New Europa Editions Venture

As if they weren’t already accomplishing enough via Edizioni E/O and Europa Editions, Sandra Ozzola Ferri and Sandro Ferri are starting a new press dedicated to publishing world literature in Arabic.

Sandra and Sandro’s latest publishing endeavor is perhaps even more ambitious: an Arabic imprint publishing fiction titles, in Arabic, to be distributed in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The new venture bears the name Sharq/Gharb, a translation of the Italian publishing house’s name E/O (Est/Ovest—East/West)

These three publishing ventures (Edizioni E/O founded in 1979; Europa Editions, 2005; Sharq/Gharb, 2007) share a single objective: to create bridges between peoples through literature. Sharq/Gharb was founded with an even more specific goal in mind: the need to create more opportunities for direct contact between Europe and the Arab world, to encourage two-way exchange between readers and writers belonging to both traditions. Many wonderful writers in the Arab world are not being published in Arabic either because they refuse to bend to the demands of censorship or they suffer the consequences of more general difficulties plaguing the publishing industries in their native countries; an even greater number of fine authors writing in Arabic have never been translated into foreign languages, including English.

Sharq/Gharb was founded as a response to these problems.

The first title to be published by Sharq/Gharb is Elena Ferrante’s The Days of Abandonment.