Indie Press Reading Group

This brand new Indie Press Reading Group series, formerly a poetry-specific book group, aims to highlight incredible authors from independent publishers and share our (new-found) love for indie books. We'll normally gather on the third Tuesday of every month to discuss works of fiction, essays and poetry from renowned UK independent publishers and a few notable small presses. In the very first group, we'll discuss The Question of Palestine by Edward Said.

The Question of Palestine is the first book to narrate the modern Palestinian experience in English. Said’s project to ‘bring Palestine into history’ was a success – there is no longer a question of whether Palestine had a history before colonisation – and yet Palestinian self-determination is as distant as ever. With the rigorous scholarship he brought to his influential 'Orientalism' and shaped by his life in exile in New York, Said’s account of the traumatic national encounter of the Palestinian people with Zionism is as pertinent and incisive today as it was on first publication in 1979.

Edward W. Said was a leading literary and cultural critic and the most eloquent spokesman for the Palestinian cause in the West. An English and Comparative Literature professor at Columbia University, he wrote twenty-two books, including 'Orientalism' and 'Culture and Imperialism'.

Fitzcarraldo Editions specialises in ambitious and innovative fiction and long-form essays. The press has been publishing the Nobel Prize in Literature laureates Svetlana Alexievich, Olga Tokarczuk, Annie Ernaux, and Jon Fosse. All their paperbacks are French-flapped originals, and their books have a custom serif typeface called Fitzcarraldo.

Each month, we’ll collectively pick titles to discuss from names like Granta, Faber & Faber, And Other Stories, Silver Press, Fitzcarraldo and Lolli Editions, as well as translation specialists, including Peirene and Tilted Axis.

If you join us, you'll receive an email with more details.

Happy reading, and we hope you join our community of keen readers!