Open Letter Joins Deep Vellum
OPEN LETTER BOOKS TO JOIN FORCES WITH DEEP VELLUM
Effective February 1, 2025
Deep Vellum Publishing and the University of Rochester are thrilled to announce an innovative agreement in which Deep Vellum will assume publishing, distribution and marketing of the University’s game-changing translation publisher, Open Letter Books.
Founded in 2007 by Chad W. Post, Open Letter has been the University of Rochester’s literary translation press, building a peerless catalog of global literature. Publishing an exceptionally curated list of ten titles per year since 2008, Open Letter is the English language home to perennial Nobel Prize contenders (Can Xue, the late Dubravka Ugrešić), National Book Award-winning translations (Elisa Shua Dusapin’s Winter in Sokcho), cult favorites (Mathias Énard, Bae Suah) and countless towering figures in the literature of their respective countries and all world literature (Marguerite Duras, Rodrigo Fresán, Mercè Rodoreda).
In his role as Publisher of Open Letter, Post has been an outspoken advocate for international literature: teaching classes on publishing and world literature at the University of Rochester’s renowned Master of Arts in Literary Translation Program; founding a literary blog and podcast called Three Percent that has advanced public discussion of the role of literary translators and translations in the marketplace; founding the Best Translated Book Award for Fiction and Poetry; launching the Two Month Review podcast; and creating the first-ever Literary Translation Database (now hosted by Publishers Weekly), all serving to connect readers to the world’s greatest writers not originally writing in English. For his tireless efforts, Post was awarded the 2018 Words Without Borders Ottaway Award for the Promotion of International Literature and in 2020 the Joan Baptista Cendrós Award from Òmnium Cultural for his contributions to Catalan literature and culture abroad.
Since its founding in 2013, Deep Vellum has grown rapidly to become one of the largest U.S. publishers of literature in translation. Open Letter joins the publishing house as one of six distinct imprints, alongside Dalkey Archive Press, A Strange Object, Phoneme Media, Fum d’Estampa, and La Reunion. As of the end of 2024, Deep Vellum and its imprints have published more than 1,200 books from over 80 languages and 100 countries. Post has led the editorial efforts for Dalkey Archive since it became a part of Deep Vellum in 2020, including overseeing the Dalkey Archive Essentials list of striking new editions of titles that most represent the depth and breadth of the visionary publisher’s backlist.
This partnership between Open Letter Books and Deep Vellum marks a significant moment for readers passionate about world literature, uniting publishers with a shared mission to spotlight underrepresented voices and bring diverse, high-quality international works to English-speaking audiences.
“Chad W. Post—inspiration, mentor, friend—is the reason I got into publishing and founded this press as an impact-oriented literary nonprofit,” says Will Evans, publisher and CEO of Deep Vellum. “His work as publisher at Open Letter and as outspoken writer through Three Percent has changed the world, and inspired and empowered so many of us readers, translators, and publishers to become champions of literature without borders. Working together on Dalkey Archive and its legendary list has given rise to this opportunity to continue to invest in the world’s greatest writers, and to cultivate an ever-growing readership for innovative literature.”
This union not only strengthens each publisher’s collective ability to enrich the literary landscape but also ensures the continuity of Open Letter’s groundbreaking contributions to translated literature under a shared vision. For readers, it promises an even broader array of transformative stories from around the world.
“This partnership will provide an excellent opportunity to continue to grow the audience for Open Letter’s books, which directly grew out of my time as associate director of Dalkey Archive Press,” said Chad W. Post, Open Letter’s publisher. “Joining forces in this way is a boon both for readers everywhere—and the field of nonprofit publishing as a whole.”
Post will continue as publisher of Open Letter’s books, guiding its editorial vision and helping direct the promotion of Open Letter’s books, while continuing his teaching and mentoring roles in the University of Rochester’s Master of Arts in Literary Translation program, whose alumni include Kaija Straumanis (Latvian) and Will Vanderhyden (Spanish). Additionally, he will continue to write the Three Percent and Mining the Dalkey Archive Substacks along with the Two Month Review and Three Percent podcasts.
Open Letter’s frontlist, including Can Xue’s Mother River, translated from the Chinese by Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping, and Rodrigo Fresán’s Melvill, translated from the Spanish by Will Vanderhyden and recently shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and Republic of Consciousness Prizes, and all backlist titles will continue to be distributed in North America through Consortium, part of the Ingram Content Group, and internationally through Turnaround. Deep Vellum’s marketing, publicity, and sales team will oversee these efforts for Open Letter moving forward. Along with Open Letter’s world-class roster of writers and translators, Deep Vellum looks forward to furthering its mission of bringing the world into conversation through literature.