Comma Press

[WndyJW]

Comma Press is a not-for-profit publishing initiative dedicated to promoting new writing, with an emphasis on the short story. It is committed to a spirit of risk-taking and challenging publishing, free of the commercial pressures on mainstream houses. In April 2012, Comma became one of the Arts Council's new National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs).

Mission Statement:

Comma's Mission is to put the short story at the heart of contemporary narrative culture. Through innovative commissions, collaborations and digital initiatives, we will explore the power of the short story to transcend cultural and disciplinary boundaries, and to enable greater understanding across these boundaries.

Our Aims are:

(i) To commission and publish new short fiction in a way that demonstrates the potential of the form, and speaks to the diversity of perspectives that make up contemporary England.

(ii) To create opportunities for emerging and established authors to develop, as writers, and to share their work in new contexts, be these interdisciplinary, intercultural, or digital.

(iii) To develop new and diverse audiences for literary short fiction, and new ways for these audiences to access, experience, and interact with it, as well as with each other.

(iv) To support the wider publishing ecology for literary fiction, throughout England, creating new opportunities for translators, editors, and other publishing professionals to enter and prosper in the industry, where those opportunities are often geographically or socially biased.

Comma's award-winning publications include collections by new and established authors, interdisciplinary collaborations between authors and scientists, and translation commissions devised to identify cutting-edge (often marginalized) voices from across the world.

Our digital initiatives have helped thousands of aspiring authors to self-publish and then learn from the reading habits of those who download their work (MacGuffin). We have also enabled readers to virtually interact with cityscapes around the world, through short stories in translation (LitNav).

Comma delivers masterclasses and creative writing courses throughout the year. We host the National Creative Writing Graduate Fair, which gives aspiring writers access to key agents and editors, and we support the wider publishing sector through the Northern Fiction Alliance.

[WndyJW]

This looks like an awesome press: three volumes of Refugee Tales, a Reading the City series of books that highlight various cities i.e., Istanbul, Gaza, Rio, Khartoum, as well as Speculative Fiction, poetry. They have an Arabic imprint and a part of Northern Fiction Alliance.
And, Sam, most of their books are available as e-books.
I wish they offered a subscription.

[Antonomasia, Admin only]

Most of their publications these days are anthologies, though they used to have more single-author books, and in general they specialise in short story collections. I look at their site at least a couple of times every year for the MBI lists. This year they have mostly been growing their collection of anthologies set in different UK and global cities.
They published The Iraqi Christ, an IFFP winner which I loved but which wasn't popular with the shadow panel people that year.

[WndyJW]

I like short stories and I like that they offer city specific anthologies, it seems a good way to get a feel for a place.
I just ordered Moss Witch and Other Stories, which isn’t about a city, it’s a collection of stories in which myth meets science and sounds fascinating.

[Robert]

WndyJW wrote: "I like short stories and I like that they offer city specific anthologies, it seems a good way to get a feel for a place.
I just ordered Moss Witch and Other Stories, which isn’t ab..."

I reviewed two of their anthologies
Cairo : https://thebobsphere.wordpress.com/20...

Tehran : https://thebobsphere.wordpress.com/20...

I should be reviewing The Book of Shanghai in March

[WndyJW]

Nice reviews, Robert. I hope to get a few of these. I think the series is a brilliant idea.

[Louise]

In the Translated Fiction Online Book Club, renamed the Borderless Book Club, we read Thirteen Months of Sunrise which was a very solid short story collection by a Sudanese author. During that meeting the publisher did say they concentrate on short stories. They seem to put out good work.

[Paul]

You Should Come With Me Now: Stories of Ghosts by M. John Harrison is a fascinating book - a writer who seems to subvert genre and invent something all of his own.

His manifesto; "A good ground rule for writing in any genre is: start with a form, then undermine its confidence in itself. Ask what it's afraid of, what it's trying to hide – then write that."

[Louise]

Oh that does sound fascinating Paul. I love short stories. Will have to give this one a try.

[WndyJW]

Intriguing. I put it on my Wish List, which doesn’t mean I’m less interested in it than books I’ve bought, only that I’m trying really hard to whittle down my TBR.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

The MJ Harrison book is OK, I think you need to know more of his universe of writing to really appreciate the book, it does not really work as a stand alone except as a base to draw you in.

The book has a recommendation from China Mieville who considers Harrison a literary inspiration and the two seem close.

[WndyJW]

What other Harrison books would introduce a reader to his universe? Not that I’m adding to my TBR/Wish List at the moment. I’ll take this off my Wish List for now then.

[Paul]

There is a new collection of M. John Harrison stories coming in August - https://commapress.co.uk/books/settli...

[WndyJW]

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