South Korean author Hwang Yeo Jung’s scintillating, multi-layered novel, The Specters of Algeria, was our Book Club selection for the month of April; in a narrative that holds fictions inside facts, facts inside fictions, Hwang brilliantly builds and unravels with the double-speak and intimate language of life under authoritarian governance. This invigorating book has come to us by way of the East Asia-centric publisher Honford Star, a small press that has continued to undertake the vital and thrilling work of bringing groundbreaking writers to English-language audiences. In this following interview, Laurel Taylor speaks with the co-founder of Honford Star, Taylor Bradley, about their process from obtaining rights to publication, their mission and goals, and why The Specters of Algeria is such a special title.
The Asymptote Book Club aspires to bring the best in translated fiction every month to readers around the world. You can sign up to receive next month’s selection on our website for as little as USD20 per book; once you’re a member, join our Facebook group for exclusive book club discussions and receive invitations to our members-only Zoom interviews with the author or the translator of each title.
Laurel Taylor (LT): It’s been six years since Honford Star’s founding. What led you and your co-founder Anthony Bird to form this new publishing house?
Taylor Bradley (TB): Anthony and I had known each other since 2008, when we were both English teachers at the same school in Korea. Fast forward to 2015, my wife and I were on our honeymoon in London, where we met up with Anthony and his wife for a pint at this 300-year-old pub called the Chesire Cheese. Charles Dickens was a regular there, and perhaps feeling the inspiration of the Ghost of Literature Past, Anthony and I talked about how nice it would be to have a publishing company. I continued on my honeymoon and didn’t think about the conversation again until a few months later, when Anthony messaged saying he wants to publish the classic Korean author Kim Dong-in and asked me if I want in. I said yes.
Our purpose for starting a new publishing company was to bring a broader range of East Asian stories into English. At the time, we felt the types of books being published were from an extremely narrow band. For example, there hadn’t been much, if any, Korean sci-fi translated into English. We hoped to bring things from areas like classic literature, sci-fi, and queer fiction into English. Fortunately, I think that the translated field has changed a lot in the past eight years, thanks to the efforts of indie and university presses.
LT: You and Anthony were both already working in the publishing sphere prior to Honford Star’s founding, but I’m wondering if there been any unexpected challenges along the way? Unexpected rewards?
TB: We did have experience with printing and publishing, but we had never been in charge of doing an entire book. So finding good translators, editors, artists, printers, distributor, publicists, and sales team has been a journey of trial and error. We’ve been fortunate that our network has really grown into strong group of collaborators, and we have a great printer in Korea that can make the most gorgeous books. Our sales team are a group of wizards, and the distributor is very reliable.
One unexpected thing about our journey is how much Anthony and I have changed our approach. When we were first starting, we’d have long, long conversations about very, very small things. Every choice felt like the most momentous decision we’d ever make. “Should the endpaper be this shade of green or that shade of green? Let’s discuss for forty-five minutes.” Now that we are approaching twenty books, we’ve learned how to chill out and use our time more wisely.
The greatest reward has been watching our books take up more space on my bookshelf.
LT: You’ve published some of the most exciting titles to come out of East Asian literature in past several years, including Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, Ninth Building by Zou Jingzhi, and now The Specters of Algeria by Hwang Yeo Jung. How do you go about choosing titles?
TB: When we first started, we focused on doing classic novels and short story collections. So we would look at different early modern authors, weighing our personal interest and their relative historical importance. As we moved into modern novels, we relied on the network of translators we had built. Our first modern book, Hunter School, was suggested to us by its translator, Darryl Sterk. We had already worked with Darryl on a book and were happy to do another with him. For Cursed Bunny, Anton Hur had picked up a copy at a bookstore and loved it so much that he translated the first two stories to shop around to publishers. He sent us an email pitching the book and we just had to buy it.
Other times, we’ll come across interesting books after talking to a publisher or finding samples commissioned by literature foundations like the Literature Translation Institute of Korea or Books From Taiwan.
As for which books we settle on. . . that’s a bit more difficult to explain. It’s a weird alchemy of having space in our publishing schedule, and Anthony and I both liking the idea of spending the next two years bringing the book into English. We both have to agree on wanting to publish the book. Fortunately, we have pretty similar taste and more books that we want to publish than we have space for.
On the commercial side, we do try to pick books that we think people will want to buy, but we don’t have any special insight into what will sell, so we don’t concern ourselves too much with commercial prospects.
LT: In the case of The Specters of Algeria, what was it about this specific work that made you decide to publish it?
TB: The Specters of Algeria had been on our radar since it won the Munhak Dogne Novel Prize, one of the premier literary awards in South Korea. When we finally read the sample, we were in love. The way it plays with narration and memory is really special. We also were fascinated by the way the narrative examines the legacy of the military dictatorship’s repression of the arts. A lot of the titles we have published have been touched in some way by repressive governments, whether it’s writing under the censorship of the Japanese imperial government or a homegrown dictatorship. The fact that Specters was on the other side of this dynamic really interested us.
LT: Can you expand a little on that phrase—“the other side of this dynamic”? Are you referring specifically to the specters of colonialism and authoritarianism that continue to haunt contemporary South Korea, or did you have something else in mind?
TB: Yep, that’s right. Many of our other authors had to worry about government censorship and that of course affected their works, but how it affected the works is a bit unknowable, since they couldn’t simply write: “Here’s what I was going to do, but the government wouldn’t let me.” That’s what is cool about Specters—it tries to explore how government censorship affects the world of art.
LT: Once you choose a title, what does the editorial process look like for Honford Star? How did you and Specters’ translator Yewon Jung go about completing the project?
TB: The first part of the editorial process is buying the rights to the books. Many of our dreams die at this stage. Sometimes the book has already been sold, sometimes we come to an agreement with the agent or publisher. Fortunately, acquiring the rights to Specters was an easy process.
We’d been wanting to work with Yewon for a while. Her translation of One Hundred Shadows really impressed us, so we approached her to do it. After the translation comes back, we’ll edit the translation for readability and clarity. Once the draft is set, we’ll proofread to catch any typos.
Early on in the process, we’ll approach a cover designer, and we try to use designers from the country the book came from. The advantage of doing so is that the designer has a better understanding of the book’s original context. Also, East Asian designers are working from different design conversations, so they give us covers that are not part of any recognizable Anglosphere book trends.
LT: What are your hopes for Honford Star’s coming years? Where do you imagine it going from here?
TB: We’d like to continue taking on new challenges in East Asian literature, and the success of Cursed Bunny has allowed us to make decision some people might call “stupid”. Over the next few years, we have some ideas for publishing not just a book, but a series. Doing a series presents a new set of challenges (it’s expensive, it’s a lot of work to publish multiple books at the same time, selling it is difficult, it’s expensive). We also talked about how cool a comic book would be.
Simply put, our main goal for the next few years will be to publish more cool books!
Laurel Taylor is a translator and Ph.D. candidate in Japanese and comparative literature at Washington University in St. Louis. Her writing and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in Monkey, the Asia Literary Review, Mentor & Muse, and more.
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