We spoke with James Loop, publicity director of World Poetry Books, in our latest Member Spotlight.
What is the history behind World Poetry Books? When was it founded and what is its mission?
World Poetry Books was founded in 2017 by two translators, Peter Constantine and Brian Sneeden, with the aim of creating more opportunities for emerging and established translators to publish their work in the highly noncommercial genre of poetry. Our publishing program focuses on emerging translators, underrepresented languages, and authors whose titles are English-language debuts. We publish from a broad range of languages and traditions, bringing the work of modern masters, emerging voices, and pioneering innovators from around the world to English-language readers in affordable, high-quality trade editions. Our titles are usually published in facing-page, bilingual formats; most are new translations; and many signal an author’s first significant publication in English.
Can you tell us about some recent or upcoming World Poetry Books titles?
In the fall of 2025, we’re excited to be publishing many firsts, including highly anticipated editions of beloved Persian-language poets Ahmad Shamlou and Nadia Anjuman, as well as our first translations from Turkish (Birhan Keskin) and Ukrainian (Anna Malihon). We’ll also publish our first Austrian poet, Liesl Ujvary, and our first full-length translation from Arabic (Samer Abu Hawwash). You can check them all out (and pre-order!) on our website.
In 2026 we’ll publish books by German-language, Romanian/Ukrainian poet Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger, Basque-language poet Leire Bilbao, and three titles from Brazilian Portuguese (Astrid Cabral, Ricardo Domeneck, Waly Salomão), among others. You can sign up for our newsletter to ensure you’ll hear from us when they’re available.
What are some of the rewards and challenges of publishing poetry in translation from around the world?
Apart from providing English-language readers with an insight into the lives and issues occupying international poets and their respective nations, our books also open new possibilities for American poetry—of approach, form, and poetics. Our books would almost certainly not be published by a commercial publisher in the US, and even many nonprofits and small presses would not take on such projects, in part due to the fact that working with translation often involves complex rights negotiations, international contracts, and editorial work that may be beyond the specializations or comfort zone of their editors. Editing and publishing translations, especially of poetry, is not only more labor-intensive than publishing poetry written in English, but also more difficult to promote and deliver to a readership. But that readership does exist, and World Poetry is filling the gaps—both in terms of historical work that has not yet been translated and significant contemporary poets who have not had the chance to place their work in front of English-language readers.
How does World Poetry Books promote and support translators, and why is this important?
Working with foreign cultural ministries and other grant-giving organizations, World Poetry offers fair fees and royalties to writers and translators. The translators of our books also receive a wealth of editorial feedback, copy editing, and proofreading, as well as support for public-speaking engagements, magazine publication, and media attention. Every effort is made for the translators’ work to reach a broad audience that includes scholars and students as well as the general readership.
Are there any indie bookstores (or libraries) that you think do a particularly good job featuring work in translation, especially from indie publishers? If so, what do they do?
Unnameable Books in Brooklyn is a short walk from our studio space. They have an excellent poetry section, including lots of poetry in translation, and many small-press books and zines. They also host many great events, including occasional iterations of our Colloquy series, featuring translators in conversation.
What distributor is World Poetry Books working with? How can bookstores and libraries find and order your titles?
The most supportive way for bookstores to order our books is through our distributors: Asterism in the US, or Turnaround in the UK. If you prefer, you can order from us directly at a 50% discount (no returns) or 40% discount if you need to return unsold copies. We can also make consignment arrangements and arrange standing orders.
Libraries can sign up for a Library Account with Asterism Books and take 20% off our titles and anything else in their catalog. Asterism can set up a standing order as well. If you’d like to create a standing order directly through us, send us an email, or simply purchase the Library Subscription through our website. We’re happy to supply purchase orders or invoices for library subscriptions.
How can interested writers or translators submit their work?
Please do not send proposals or manuscripts before you query us with a brief introduction via email. We’ll supply guidelines if we’d like to see your proposal and sample translation. Please keep in mind that we only publish poetry translated into English; we are most interested in single-author collections and rarely take on anthology projects; and we accept proposals annually only from June 1 to June 30.
