The Newsletter 98 Summer 2024

The Imprint - Zubaan Publishers

The Imprint highlights the critical work of small publishers around the world. Such presses, often located beyond the Global North, produce some of the most innovative, incisive, locally informed, and high-quality books within and beyond Asian Studies. With countless books getting published each year, many titles do not receive the recognition or circulation they deserve. All too often, the global publishing houses and major university presses – those with resources to invest in promotion – receive an outsized share of attention. Whether works of research, translation, literature, or art, the publishers featured on The Imprint regularly experiment to push against the conventions of academic and popular trade publishing. In this edition, we are pleased to highlight a selection of recent titles from Zubaan Publishers in India.

A feminist publishing house based in India, Zubaan Publishers was set up in 2003 when its parent organization – Kali for Women (India's first feminist publishing house, established 1984) – closed down. Zubaan publishes books by and about women with focuses on gender and voices from the margins, in India and South Asia more broadly. Zubaan’s books range from general interest fiction, non-fiction, academic books, some visual books, and books for young adults. They translate from various Indian languages into English, and they also work with independent publishers in different Indian languages to offer Zubaan titles for translation into their languages. The Zubaan team loves every book they produce, and they proudly wear their politics on their sleeve. Their sister NGO Zubaan disseminates much of their content freely in forms other than books.