Transcript [00:00] Over the past few years, Jewish and [00:02] Israeli authors have been struggling to [00:04] get their books and papers published as [00:07] publishing houses have essentially [00:09] closed the book, apparently fearing [00:11] backlash from protesters. As of last [00:14] month, a new chapter is being written by [00:16] Highline Publishings Odessa Editions and [00:19] Antidote Books, giving a voice to [00:22] fiction and non-fiction writers from [00:25] Israel and throughout the Jewish [00:27] diaspora. And joining us now with more [00:30] is Jackie Klene, executive publisher of [00:33] Odessa Editions. Jackie, thank you uh [00:36] for joining us. And let's start with uh [00:37] why' you feel a need for Odessa Editions [00:40] to exist? [00:42] >> Odessa Editions, I guess, has come from [00:44] a number of different places, moments, [00:48] inspirations. [00:50] Um some negative, some incredibly [00:52] positive. We know that there have been [00:54] issues around brilliant Jewish authors [00:57] and Israeli writers getting published in [00:59] the last few years, particularly in the [01:01] last three years since the Gaza war [01:03] started, but actually it's a story that [01:05] goes back much longer than that, at [01:06] least a decade or so. Um, we know there [01:10] have been cancellations, there have been [01:11] boycots, there have been authors told, [01:13] you know, this isn't the right moment [01:14] for your voice. So, that in a way was [01:16] the negative drive for a new Jewish [01:19] publishing house. The positive drive [01:21] however which I think is equally [01:22] important is that we know there is a [01:25] huge appetite particularly in these last [01:27] few years for brilliant Jewish voices to [01:30] be heard globally for great new writers [01:33] as well as established writers to get [01:35] out more broadly into the world maybe [01:37] beyond the audience that first hears [01:40] about them or reads them say in Israel [01:42] or just in the US or just in the UK and [01:45] there's an incredible appetite among [01:47] readers among community groups all over [01:49] the world and there's an amazing talent [01:52] pipeline. So, you put all of this [01:54] together and I guess we a group of us in [01:57] publishing um thought about the fact [02:00] that actually one of the big problems [02:01] can be the cultural gatekeepers, the [02:03] publishers. So, why not step into that [02:05] breach right now and create a new [02:08] publishing house for Jewish and Israeli [02:09] voices? [02:11] >> Well, of course, these are books by [02:12] Jewish Israeli authors, but how can you [02:14] actually get them into uh the mainstream [02:16] with these uh challenges? I think our [02:19] books are intended for many different [02:21] audiences. One is a really core Jewish [02:25] audience globally and it's a great [02:27] question of how we get outside an echo [02:29] chamber. One of the ways that we're [02:31] doing that is that we have UKbased teams [02:34] and US-based teams. So, we're working [02:36] really genuinely transatlantically, [02:38] which is very exciting because it means [02:41] that we can simultaneously publish um in [02:44] Europe and in the US, in North America [02:46] uh and get our books out to a much much [02:49] wider global audience. We've got [02:51] fantastic uh distribution through one of [02:53] the big five publishers uh which gets us [02:56] into every global territory. Uh so, [02:58] Australasia, you know, all over Asia and [03:00] Europe. Um, but more importantly than [03:03] that, the subjects, the books, the [03:05] authors that we're picking are not [03:07] intended to only speak to a very core or [03:11] even a niche bit of a Jewish audience. [03:14] They are hopefully most of them going to [03:15] speak very broadly across communities, [03:19] different cultures, and also well beyond [03:21] the Jewish world. Um, so it's important [03:25] to say, for example, we're not, you [03:26] know, a religious book publisher. Um and [03:29] most of our books in fiction and [03:31] non-fiction will be across a whole range [03:34] of subjects from politics to um culture [03:39] to cookery books to incredible [03:41] extraordinary fiction books. And these [03:44] are the sorts of books that readers we [03:45] know all over the world, Jewish and [03:47] non-Jewish are reading. [03:49] >> You also mentioned that some of the [03:50] genres that you'll have. Could you [03:52] explain more about the different types [03:54] of books that Odessa Editions is going [03:56] to publish soon? If there's a book [03:58] that's been published in the UK that [04:00] never made it into a North American [04:02] publishers's house or vice versa, we are [04:06] taking those books. So, for example, on [04:08] our first list in the spring of next [04:10] year, spring 2027, we are delighted to [04:14] be the UK and Commonwealth publisher for [04:16] Darra Horn for her new book, The Final [04:18] Solution to the Jewish Question, and [04:20] also for Mattie Freriedman um for his [04:24] relatively new book, Out of the Sky, [04:26] about Hannah Senes and her uh fellow uh [04:29] refugees who were flown back into Nazi [04:32] occupied Europe during the Second World [04:34] War. two phenomenal books, two [04:36] phenomenal voices and authors who we [04:38] deeply care about bringing to a wider [04:41] global English language readership. Uh, [04:43] another book that some of your audience [04:45] certainly in Israel will be familiar [04:46] with is uh, Amos Harell's new book about [04:49] October the 7th um, and the tragedies [04:53] that led on the Israeli side to the [04:55] failures of October the 7th. That book [04:58] of course published in Israel a couple [05:00] of months ago. we are the global English [05:02] language publisher for it next spring. [05:04] And then an author for example that lots [05:06] of people might not have heard of but [05:08] certainly should have done and I hope [05:09] will in another few months is Debbie [05:11] Lechman a brilliant West Coastbased [05:15] writer in the US who is a brilliant [05:18] online activist um for uh well talking [05:22] about anti-semitism anti-ionism and has [05:25] written a brilliant new book called I [05:27] would have hidden Anne Frank and 12 [05:29] other myths about the Jews. So again, [05:32] the idea is is to be there um spreading [05:36] much more widely the messages of great [05:39] authors who are maybe already well-known [05:40] but also supporting firsttime writers. [05:44] >> Also, what are your goals and what would [05:46] you consider a success for these uh [05:48] projects and books? [05:51] >> It's a great question. Success obviously [05:53] we are a commercial publisher. We're not [05:55] a not for-p profofit. One measure of [05:58] success clearly is our book sales. And [06:00] like any you know u big publisher or [06:03] serious publisher, it matters a lot that [06:05] we get copies sold um mostly so that we [06:08] get the voice of the author out into the [06:10] world as widely as possible. But because [06:12] we're an incredibly missiondriven [06:15] publisher as well, we're not always [06:17] making the decisions of which books to [06:19] take on purely on the bottom line. There [06:22] are many projects that we do support and [06:24] are going to support down the line. [06:27] where we believe deeply in the quality [06:29] of the author's writing in the [06:31] importance of what they're saying in [06:33] their book and we know I mean [06:35] particularly say for example with debut [06:37] fiction it's extremely hard to have a [06:39] debut fiction book unless it happens to [06:41] get on the pulit surprise list or the [06:43] booker prize list that really breaks out [06:45] and sells hundreds of thousands of [06:47] copies. Does that mean that we're not [06:49] going to chance it with debut fiction? [06:51] Absolutely not. what we're going to do [06:53] is choose the absolute sort of cream of [06:56] the crop in terms of the extraordinary [06:58] beauty of the writing and put all of our [07:00] efforts behind those books. So other [07:02] measures of success I would say would be [07:06] phenomenal writers coming to us and [07:09] saying I've heard about Odessa I know [07:12] what you're doing and I think it's [07:13] fantastic and I want to publish with [07:15] you. Um, other measures of success would [07:19] be how deeply engaged we are with Jewish [07:22] communities as our core audience around [07:25] the world. You know, does everyone who's [07:27] connected to the Jewish Book Council in [07:28] the US know about us? Do the Hill [07:31] organizations across US universities, do [07:34] the students in those know about Odessa [07:36] books? So, a lot of it is about reach [07:39] and growing audiences and communities. [07:42] Thank you so much, Jackie Klein, [07:44] executive publisher at Odessa Editions.
