The Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses 2022
Congratulations to Tilted Axis for winning the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2022 with their book
HAPPY STORIES, MOSTLY
by Norman Erikson Pasaribu, tr. Tiffany Tsao
The prize was announced at Brick Lane Bookshop, and online in partnership with Wasafiri, on Wednesday 11th May. £5,000 was distributed between 10 longlisted presses, with a further £7,500 distributed between 5 shortlisted publishers, writers and translators: £12,500 in all.
The prize fund is raised via a number of sources, primarily our university partners: the UEA Publishing Project, the University of Westminster and the University of Kent. We are also indebted to our Book Club subscribers, who support us and our work.
The prize would not be possible without the support of Arts Council England. We thank them for their continuing support: not only of us, but also the many small publishing projects they fund and encourage.
Winner 2021: Tilted Axis Press, for Happy Stories, Mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu, tr. Tiffany Tsao
Playful, shape-shifting and emotionally charged, Happy Stories, Mostly is a collection of twelve stories that queer the norm. Inspired by Simone Weil’s concept of ‘decreation’, and often drawing on Batak and Christian cultural elements, these tales put queer characters in situations and plots conventionally filled by hetero characters.
The stories talk to each other, echo phrases and themes, and even shards of stories within other stories, passing between airports, stacks of men’s lifestyle magazines and memories of Toy Story 3, such that each one almost feels like a puzzle piece of a larger whole, but with crucial facts – the saddest ones, the happiest ones – omitted, forgotten, unbearable.
A blend of science fiction, absurdism and alternative-historical realism, Happy Stories, Mostly is a powerful puff of fresh air, aimed at destabilising the heteronormative world and exposing its underlying absences.
Tilted Axis is a non-profit press publishing mainly work by Asian writers, translated into a variety of Englishes.
Norman Erikson Pasaribu is a poet and writer. His first collection of short stories in Indonesian was shortlisted for the 2014 Khatulistiwa Literary Award for Prose. His debut poetry collection Sergius Mencari Bacchus, won first prize in the 2015 Jakarta Arts Council Poetry Competition. His poems have appeared in Asymptote, Modern Poetry in Translation, Asia Literary Review and Cordite Poetry Review. He is based in Jakarta.
Tiffany Tsao translates Indonesian fiction and poetry into English. She has published three book-length translations to date. Her translation of Norman Erikson Pasaribu's Sergius Seeks Bacchus was awarded a PEN Translates grant and shortlisted for the 2021 NSW Premier's Translation Prize. She also writes fiction. Her third novel The Majesties was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award. She holds a Ph.D. in English from UC-Berkeley and currently lives in Australia.
