Saraband: An Interview with Sara Hunt

Could you briefly describe your press's history?

Founded in 1994 by Sara Hunt—a UK publishing professional then living in Norwalk, Connecticut—in the early years Saraband created and produced nonfiction books in nature, history, and arts subjects, working with larger publishers to whom we licensed the books. Several of our titles from the 1990s have remained continuously in print—for example, Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier, by Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith, available for almost three decades now from the University of Oklahoma Press. Our raison d'être was to identify and develop writing by (and often about) women and underrepresented groups that were at the time often overlooked.

We relocated to Glasgow, Scotland, in 2000. In 2011, with the growth of digital publishing and online marketing, we decided to introduce literary fiction to our publishing, with Contraband following in 2013 as a sister imprint. In 2012 we were the only publisher selected for the London Olympics Scottish cultural program, and we were inaugural winners of the Scottish Publisher of the Year award, in 2013. In part, we won this recognition for innovation and digital work, having developed a smartphone app about Robert Burns, which went viral, and started early in audiobook production.

Another relocation came in 2017, when we moved our base of operations to Manchester, once the heart of the Industrial Revolution, and now a UNESCO City of Literature with a radical tradition, the informal capital of the North of England. We're now active in the literary world in both the North of England and Scotland. Historically, British publishing is centered in London, but the pandemic has helped to reinforce attempts to decentralize the industry and make it more accessible to people from diverse backgrounds and regions.

Our fiction publishing received an important boost in 2016 when Graeme Macrae Burnet's His Bloody Project was among the finalists for

that year's Booker Prize, and outsold all the other final titles combined. Graeme was among our first Contraband signings with his debut novel, The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau, and his work has gone on to be translated into more than twenty languages. We published his fourth novel, Case Study, in fall 2021, and this too went on to become a finalist for the Booker Prize, in 2022.

While developing our fiction list, we've continued with our narrative nonfiction, strengthening our specialization in nature, conservation, and sustainability. Alongside books that promote responsibility for and understanding of our Earth, we also publish compelling voices in biography and memoir. Our nonfiction authors include Jim Crumley, widely acknowledged as Scotland's most important living nature writer, now in his sixth decade of observing the natural world and writing passionately

argued, lyrical books, as well as being a prolific journalist with more than one thousand columns for the Dundee Courier and many other features in magazines and newspapers. We also publish Stephen Moss, among the best-known bird writers in the UK. Both have achieved nominations in the Wainwright Award among their nature writing honors.

Over the past few years our authors have won or achieved nominations for a host of other literary awards, too, nationally and internationally. We've also been finalists for the Bookseller's Small Press Awards.

Meanwhile, we also run a book prize ourselves, in conjunction with New Writing North and the University of York's Department of English and Related Literatures. The NorthBound Book Award celebrates the quality and diversity of writing from the North of England and is awarded to the author of a full-length book of either fiction or narrative nonfiction.

This year we are launching our list in North America, working with Consortium Book Sales and Distribution. We're very much enjoying this new adventure, in spite of its steep learning curve!

How would you characterize the work you publish?

Whether fiction or nonfiction, all the books we publish have in common excellence in writing, often with a strong voice, sense of place, or characterization.

Our...