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Christopher MacLehose to launch Orenda Books' first imprint, Open Borders Press
Christopher MacLehose will launch and lead Orenda Books’ first-ever imprint, Open Borders Press (OBP).
MacLehose, whose Mountain Leopard Press list was sold by Welbeck to Hachette in December 2022, will now publish OBP as an associate list of Orenda Books. The first title under the new imprint is Andrey Kurkov’s "deeply personal account" of the war in Ukraine, Our Daily War, which is a sequel to Diary of an Invasion (Mountain Leopard Press), and will be published in hardback in July.
According to the publisher, Orenda and the new imprint "have much in common" in their approach. MacLehose said Open Borders Press was "grateful to be able to take advantage of Orenda’s dynamic and responsive operation".
Having commissioned translations from 37 languages during his career as a publisher, MacLehose will continue to look for authors from all over the world. The list will aim to "match the success of the Harvill Press and MacLehose Press", publishing literary fiction and non-fiction, including translations, as well as crime fiction, which will be published exclusively in translation.
Koukla MacLehose, who founded the scouting agency that bore her name, will work with the press.
Publisher Karen Sullivan said: "I have long admired Christopher, both for the energy and ingenuity he brings to the industry, but also for his unerring eye, his profound and purposeful support of literature in translation, and his uncanny ability to seek out literary gems. It is an honour and a joy to work closely with him, and his publishing vision for Open Borders Press very much reflects Orenda’s ethos and complements our output.
"As we approach our 10th anniversary, it feels like the right time to embrace this opportunity, and we are looking forward to what is bound to be an indomitable partnership. OBP’s first published title, Andrey Kurkov’s Our Daily War, is a powerful, insightful and unexpectedly humorous book, and being involved in publishing Ukraine’s finest writer is an absolute privilege."
