What does it take to bring a remarkable book into the world? Join the copublishers of Transit Books for a behind-the-scenes conversation about the role of award-winning, nonprofit publishing—from discovering singular voices and acquiring international literature to editing, designing, translating, producing, and championing books that find devoted readers around the world.
Founded in 2015 in the San Francisco Bay Area, Transit Books is an internationally focused publishing house that has achieved unusual reach over the last decade: most notably publishing a Nobel Prize–winning author (Jon Fosse) and turning a niche translated novel (I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman) into a half-million–copy hit. This year its founders and copublishers, Adam Levy and Ashley Nelson Levy, were recognized by The Washington Post’s Next 50—a list of 50 people across all industries shaping culture right now—signaling a broader shift in global literature entering mainstream conversation and publishing innovation coming from smaller players, not just big houses.
In this conversation, the publishers will share how a small, mission-driven press has helped shape today’s literary landscape while remaining rooted in California’s vibrant independent publishing tradition.
An in-person and virtual presentation by Adam Levy and Ashley Nelson Levy, co-founders and co-publishers, Transit Books