What are some upcoming trends for the next year?

Bellevue Literary Press is a nonprofit publishing literary fiction and nonfiction at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and as a mission-driven independent press, we’re a bit more insulated from the trends that rule the larger publishing industry. We seek to publish powerful, enduring books that may have been overlooked by larger publishers more focused on the next big thing. However, I am excited to see the publishing world continue to bring to the forefront more diverse voices and stories that are so deserving of the spotlight. I very much look forward to reading more books that use excellent, moving storytelling to transport us back to crucial historical moments like the AIDS crisis in Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers; that explore the urgencies of war and migration in inventive, breathtaking ways like Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West; and that examine and overturn the daily realities of contemporary life with great cleverness and imagination like Ling Ma’s Severance.

Independent publishers have long been part of this crucial work of finding creative, overlooked books, and I can’t wait for spring when we will publish Murmurby Will Eaves, an experimental, gorgeously written novel based on the end of genius Alan Turing’s life, when he was persecuted by the British state for his sexuality.

What book/genre/topic would you like to see cross your transom?

Literary fiction is probably the most ineffable of the standard genres, but I would love to see more manuscripts that take risks, aren’t a recycling of a trope or standard riff on a genre, and are simply beautifully written books that explore larger ideas as well as a specific story. We also publish narrative nonfiction, and I hope to see more submissions that deal with the story and soul behind their subject as deftly as the facts, like Richard Lloyd Parry’s haunting Ghosts of the Tsunami.

In a recent piece in theParis Review, R.O. Kwon wrote about the prevalence of sexual violence in her debut novel, The Incendiaries: “Perhaps, sexual violence shows up in my novel the way light does, or dialogue: it’s so intrinsically a part of my life that I find it hard to imagine leaving it out.” I want to see more manuscripts, both fiction and nonfiction, that consider aspects of the human experience that have long been pushed to the side, like sexual violence. Most importantly, I hope to see more books that address these topics in ways that aren’t intentionally lurid or overly didactic but instead recognize them as an inescapable texture of our lives.

What topic don’t you ever want to see again?

It’s difficult to write off a topic wholesale. An excellent writer can make anything fresh, showing something seemingly trite or stale from a vibrant new perspective. That being said, I would be very happy to stop seeing query letters in my inbox addressed to “Dear Sir/Sirs” or authors who insist that their manuscripts only be considered by a male reader.

What do you want to change about publishing?

There are so many small, independent presses that are doing such exciting work and publishing transformative books overlooked by the bigger gatekeepers; however, it’s increasingly difficult to thrive on tiny margins with mounting pressure from Amazon and the like. I wish our literary landscape were friendlier to a diverse range of publishers, and I hope we can make gradual advances toward that ideal.

What’s unique about your corner of the publishing industry?

We have the extraordinary freedom to publish amazing books that larger publishers might write off as “unprofitable,” though every aspect of the publishing experience is much more hands-on and challenging. Indie publishing is a small community full of creativity and ingenuity and brilliant editors and authors, and I’m proud to be a part of it.

Elana Rosenthal is the associate editor at Bellevue Literary Press. Previously, she worked at Writers House and Choicemagazine, and she was a fellow in the Writing Programs at Wesleyan University. She is always looking for beautifully written books of ideas, both literary fiction and narrative nonfiction.