Republic of Consciousness Class of 2021: Alindarka's Children by Alhierd Bacharevič, tr. Jim Dingley & Petra Reid (Scotland Street Press)
Between March 8th and March 19th we will be posting ten pieces on our blog celebrating the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2021 longlist. There will be interviews, extracts and articles, with each piece focussing on a longlisted book.
Today we have an interview with Jean Findlay of Scotland Street Press, which publishes Alindarka’s Children by Alhierd Bacharevič, tr. Jim Dingley & Petra Reid. Findlay explains the history of Scotland Street Press, how it came to publish Bacharevič’s novel, and the impact of lockdown on small press publishing.
Republic of Consciousness: Who is Scotland Street Press, and what’s your story so far?
Jean Findlay: The Press was founded in 2014 in Scotland Street, Edinburgh on the proceeds of the US rights sale of my biography of C K Scott Moncrieff the translator of Proust. So we stand on the shoulders of giants. We have gone on to champion first time authors, older women, poets and those who find it difficult to get into print.
At the Frankfurt Bookfair 2016, I found the only country’s booth that was as impoverished as our company: that of Belarus, and bought the rights to Tania Skarynkina’s book. She came to the EIBF and suggested Bacharevič, who specifically highlights linguistic oppression.
Over this period we grew from a team of one to four in the office, with interns coming in from Europe on the Erasmus Traineeship scheme and Napier College in Edinburgh.
RofC: Alindarka’s Children brings the issue of Belarussian identity and language, in relation to Russia, to our attention. Did you have an activist or political aim with the book?
JF: Language is the voice of a nation. If you suppress the language, you oppress the nation. The literature of a nation is what defines it in ideas, in vision and in history. Growing up in Scotland I learnt how the Jacobite movement was effectively crippled by the banning of their language and culture. The language has barely recovered centuries later.
In asking if there is a political activist motivation, I have to say no.
As a publisher we strive to be politically neutral. There is a social justice motivation and there is a recognition of good literature. Was Havel a political activist? Was Solzhenitzyn? Their expression of their country’s voice was, in literary terms, a true one, and that can also be said of Bacharevič.
RofC: How have you adapted to the changing landscape due to lockdowns, and closed bookshops? Has it affected business practices?
JF: The closure of bookshops, the cessation of live events and the cancellation of literary festivals saw our sales go into minus in the first half of 2020. It slowly climbed again through online web sales and the nerdification of our small team, pushing the website. We now spend much time hunched of over laptops learning creative informatics, all working remotely, and long for the human contact and direct sales of our book launches. However spirits are high as we brainstorm new ways of selling. The longlisting for the R of C Prize is a great boost to morale and hope for the future.
RofC: If you could be a bigger press, would you like to be?
JF: A bigger press would be more difficult to manage, it is true, however the Press has always grown organically according to what is being offered, and it seems that at the moment we are growing, in spite of lockdown and the situations it creates.
RofC: What does 2021 and beyond hold for Scotland Street?
JF: This year sees the first themed publication year: International Women 2021 is a list of women authors from Canada, the US, India and South Africa who all have a strong link to Scotland.
It involves poetry, memoir and fiction and has four illustrators who work with the poets and novelist.
We are growing in international outreach as 2021 saw the beginning of distribution in the US and Canada through Trafalgar Square IPG in Chicago.
Alindarka’s Children is available to buy here on the Scotland Street Press website.