Archipelago Books is an American not-for-profit literary publisher dedicated to promoting cross-cultural exchange through international literature in translation. Located Brooklyn, New York, it publishes small to mid-size runs of international fiction, poetry, and literary essays. The press was founded in 2003 by Jill Schoolman out of an urgent need to make world literature available to American readers. Archipelago has since published over fifty books, translated from more than twenty languages into English. It is distributed in the United States and Canada by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution and in the United Kingdom and Europe by Turnaround Publisher Services.

Archipelago is the 2008 winner of the Miriam Bass award for excellence in independent publishing.

Publications

Archipelago Books focuses on publishing books of exceptional literary merit and social importance, particularly works of literature that represent voices and demographics that may not otherwise be available in English. Archipelago publishes both contemporary and classic works and strives to introduce authors that larger, for-profit presses have passed on because of low commercial viability. Archipelago publishes between ten and twelve books per year. Archipelago avoids focusing narrowly on a single region, time period, or genre, instead choosing books of a shared "sensibility." Jill Schoolman describes this sensibility as "the region where poetry meets prose, where visual art meets language, where politics and humanism meet philosophy and dream. Style is as important as soul, but one cannot survive without the other. It's true, we are equally passionate about undiscovered classics as we are about unique voices of our time with stories to tell. I don't think it will be necessary to narrow our focus, our vision—although difficult to articulate— is clear."

Archipelago's best known authors include Elias Khoury, Julio Cortázar

Julio Cortázar

Julio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar, was an Argentine writer. Cortázar, known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, influenced an entire generation of Spanish speaking readers and writers in the Americas and Europe.-Early life:Cortázar's parents, Julio José Cortázar and...

, Mahmoud Darwish

Mahmoud Darwish

Mahmoud Darwish was a Palestinian poet and author who won numerous awards for his literary output and was regarded as the Palestinian national poet...

, Nobel Prize laureate Halldór Laxness

Halldór Laxness

Halldór Kiljan Laxness was a twentieth-century Icelandic writer. Throughout his career Laxness wrote poetry, newspaper articles, plays, travelogues, short stories, and novels...

, Breyten Breytenbach

Breyten Breytenbach

Breyten Breytenbach is a South African writer and painter with French citizenship.-Biography:Breyten Breytenbach was born in Bonnievale, Western Cape, approximately 180 km from Cape Town and 100 km from the southernmost tip of Africa at Cape Agulhas...

, Karl Ove Knausgård

Karl Ove Knausgård

Karl Ove Knausgård is a Norwegian author, who has sold over 200 000 books.Born in Oslo, Knausgård was raised on Tromøya in Arendal and in Kristiansand, and studied arts and literature at the University of Bergen...

, Louis Couperus

Louis Couperus

Louis Marie-Anne Couperus was a Dutch novelist and poet during the Belle Époque. There is a wide variety of genres in his oeuvre, which contains poetry, fairy tales, psychological novels, and historical novels...

, Heinrich Heine

Heinrich Heine

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...

, Novalis

Novalis

Novalis was the pseudonym of Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg , an author and philosopher of early German Romanticism.-Biography:...

, Hugo Claus

Hugo Claus

Hugo Maurice Julien Claus was a leading Belgian author who published under his own name as well as various pseudonyms. Claus' literary contributions spanned the genres of drama, the novel, and poetry; he also left a legacy as a painter and film director...

, Rainer Maria Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...

, Heinrich von Kleist

Heinrich von Kleist

Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist was a poet, dramatist, novelist and short story writer. The Kleist Prize, a prestigious prize for German literature, is named after him.- Life :...

, and Jacques Poulin

Jacques Poulin

Jacques Poulin is a Canadian novelist with a quiet and intimate style of writing.Poulin studied psychology and arts at the Université Laval in Quebec City; he started his career as commercial translator and later became a college guidance counselor...

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