Books from the Black Sea

Mattias Axelsson and Ingemar Nilsson of 2244. Photos: Caroline Andersson

When a major book publishing group gives you a (relatively) free hand to start up a brand-new niche publishing house, how do you pick the niche? For Mattias Axelsson, it was all about narrowing things down when he and senior editor Ingemar Nilsson were chosen to start up 2244, the newest publisher within Sweden's Bonnierförlagen.

"We've seen a lot of authors from South America and Asia, but Eastern Europe hasn't gotten much focus, and they are really our neighbors here in Sweden," says Axelsson, who is the PR and editorial manager for 2244. But Eastern Europe was too broad, he says, so they ended up deciding to restrict it to the countries bordering on the Black Sea.For those of us who are geographically challenged, that would include Bulgaria, Georgia, Russia, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine. The Black Sea is also the origin of the name of the new publisher - at its deepest point, the Black Sea is 2,244 meters deep.

Axelsson and Nilsson started full time in Sept. 2010 with 2244, first off checking out the market, making important contacts, and seeing what was out there. "When we started looking closely, we saw there was a rich array of existing works," says Nilsson. "Not only that, there was a lot of interest in writers from the area and there was a clear need for someone to publish them." While there is plenty that differentiates the literature, Nilsson says, both from Swedish as well as from one another of the six cultures represented, there is a lot that connects them as well.

So far, the two have built up a network within Sweden of people with close connections to the literature of the region - perhaps most important is the Romanian Institute, which has provided support in the form of two advisers. "We do have people within Bonnierförlagen who can read Romanian," says Axelsson. "But we didn't have a big contact network to start with." They now have regular contact with some 10-15 people, who provide advice and help such as identifying translators into Swedish - which can be difficult for languages such as Georgian.

They've already gotten the rights for their first books. "We expect to have one to two books released in September, and a total of five in 2011," says Nilsson. "In the future we hope to put out six to ten per year." So far they've focused on fiction and autobiography, but they are very open to publishing other literature as well, such as poetry or essays.

As for the books themselves, they represent a real mix of styles. "People expected 2244 to be publishing dark, philosophical literature that for some reason we associate with Eastern Europe, but it's turned out that while we're publishing some really heavy works, there's a lot of lighter stuff as well," says Axelsson. That includes a detective story, a half-autobiography, half-history rooted in punk music, and classic memoir, among other books. First out will be Turkish author Elif Shafak's The Bastard of Istanbul.

Starting up a niche publisher is always a risk, but both Axelsson and Nilsson are positive about the possibilities for 2244 and the reception so far. "It's incredibly exciting to be launching now," says Axelsson.