Paul Sullivan talks to Katy Derbyshire about her new publishing imprint, V & Q Books, and its mission to bring German-language books to English readers…
British-born Katy Derbyshire is something of a stalwart on Berlin’s literary scene—especially in terms of her lauded translation work and long-running (bimonthly) Dead Ladies show. Having graduated in German Studies in the UK, she moved to Berlin and began translating a few years later, gradually moving into literary translating.
She has translated a number of high profile authors such as Christa Wolf, Inka Parei, Helene Hegeman, Tilman Rammstedt and Clemens Meyer: her translation of Meyer’s Bricks and Mortar was long-listed for the 2017 Man Booker Prize and won the 2018 Straelener Prize for Translation.
Katy has for several years also co-edited no-mans-land.org, an online magazine of contemporary German literature in English translation, helped establish the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation (running since 2017), and is experienced at organising book launches and translation-related events.
V&Q Books, a subsidiary of indie German publisher Voland & Quist that focuses on publishing translated works, is her first venture into the world of publishing…
How did the idea for V&Q come about? Is it something that gestated over a long period of time, or more spontaneous?
It was a slow germination after an initial seed of inspiration. I was worried about Brexit affecting my choices in life in general and on the work front as well, and frustrated by the low number of translations published in the UK. I then took the seed of my idea to the Frankfurt Book Fair, where the German indie publishers Voland & Quist watered it. We’ve been tending our shoot for a while now, with our first three books coming out in September 2020 and the next two in March 2021.
Who else is involved in V&Q, aside from yourself?
Everyone at Voland & Quist plays a role. They have established printers, typesetters, accountants and so on, and a lot of experience that I benefit from. At the moment I do most things that need doing in English, though.
How did you wind up working with Voland & Quist specifically?
I happened to have a meeting with one of their managing directors, Leif Greinus, at the book fair in 2018, and told him about my idea to work with a German publisher. It was inspired by Europa Editions, incidentally, who brought Elena Ferrante to the English-speaking world and are an imprint of an Italian publisher. Leif asked me not to tell anyone else about my idea, and we took it from there, drawing up a list of must-have books and thinking about design, communication, mission, and all the rest. The whole process took two years.
The original aim, as I understand it, is to publish translated books by German writers and …