Major Books

Our Upcoming Releases - Fall 2024

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 Thanh Vu

Thanh Vũ

Position: Illustrator
Categories: Illustrators

Thanh Vũ was born in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. Growing up with manga, he wanted to be a mangaka. Turns out, Vu graduated BA Graphic Design and worked as a part-time graphic designer with a special passion for drawing. Quickly after that, passion replaced profession. Vu decided to make illustration his main career and pursue making his own comics. His childhood dream came true and expanded even further. Vu believes that although drawing is wordless art, but it can tell countless stories hidden under. And his job is to find that right storytelling though strokes and colors. His hobby is searching fun things to do, he has the amazing talent of distraction. Currently he is a full time illustrator-graphic novelist, an amateur carpenter and very-amateur motorcycle fabricator on-free-time. In 2021, he finished it and self-published his first graphic novel “Sceadu” in Vietnam. He won the New Talent Prize of BIBF Ananas Illustration Awards in 2019 and has been selected for the shortlist of the Folio Book Illustration Award in 2022.​

Thanh Vũ

Illustrator

Sign Up for our Newsletter !

This is our general newsletter. If you are a bookseller or part of the book industry, please sign-up for our dedicated newsletter on our Sales and Distribution page.

Supported by UCL Innovation and Enterprise Logo