We’re launching a new trade imprint (and we’re pretty stoked about it).
For some time we’d been floating the idea: what if the Press started a new imprint, exclusively trade-oriented? On the strength of our brand, but without titular reference to the university, such an imprint would give editors more imaginative latitude, allowing them to experiment in new formats, and to extend the mission of the Press and its list to a wider audience. Enticing though the prospects were, the imprint remained a gleam in the collective eye of editorial—until now.
Redwood Press curates well-crafted books that spur thought and stir debate.
This week Stanford University Press announces the launch of Redwood Press, a new trade imprint. Under this name—a nod both to Stanford University’s home in Palo Alto (it’s a coastal redwood tree) and the Press’s new Redwood City headquarters—the Press will publish thought-provoking nonfiction and stimulating fiction for the general reader. Open to both academics as well as non-academic writers—journalists, novelists, and other influential voices—this imprint is geared toward big ideas and broad audiences.
Though the notion for the imprint had been percolating for some months, the catalyst for its creation arrived late last year in the form of a riveting but unusual book proposal. The internationally acclaimed author, Bahiyyih Nakhjavani, presented her third novel, The Woman Who Read Too Much, to Editor-in-Chief and Middle East Studies editor, Kate Wahl. Though already translated into Italian, Spanish, Korean, and French—and identified by the Times Literary Supplement as “one of the best three books” of the year in 2007—the novel had yet to be published in its original English.
Set in 19th century Iran, the book pivots around the poetess of Qazvin—an enigmatic protagonist, whose refusal to conform to religious convention shocks the political powers of the Qajar court. The narrative’s historical import and resonant political and social themes struck Wahl as reflective of the Press’s general list, but distinctive from it in both form and voice. With the serendipitous arrival of Nakhjavani’s manuscript, the Press had a debut novel for its new imprint.
For Wahl, it was important that the novel’s motifs echoed themes from the Press’s broader list. “I believe mission-based publishing is important,” says Wahl, who sees the Redwood Press imprint as intricately complementary to the Stanford University Press brand and raison d’être.
The publishing mission of the Press writ large—indeed the publishing mission of any university press—is to provide a comprehensive ecosystem of letters in which intellectuals can engage, discover, and theorize. What distinguishes the Redwood Press imprint is that, though it will be an extension of this mission, its aim will be to distill the essence of these dialogues, in adventurous forms, for a general readership.
Such is the case with the second title also slated to publish with Redwood Press this year, a manifesto from former Peruvian president, Alejandro Toledo. Toledo—whose presidency coincided with aggressive poverty reduction and rapid economic growth in Peru—maps out his blueprint for a prosperous and progressive Latin America in The Shared Society. Toledo’s book, acquired at auction by Executive Editor, Eric Brandt, reprises themes and addresses questions central to the Press’s longstanding lists in Latin American studies, political science, and economics—but approaches them from the global perspective of an expert practitioner, whose sweeping insights are informed as much by firsthand experience as empirical study.
The twin missions of the Press’s general list and this new trade-oriented imprint dovetail in their aims to elucidate and inform, making the Press’s core competencies in scholarly publishing a natural platform from which to launch Redwood Press. With a projected publishing output of four to six titles a year, the new imprint will curate well-crafted books that spur thought, stir debate, and invite the reader into ongoing conversations.
View the full Press Release via Publishers Weekly:
Stanford University Press Launches Trade Imprint http://t.co/vixkXlrnpX
— Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly) February 5, 2015
So would you accept unagented novels with academic ideas or characters that are also entertaining?
What is your submission policy for Redwood Press? I am a scholar who has written a novel that is part academic, part travelog, part spiritual journey, part romp.
Cheryl J. Fish
Posted by: Cheryl J. Fish | February 3, 2015 at 05:47 AM