to publish and what we are, we were best known for is, um, translated classic literature from, from across the world. Um, and that was what we, we were publishing when we were first founded in 1997, but since then, we've really broadened out. And now we, um, we have a, we've published a lot of, um, contemporary literature, uh, as well as, uh, we have a children's list and the crime and thrillers list as well.

2:45 And I actually acquire and publish across all of those lists. And I suppose there's, there's fantastical elements and lots of those title and lots of those, uh, imprints, but really it's the children's list, which has the most, the largest element of fantasy in it. And the one that actually, I, I think I enjoy acquiring for the most it's, um, something that I'm starting to focus on. Yeah. We publish a lot of, uh, wonderful fantasy bubble from all over the world on that list. So perhaps you could give, uh, the listeners an idea of what, what some of those titles might be that, um, fall into that category. Well, for example, I think the most, the most successful title on our children's list since we founded it has been a Dutch classic called the letter for the king by an author called Tonka draft.

3:34 Um, and it's a wonderful, I mean, it's, it's fantasy in the sense that it's set in, uh, not in our world, but it's a fantasy perhaps a bit like a bit like game of Thrones, purely in the sense that the fantastical magical elements quite downplayed. So it's quite a realistic fantasy, which I think is quite, it's quite Dutch, really. Um, it's very taught fast pace adventure story about a young, uh, Squire who wants to become a Knight and to do that, he has to deliver a letter to the king of a far off land. And there are all these other nights trying to stop him. It's really just the breathless story. And it's a huge classic in the Netherlands across the world.

4:15 And we published it with great success in the UK, and it was recently adapted buy Netflix for a brilliant series as well. So that's one example. Um, another example would be another book from the Netherlands actually, <laugh>, it's, it's interesting because when, when, when I speak to people from the Netherlands, they often say fantasy is something that is quite lacking from, um, Dutch literature in general, it's often very realistic, but, um, I think perhaps because of when a Dutch fantasy novel does emerge, it's often very special. And that's the case for a book called, uh, Lampe that we published a couple of years back when author called Annette sharp.

4:59 It ended up being the first translated book to be shortlisted for the Carnegie, um, medal in the UK. Uh, and that's a wonderful Gothic secret garden esque, uh, fantasy novel about a young girl with mermaids and pirates. And it's very rich and, um, AST on level of character as well. Like, like the sync that was a big influence for Annette when she was writing it. Like, I really love that book and we've got her next book come out, um, this awesome, which the girls, um, which is a collection of stories actually. I mean, the reason we got to know each other is that you very kindly were sending me some of these wonderful books to review. And I remember that one very much, but the one that I remember of course is my favorite ape.

5:49 Oh, the murderers ape. Yeah. I almost did mention that cause it's so, I mean, that is, I think perhaps my favorite book on that we've ever published across all of our, all of our imprints. It's so amazing. It's um, the author is, uh, Swedish and it's like a, um, a very rich old fashioned kind of 1920 set adventure in a kind of tin tin esque style. And, um, the one fantastical element of it really is that the protagonist is a, is a gorilla called sly Jones who, uh, who, um, she can't speak, but she can understand everything that humans say.

6:29 And she alongside humans in the world. And she actually works as a mechanic on, on board a boat, um, uh, which enabled to have to sail around the world and have lots of adventures. And it's really just an amazing, an amazing richly detailed adventure of the type that I think we don't see enough of these days. And it's beautifully illustrated as well. It has about a hundred gorgeous, detailed illustrations by the author in it. Um, and, um, we are publishing the paperback edition of the sequel, um, Sally Jones and the false rose, this autumn, which is another, just as good as the murder is ape and which Sally Jones comes to Glasgow. In fact, it's UK based. Um, yeah, the reason only reason I didn't mention that right away is because, uh, you know, uh, the only fantastical element, if you could call that, is that she's a gorilla <laugh>, which is, you know.

7:29 Extremely good job of persuading you, that it's a hi historical adventure. Yes. And you have take a step and think, hang on a minute, hang on a minute. Would, would a gorilla really be able to be a mechanic? Is this not actually a form of animal fable in a way? And it is actually, um, I put my hand up, it's my, when, when anyone says, what's your favorite children's book you've read in the last decade. It's that one? I, so the other, other thing I, I like about both that and the Lampe story and others is, um, illustration, because it struck me that yeah. Where, whereas in the UK you might get chapter vignettes or whatever.

8:11 It's quite rare for a publisher, unless you're doing a illustrated book of the sort of children, you know, younger end of the market. People don't spend on the illustrations where, whereas the European editions that you are translating seem to have the most wonderful, um, place for illustrations. Am I right in thinking that, is that something that you've noticed? Uh, yes. I mean, um, well, in the case of those two books, the, the authors did the illustrations as well. So, um, an, a sharp, for example, and I think both a sharp author of Lampe and the, a regales author of the murderers ape were, they started out as illustrators before they, um, you know, started writing these novels for children. So, um, yeah, so the book, the story, the illustrations came with the came with the novels. Um, it was already a package. Um, but it's true. There's, I think there's, um, I think in the UK, we have this culture whereby we have picture books for younger children, and then there's a cutoff and you have novels for, you know, around about eight, seven or eight, where you start having novels with, with not so many pictures in them. Whereas in, on the continent in Europe, I see more of a continuum with, um, perhaps they're just, just text getting longer and longer, and the pitch taking slightly more of a back, but there's still that mix like all the way through, um, something that we could learn from definitely.

9:42 I mean, it's not to say there isn't a place, cause obviously there's a whole new range of graphic novels where, you know, the balance is obviously towards pictures and what have you. But it does seem as though for sort of common or garden novelists like me, that I'd love to have more opportunity to work with illustrators in that middle group, the middle grade book, cuz when you think of the fantasy greats, like, um, oh, I dunno line in the witch in the wardrobe, but it's in my head, I can't separate it from the Pauline bans line drawings. And of course talking, talking himself was his own best illustrator. Yeah. Um, and we all know if I said, oh yes, smell on the treasure heat.

10:22 Everybody knows what I'm talking about. So I, I think that the example coming in from Europe is one that I'd love to see more frequently used, really give, give illustrators some jobs. That's what I'm saying. <laugh> um, so yeah. What do you think are the main shifts in publishing? Uh, particularly as regards fantasy. I mean I'm talking across the board cause we don't just do children's fantasy we're we are looking through the whole range of ages on books. Yeah. Where is it going at the moment in 2022? Well, that's a big question and I, you know, the, as an editor, I'm not a specialist in, in fantasy per se, so it's not, it's not my whole focus, but it seems to me like one of the most interesting developments in fantasy literature, it's, it's kind of linked to the, one of the biggest trends over the past few years in, um, publishing, which is just bringing in a more diverse range of voices.

11:26 And I think that the effect that has in fantasy is that you we're seeing all these, um, Fanta worlds with just different kind of cultural flavors to them. That is so exciting. And, um, and so interesting. I I think, um, perhaps because of the great success of Tolkin and other author like that almost got to thinking that fantasy means this could be in medieval, um, magical world. Whereas in fact, what we're getting to experience now is it was all these fantasies, worlds influenced by, um, different cultures and different, um, mythologies and beliefs and, and histories. Um, which I think is generally is really exciting. Um, we published a, um, these fantasy novel on our list. Um, a few years back it was very successful called the beast player by the hook.

12:24 And I think what people, um, really responded to and that is that the, um, the fantasy world was just so richly imagined detailed, not in the way that, um, that, you know, Western fancy readers are necessarily used to, um, was really fascinating. I can remember, I can remember the experience of watching spirited away, you know, that wonderful, um, Japanese film from, I think it's now from the early two thousands. So it's quite old now. Anyway, late 1990s, I remember watching this thinking, I have not seen this before. Right. There was nothing here that I've seen before the imagery, the, this pacing, everything was just delightfully different and appealing.

13:09 Yeah. So I agree with you. This is very good to have the formulas shaken up on the formulas exploded because new things are coming in and when we're teaching, um, people on our fantasy course, one of the very first things we are looking at is what's in your, what's in your own background and the place you live the O your own stories that haven't been used before. And it's really exciting if someone comes up with, oh, well, you know, I'm from a native American background or I'm from a Australia or whatever, you get new ideas coming through, which is yeah. You know, that's what we're about. We're about new creativity. Yeah. So, but you, what about the different flavors of fantasy from, um, different countries that you see? Cuz I mean, I can say in crime, like we all know about Scandar and cozy crime from the UK and so on.

14:00 So you can sort of say there are different flavors in the sort crime and detective world. Um, what would you, you know, you've mentioned Holland or the Netherlands a couple of times, do you feel there are sort of different flavors you are getting from different parts of the world as they come across your desk in translation? Yes. Well, I certainly, it certainly seems that, um, some countries have got very rich traditions. Um, well I enjoy, you know, delving into, uh, I mean, because I did French at university, I suppose that, uh, it's so natural that I end up reading quite a lot of French, uh, fantasy submissions and the, the, the real, the breadth of the imagination is really impressive. It's very, um, very creative.

14:56 Thank you for listening to part one of this week's podcast. Come back next week to hear part two. Thank you for listening to myth makers. Thanks for listening to mythmakers podcast brought to you by the Oxford center for fantasy visit Oxford center for fantasy.org to join in the fun. Find out about our online courses in person stays in Oxford plus visit our shop for great gifts. Tell a friend and subscribe wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.