Small Press Celebration: Editorial Argonáutica

IESEL, A Bookstore in Oakland welcomes Mark Haber, Scott Esposito and Editorial Argonáutica to the store to celebrate their latest bilingual books on Thursday, April 20th at 7pm.

Argonáutica is a Mexican press based in Monterrey, Mexico, an industrial city torn between the “Texas Way of Life” and one of the richest cultures in the world. Their mission is to bring world literature together, to reflect on the translation process and to promote authors that would otherwise not cross their borders. In addition to its artistic value, literature tells the story of culture and its individuals, as well as the way they interact with each other. Argonáutica’s goal is to help create a dialogue between the voices in each culture.

[El proyecto editorial de Argonáutica arrancó con el objetivo de acercar las literaturas del mundo, profundizar en el acto de la traducción y destacar la figura del traductor.  Un aspecto distintivo de la editorial es la intención de publicar ediciones bilingües en las que sea posible cotejar las particularidades, giros y modos de cada lengua. Este enfoque permite abordar el fenómeno de la traducción como arte y como intercambio cultural.

En Argonáutica vemos la literatura como un elemento de contacto entre culturas y, por lo tanto, buscamos colaborar con instituciones culturales de diferentes países para establecer alianzas y proyectos editoriales en conjunto. Además de su valor estético, la literatura da cuenta de la diversidad de individuos y comunidades que interactúan en el contexto global de la contemporaneidad.

Argonáutica, además de proyecto editorial, pretende ser una plataforma para el diálogo intercultural de voces literarias provenientes de distintas latitudes.]

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Mark Haber‘s Melville´s Beard [Las barbas de Melville] is a collection of nine absurd stories varying in structure and tone. Each examines the human condition and the dilemmas we face in the tempest of our own self-induced problems. These are obscure, weird and, in many cases, disturbing stories. Mark’s stories are ageless because they speak to us, demanding we question our own natures, regardless of time and space.

[Es un libro de nueve relatos absurdos, con diferentes estructuras y tonos. Mark escribe sobre la condición humana, sobre los problemas a los que nos enfrentamos y que nosotros mismos creamos. Las suyas son historias oscuras, extrañas y perturbadoras. Son atemporales porque cuestionan la naturaleza del hombre sin importar tiempo o espacio.]

Mark was born in Washington D.C. and grew up in Clearwater, Florida. He is the store manager of Brazos Bookstore in Houston, Texas. He has been a juror on the Best Translated Book Award for 2016 and 2017. His criticism has appeared in The Rumpus, Music & Literature, LitHub. and The Quarterly Conversation. His debut collection of short stories, Deathbed Conversions, was published in 2009.

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Scott Esposito‘s Latin American Mixtape [Mixtape Latinoamericano] is not just a collection of literary essays on Latin American writers, it’s also about the insight that comes from a magnificent reader from abroad reading the great writers of a foreign continent. It includes three never-before-published pieces, exclusive interviews and a sharp point of view on literature.

[La serie de ensayos «lados b», como los llama el autor, no hablan solo del trabajo de autores latinoamericanos, sino también de la perspectiva de un extradordinario lector extranjero a partir de la lectura de grandes escritores. Incluye tres textos inéditos, entrevistas y una agudísima visión de la literatura en general.]

Scott is the author of The Surrender (2016, Anomalous Press), The Doubles (forthcoming, Civil Coping Mechanisms) and co-author of The End of Oulipo? (written with Lauren Elkin, Zero Books, 2013). Some of his texts have appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, La Tempestad (Mexican magazine), Granta en español, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, among others. He is a senior editor of Two Lines Press, contributing editor of BOMB magazine, and founder of The Quarterly Conversation.

Both books will be available for purchase at the event.