ABOUT NEW EUROPE BOOKS
New Europe Books publishes quality trade fiction and nonfiction, mostly from Eastern Europe (i.e., the Eastern reaches of Central Europe) or written through a lens reflecting that region’s historical/cultural experience—allowing for occasional digressions into other parts of the Old World. Distributed by Minneapolis-based Consortium Book Sales & Distribution—an Ingram-owned firm that distributes more than 100 leading independent literary presses—it is based in the US, but works with authors, designers, and others from across Europe, North America, and beyond. Since its founding in 2012, New Europe Books has released some twenty engaging, vital, and often timely books whose appeal to both general readers and academics, and to a relatively broad demographic, counters the stereotype of Eastern Europe as obscure, opaque, and inaccessible.
OUR FOUNDER
Paul Olchváry (1965-2024) translated many books of Hungarian literature to English for leading publishers and was previously senior copywriter at Princeton University Press. He was editor-in-chief of Hungarian Cultural Studies. He received translation grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and PEN American Center, and was awarded the Milán Füst Prize by the Milán Füst Foundation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He was instrumental in the planning of the Continental Literary Magazine—back when it was to have been a US-based nonprofit with independent oversight, under another name (not published by a state-funded Hungarian firm, which it was to become).
A native of Amherst, New York, Olchváry was born to Hungarian parents and lived in Hungary for many years as an adult, settling in Budapest as the Cold War ended. There he taught composition at a university English department, held a year-long internship with the US embassy, and was the founding editor of the daily English-language news digest Hungary Around the Clock, which exists to this day. Olchváry's own short stories and essays appeared, in Hungarian translation, in the cultural monthly 2000. Olchváry also worked for years as senior copywriter at Princeton University Press and the only copywriter at Globe Pequot Press and spent nearly a year as a newspaper reporter before earning his MA, in English/writing, from Indiana University, Bloomington.
At the time of his death, he had received critical acclaim for his masterful translation of Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz (St. Martin’s) by the late Hungarian journalist and poet József Debreczeni. He lived with his son, Akosh, in the Northern Berkshires of Western Massachusetts.
ABOUT OUR TEAM
All the fine people named below have been
freelance or volunteer contributors,
none have (yet) gotten rich doing this,
and New Europe Books is most grateful.
Publishing Assistant
Sophia Ashby
Cover design
Interior design
Yogesh Kukshal is the owner of Knowledge Publishing Services (KPS), based in Delhi, India, which has been designing interiors for New Europe Books titles reliably for years. KPS is one of the leading providers of publishing services in India, with specialization in copyediting, typesetting, cover design, electronic proofreading (EPR), eBooks, indexing, and abstracting. KPS has been catering its services to various US and European clients for the past ten years.
Copy editing
Matt Henderson Ellis, a graduate of Bennington College, is not only an outstanding editor but also the author of the acclaimed Keeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Café and Petra K and the Blackhearts (both New Europe Books). A Chicago-area native and graduate of Bennington College, he once worked in the editorial department of Doubleday and Company and at prestigious literary agencies in an editorial capacity. For many years now he has lived in Budapest, Hungary, where he cofounded the literary magazine Pilvax and where he conducts popular writing workshops.
Karen Jones Olchváry was previously a production editor and paperbacks manager at Princeton University Press. She lives in Hamilton, New Jersey, with her husband Peter, and their two sons, Colin & Liam.
Publicity
Jeremy Wang-Iverson, the owner of Vesto P.R. & Books, is a literary publicist and publishing consultant with over ten years of experience in all aspects of book marketing. Previous positions include senior publicity roles for Granta Magazine, Bloomsbury Publishing, and Oxford University Press, as well as sales and marketing roles for Berghahn Books and Princeton University Press. Currently he works closely also with Zone Books, overseeing publicity and international rights, and he is also the US Publicity Associate for Bookshaped, a firm based in the UK.
International Sponsorship Liaison
Éva Z-Sipos
Editorial Consultants
Matt Henderson Ellis and James Pihakis have provided invaluable advice to New Europe Books over the years. Ellis, a graduate of Bennington College, is the author of the acclaimed Keeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Café and Petra K and the Blackhearts (both New Europe Books). A Chicago-area native and graduate of Bennington College, he once worked in the editorial department of Doubleday and Company and at prestigious literary agencies in an editorial capacity. For many years now he has lived in Budapest, Hungary, where he cofounded the literary magazine Pilvax and where he conducts popular writing workshops. Pihakis, who has a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Cincinnati, has served since 2018 as director of research for the Extreme Model Railroad & Contemporary Architecture Museum (EMRCA), overseeing production of new business proposals, museum development studies, exhibition programming, and feasibility studies for projects in China, the US, and the Middle East.
Student Assistants
New Europe Books wouldn't be what it is without the support of the student assistants over the years. These have included Lauren Levite, Paige Vincent, and Nicolas Bassett of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts; and Susan Kennedy and Wesley Haaf of Bennington College.