The year ahead for Amaurea

Here we are at the start of a new year, and for Amaurea the months ahead will see new books coming into the world, continuing collaborations and new relationships, media experimentations, and ongoing creative journeys.

New books

At the heart of the year ahead will be the publication of several new titles –, each very different in form and voice, but all of them very distinctive, thoughtful works.

The year opens with the publication of Two Plays of Milk and Alcohol by Rodney Quinn, a pair of sharply observed plays that move between humour, vulnerability and emotional abrasion. Rodney’s writing has an immediacy and theatrical intelligence, as well as black humour, that we are proud to bring into print.

This will be followed by Kin, Kilts and Kolonie: Scottish Sojourners in the Dutch Empire in Asia by G. Roger Knight – a meticulously researched and lucidly written study that explores a less-examined chapter of imperial and diasporic history, tracing Scottish lives and identities across the Dutch colonial world.

Later in the year we look forward to publishing The Magic Hour: A Photographer’s Journeys Through Cuba by Lorenzo DeStefano, a photographic memoir shaped by long engagement with the island. The book brings together images, memory and reflection, offering something closer to a lived chronicle than a conventional photographic album.

Towards the end of the year we will publish Ghost Syntax by Eugenia Byney, a science-fiction short-story collection written at the interface between human and artificial intelligence, communication and creativity – a work that pushes at the boundaries between poetry, structure and voice.

Alongside these English-language originals, we are also preparing an English translation of Estirpe de papel by Anna Lidia Vega Serova, translated by Jennifer Shyue. This short-story anthology will introduce Anglophone readers to a major body of short fiction that has long deserved wider circulation. We are also working on a bilingual collection of the work of Cuban poet Juan Carlos Flores, to be published to mark the tenth anniversary of his death. This project is both literary and commemorative: an attempt to honour a singular poetic voice and to place his work in renewed dialogue across languages. Both these projects arise from our long-standing commitment to bringing Cuban literature to a wider audience.

The year ahead will also see several important paperback editions, allowing key Amaurea titles to reach new readers in more accessible formats. These include The Hobby and Better Broken Than New by Lisa St Aubin de Terán, and Highlife by Richard Walker.

An evolving studio model – and building bridges

Alongside the publishing programme, Amaurea continues to evolve as a creative studio rather than a press defined solely by the printed book. Increasingly, our work moves across forms – text, image, film and video – with each informing the other.

We are asking how stories might travel differently in a changing cultural landscape. Projects such as Ghost Syntax are helping us explore how literary work can generate parallel visual expressions, while remaining anchored in the integrity of the text. Over the coming year, this studio approach will become more visible, as books and moving-image work sit in closer dialogue.

While Jon takes the lead from London in developing our publishing work, Ash, based in Beijing, is pioneering these newer approaches. Alongside his continuing research into comedy cinema and the Chinese Dream, he is actively involved in practical and artistic experimentation with AIGC video, as well as in establishing new connections. This combination of critical research, creative production and relationship-building is opening up new conversations and collaborations, and forms part of a longer-term ambition to build a genuine publishing and creative bridge between China and the UK.

Longer journeys

We will also be continuing to develop longer-term projects that will bear future fruit. Out of China, we are exploring how to bring the poetic and narrative work of the late writer Ma Liang to an English readership – and we expect to share more about this as the year progresses.

We will also gradually bring back into print the extensive work of Lisa St Aubin de Terán, alongside her new writing – something we have already begun with Keepers of the House, The Slow Train to Milan, The Tiger and The Bay of Silence. Further announcements will follow.

As well as contributing creatively to all our publishing projects, our very own Albarrojo also continues with his own personal work, which we hope will in due course find its way into the world’s light. His photographic odyssey around the coasts of the British Isles continues quietly in the background – although we are slowly succeeding in persuading him to do more with this, as well as with his own poetic work and narrative ideas. We hope that over the coming year he will begin to emerge from the shadows in which he has been hiding.

We also look forward to welcoming new creative collaborators, and to work with them to bring their projects into the world. As ever, we remain open to anyone who wishes to approach us with ideas or proposals. All they need do is drop us a line at info@amaurea.co.uk.

All in all, the year ahead brings exciting developments, a wealth of new material, and a deepening of ongoing projects. We look forward to sharing these works – and the paths that lead to them – as the months unfold.