Small Publisher Behind 14 Nobel Literature Laureates

Fourteen authors from the catalog of New Directions Publishing have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, including this year's and last year's laureates who were published by the house.

14 authors from "New Directions" publications have won the Nobel Prize for Literature; Among the winners of this year and last year were from this publication. How did these small publications have such a big impact on world literature?

According to Ambassador Arjan, in 1995, Ann Carson - a Canadian writer - published her first collection of poems with "New Directions" publications; A small publisher whose list of leading authors was full of big names in literature, including Tennessee Williams, William Carlos Williams and Pablo Neruda. But Carson did not stay in these publications. In the same year, he published another book with Alfred E. Knauf, a much more financially powerful publisher with whom Carson continued to work for many years.

Despite this breakup, Declan Spring - Carson's editor - at New Directions Publishing, continued to try to get him back. Carson was the first writer whose work Spring had edited, and he hoped that one day the small publication, housed in a cramped, crowded floor of a building in New York's Chelsea neighborhood, would one day have the opportunity to work with the great author again.

Twelve years later, the opportunity Spring had been waiting for arrived. Grieving over his brother's death, Carson had an idea for a book that looked more like a notebook of scattered notes and pictures than a regular book. Spring could provide him with something that a publishing giant could not: the patience and creativity necessary to turn an idea into a work worthy of his brother's tribute. The result of this collaboration was the book "Nox"; A work that was folded in the form of an accordion scroll and placed in a box.

New Directions published this book, a meditation on death and grief, in 2010. Carson sometimes collaborated with other publishers and continued to publish his books with Knauf Publications until 2016, but after that he published seven more works with New Directions; The publisher with which he still cooperates. This publication is scheduled to publish Carson's next book, "Beware of the Man Whose Handwriting Shakes Like a Reed in the Wind" in February. Another book, "Colonial Highlights," a poem in the form of an accordion scroll, will be published in the fall of 2027. Last week, 76-year-old Ann Carson won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Last year, László Krasnahorkayi, a Hungarian writer and another New Directions writer, received this award. These two consecutive successes came after Thomas Transströmer, a Swedish poet and another author of the publication, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2011. In total, during its 90 years of operation, New Directions has published the works of 14 Nobel Prize winners. In an era when large corporate publishers dominate the publishing industry, New Directions has maintained its independence and continued its long tradition of discovering and cultivating the world's most important writers. On average, this publication has seen one of its authors receive the Nobel Prize for Literature once every six and a half years. Perhaps more surprising is that the publishing house has been able to retain these authors or, like Carson, re-engage with them.

"They are the kindest people in the world," Carson said about the reason for working with this publisher. New Directions Publishing was founded in 1936 by James Laughlin, a sophomore at Harvard University. He followed the advice of the American poet Ezra Pound, who told him: "You will never be a good poet. Why not go do something useful?” Laughlin, whose family made a fortune in the steel industry, later published works by literary giants including Henry Miller, Jonah Barnes, Dylan Thomas and Pound. He was also the first American publisher of Vladimir Nabokov; However, he did not accept the publication of the novel "Lolita" because of its controversial subject. From the works of classical authors such as Jorge Luis Borges and Tennessee Williams to authors whose works have been noticed again in later periods, such as Osamu Dazai and Clarice Lispector, and newer figures such as the Danish author Solovy Bale.