East Bristol Books

12/08/2026

Current press feature is the great Cipher Press!

Cipher publish q***r & trans-identifying voices otherwise marginalised by mainstream publishing, in idiosyncratic editions with playful design. Their most recent release is Michelle Tea's anthology Clowns (following up Witch and S***s -- of course). Other bangers include perennial ebbestseller alison rumfitt, Brontez Purnell's memoirs in verse & prose, q***r suburbs, the Berlin gay club scene....we also loved Bone Horn by , but are out of stock right now so unpictured: a mad detective story about searching for Gertrude Stein's horn that's also a brutal satire of academic research (ouch) and a meditation of q***r grief, loss, and parenting. Back in soon!

11/08/2026

08/08/2026

In the breathing-space of august, looking back at some great nights from the last few months we neglected to post about at the time: first, a brilliant & witty conversation between Raoul de Jong & Edson Burton on Jaguarman (HopeRoad), Raoul's autofictional exploration of his father's Surinamese heritage, the long & often concealed legacies of Dutch colonialism & slavery in South America, and the syncretic spiritual traditions produced by uprooting & violence which transcend their origins & take on new forms: the shamanic transformation into Jaguarman 🐆. This was by far the best photo, outside the shop, in the evening light....

05/08/2026

Women in translation month new in!

This year's book on (rather than in) translation is obviously Emily Wilson's Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea (Profile Books). Giving critical heft to Wilson's wonderful translations of Homer, the book brings to light the radical contemporaneity of classical texts, renewed & remade by translation, citation, allusion, adaptation....just don't mention the movie!

And this month's translation polemic, equally obviously, is Heidi Clark of The Translators' House' Some Translated Literature is More Translated than Others. An essay pamphlet printed on riso Typewronger Books, its subject is the new centrality of East Asian literature to the market of translated fiction, the publishing industry's problematic fetishization of certain regions ("cosy-Japan), and the persistent, risky marginality of translation & translators in the book trade more widely.

Ghazal Mosadeq's new collection out on UGLY DUCKLING PRESSE, The Book of Advice, a title which signals to those in the know that it's in the genre of Andarznama, counsel book or "mirror for princes". Written for performance in Persian & presented here bilingually, it's not a translation in the sense of a mirror, Ghazal says, but rather the two languages overlap & diverge, travelling towards one another at the centre & being reshaped by translation as an ongoing process of writing.

Running out of space here! But to highlight some other recent jewels: /Yě Yě's latest translation from Chinese, Faye Yao's And Quietude; Uruguayan writer Eugenia Ladra's Bait, trans. Miriam Tobin & pub Daunt Books; and danish legend Madame Nielsen's Lamento, trans Gaye Kynoch & pub by the great prototype publishing!

31/07/2026

Thanks so much to everyone who came along to this year's birthday summer party w/ IC Visual Lab! and in particular to all the readers & to for the sublime dulcimer performance with nostalgia-drenched shepherding visuals. Completely failed to get good pictures of any of this, but see Montenegro Fisher's post for all the readers, at least. It was busy & beautiful & full of creativity & good spirits. Same again next year!

24/07/2026

Two years later, we finally made totes! Some things just sit on the to-do list, don't they? Gorgeous & extremely sturdy, these stunners mark two years of EBB. As such, we'll be including these bags free with purchases over £30 at our 2nd birthday with IC Visual Lab tomorrow!

Hunter green heavyweight dyed canvas tote bag featuring the EBB logo screen printed in white on one side and text on the other. Design by Myrna Quiñonez. 42cm (h) x 38cm (w) x 10cm (d). Ethically sourced, durable & eco-friendly. Limited run, £15.

19/07/2026

This Tues/Weds we are hosting a two-day translation workshop residence with Heidi Clark, translator from Japanese and co-founder of The Translators' House. These creative and playful workshops would appeal to anyone with an interest in translated literature and the choices made in the process of translation. No prior knowledge of Japanese language is required – glosses will be provided for all source texts. They both start at 6pm and are capped at 12 participants. Link in bio.

Tuesday 21st July: Thirty-Six Views of a Haiku: poetry translation workshop

Why do people produce different translations of the same source text? In this workshop, participants will be introduced to the haiku as a form and discuss varying haiku translations, before trying their hand at their own versions. They will be guided through haikus in Japanese using a gloss and given their own unique brief for their translation.

Wednesday 22nd July: Big Choices, Small Stories: Translating Japanese Very Short Fiction (nearly sold out!)

Japan has an under-translated tradition of very short fiction. From Hoshi Shin'ichi's light and fun 'short-shorts' to Yasunari Kawabata's highly literary 'palm of the hand' stories, these stories are diverse and are widely enjoyed in Japanese. However, a tiny story may not mean a tiny amount of work for a translator. What happens when an entire story hinges on one language-specific pun? What does a translator do to keep a translation brief when it threatens to expand? How does a translator convince a press to publish a collection of very short stories? We will focus on puns, humour and other translation challenges of tiny fiction, with translated examples to help understand the work involved in reshaping a small story in another language.

16/07/2026

Ah how is it that it is mid-July and we didn't share these brilliant shots from New Irish Poetries at the tail end of the merie month of May, by ace cameraman ? Brilliant readings of new work from (How complete + final...), .kiely (Psalms), and Arun Sharma (Somebody Out There...) that exploded preconceptions about the institution that is Irish Poetry. Various, serial, formal, modernist, personal, impersonal, prose (!).

12/07/2026

All are very welcome to our 2nd birthday summer party on 25 July, shared with our fabulous neighbours IC Visual Lab at no. 6!

From 6pm till late, with short performances by poets & translators at EBB from 7.30 & analogue sounds at ICVL from & friends. 10% off all night. Probably (inevitably) pizza from Gigis at some point. Bring a bottle, bring friends & lovers, bring yourselves!