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Charco Press is an independent publisher based in Edinburgh that specialises in translating contemporary Latin American fiction into English. It was launched in 2016 by Carolina Orloff and Samuel McDowell and has since enjoyed considerable success. Its self-declared goal is to introduce groundbreaking works of contemporary Latin American literature to an audience that may not be familiar with its themes or narrative styles. To this end, Charco makes a point of carefully selecting the translators for its titles, often employing new and emerging names as well as established ones, and always acknowledging translators on the cover. In 2019, the house began distribution in Canada and the US. In 2021, it launched a collection of original works in Spanish, and in 2022, one of original works in English. Several titles published by Charco have won or received nominations for various awards. The house itself has also been distinguished at Scotland's National Book Awards and the British Book Awards.

Name

The name "Charco", meaning "puddle" or "pond" in Spanish, derives from a colloquial expression used in some Latin American countries to refer to the Atlantic Ocean. More specifically, the expression cruzar el charco ("to cross the pond") refers to the act of going overseas or travelling between continents, and may carry connotations of the migratory waves that moved to and from Latin America in different historical periods. Thus, the publisher's name stands for its aim to act as a cultural and linguistic bridge between Latin America and the English-speaking world.

History

Charco Press was launched in November 2016 in the city of Edinburgh by Carolina Orloff and Samuel McDowell. According to Orloff, who earned her PhD in Latin American literature at the University of Edinburgh, where she also taught courses in the field, the Latin American authors who until the first decade of the 21st century were available in English-language bookshops and discussed in English-language academia were always the same. Thus, when she and McDowell started to develop their publishing project, they decided to seek out recent Latin American books of great impact and make them accessible to English-speaking readers. Charco's first catalogue, published in July 2017, consisted of five titles and focused on Argentina, including works by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, Jorge Consiglio, Ariana Harwicz, Ricardo Romero, and Luis Sagasti. The selection was aimed at dismissing stereotypes and raising awareness among English-language readers about the literary diversity of Latin America, even within the same country and generation. Harwicz's Die, My Love (tr. Sarah Moses and Carolina Orloff) was subsequently shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness and the Society of Authors' Valle-Inclán prizes and longlisted for the International Booker Prize. Awards and nominations for other books followed. In 2019, Charco partnered with Consortium, a brand of Ingram Publisher Services, to commence distribution of its titles in Canada and the US. In 2021, it launched a collection of original works in Spanish, Original+Es, with the publication of the Spanish-language originals of Habana año cero, by Karla Suárez, and La azotea, by Fernanda Trías, alongside their English translations. In 2022, the house launched Untranslated, a collection of original works in English focusing on works of non-fiction and memoirs with a tangible link to Latin America. The first two Untranslated titles were Catching Fire, by Daniel Hahn, and Homesick, by Jennifer Croft. By 2023, Charco's catalogue included almost 40 titles from all over Latin America and had influenced other houses to translate Spanish-language works into English.

Awards

Several titles published by Charco have won or received nominations for a range of literary awards. As of 2024, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara's The Adventures of China Iron (tr. Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre, 2020) and Claudia Piñeiro's Elena Knows, (tr. Frances Riddle, 2022) have been shortlisted, and Ariana Harwicz's Die, My Love (2018) longlisted, for the International Booker Prize. Luis Sagasti's A Musical Offering (tr. Fionn Petch, 2021) won the Society of Authors' Premio Valle-Inclán, and Harwicz's Die, My Love, Margarita García Robayo's Fish Soup (tr. Charlotte Coombe, 2019), Selva Almada's Dead Girls (tr. Annie McDermott, 2021) and Brickmakers (tr. Annie McDermott, 2022), Daniel Saldaña París's Ramifications (tr. Christina MacSweeney, 2021), and Sebastián Martínez Daniell's Two Sherpas (tr. Jennifer Croft, 2023) were shortlisted for it as well. In 2021, three of the five nominees for the Valle-Inclán prize were published by Charco. Ana Paula Maia's Of Cattle and Men (tr. Zoë Perry, 2023) won the Cercador Prize, and Renato Cisneros's The Distance between Us (tr. Fionn Petch, 2018) and Julián Fuks's Resistance (tr. Daniel Hahn, 2018) were both winners of the PEN Translates Award. Additionally, Harwicz's Die, My Love was shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, Margo Glantz's The Remains (tr. Ellen Jones, 2023) for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, and Martínez Daniell's Two Sherpas for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.​

Charco Press was named Publisher of the Year 2023 at Scotland's National Book Awards, was Highly Commended by the judges in 2022 and 2021, and was shortlisted in 2019. Carolina Orloff and illustrator Pablo Font also received awards at Scotland's National Book Awards, the former as Emerging Publisher of the Year and the latter for his covers for Jorge Consiglio's Fate (2021) and Selva Almada's The Wind that Lays Waste (2019)​. At the Nibbies (British Book Awards), Charco was named Scotland's Small Press of the Year in 2021 and 2019, and was shortlisted in 2023, 2022, and 2020.

Published authors

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External links

• Charco Press official website