Major Books

Our latest: Women in Vietnamese literature

About Major Books

Who We Are

Major Books is an independent publishing company dedicated to bringing Vietnamese literature to the English-speaking world.

Our Mission

Our name, Major Books — devised by our brilliant friend Alina Martin — speaks as a clear, bold, and audacious resistance against the ‘minor’ status attributed to certain languages and their literature in the global publishing scene. 

 

 

Our hope is to contribute, no matter how little, to growing awareness that there are no ‘lesser’ voices in world literature.

Vietnamese woman

Our Ethics

With the acute awareness of translation as an art form bearing immense potentials and challenges, our primary goal is to offer translations that are not only faithful but also true to the essence of the source book. Our translators, editors and illustrators, being mostly native speakers themselves, are committed to preserve the integrity and convey the originality of the author’s work.

 

We take immense pride in providing our authors, translators, and all stakeholders with fair and equitable compensation for their invaluable contributions, with the hope of fostering a thriving  Vietnamese literature and creative ecosystems. 

Vietnamese couple

Our First Chapter

Between literary treasures that have been overlooked or worse, poorly translated, and brilliant pieces yet to be written, we will bring a curated selection of works from a variety of authors, periods, and genres. Ranging from critically acclaimed post-war fiction, national epic poetry, to contemporary LGBTQIA+ writings, we hope to present a well-rounded portrait of Vietnam and our diverse voices.

Our Team and Collaborators

Portrait Alina Martin

Alina Martin

Position: Editor
Categories: Editors

ALINA MARTIN is a writer and journalist living in London. She has graduate and undergraduate degrees in comparative literature and critical translation form University College London and the University of Oxford.

Alina Martin

Editor
Portrait Anh Thu

Anh Thư Trương Nguyễn

Position: Publishing Assistant
Categories: Publishing team

Anh Thu (they/them) is a Hanoian working in the publishing and creative industry. They have engaged in a diverse array of experiences; they have their poetry and writings featured in diaCRITICS, Tiger Tea Zine, Koening Zine and Sledgehammer Lit. Their passion for publishing and community led them to co-found the youth arts magazine GENCONTROLZ. They worked part-time handselling independent books at Stanfords Bristol as well as community-organised press Moonfest and Draig Fest.

They aim to challenge and explore beyond their taught binary and given present, as they find it inadequate to fully represent them. Alongside their Sociology undergraduate studies, they partake in various activities that all work towards the empowerment and accessibility of diverse, subversive and liminal stories and lives, with the more specific ambition of working in translated and independent publishing in the future.

Anh Thư Trương Nguyễn

Publishing Assistant
Portrait Deborah Smith

Deborah Smith

Position: Editor
Categories: Editors

DEBORAH SMITH yearns to support and participate in literary cultures that are liberatory, not complicit in structures of violence. This desire informed her founding Tilted Axis Press and translating from Korean, but also subsequently quitting both. These days she is feeling her way tentatively, in the uneven rhythms and nonlinear trajectories of neurodivergent living. She is grateful for every opportunity to do this work relationally.

Deborah Smith

Editor
Portrait DMH

Dương Mạnh Hùng

Position: Editor
Categories: Editors

DƯƠNG MẠNH HÙNG is an independent art translator & writer. Hùng’s interest in the dynamics between literature, visual arts, and translation is informed by their close observation of global and Southeast Asian socio-political and ecological histories.

Dương Mạnh Hùng

Editor

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