Granta shutters Portobello imprint

Granta Publications is closing its Portobello Books imprint as of January 2019. All authors under contract to Portobello will be published on the Granta Books imprint thereafter.

The publisher said no change in output or personnel would result from the development, with the list size of Granta Books expanding to incorporate the Portobello titles. 

Portobello Books was founded in 2005 by Philip Gwyn Jones, Sigrid Rausing and Eric Abraham. Rausing bought Granta in 2006 and the two independent publishing houses were merged, with Granta magazine, to become Granta Publications in 2011. Gwyn Jones left Granta in 2013, later joining Scribe UK.

Portobello's list has included non-fiction and translated fiction from around the world, including books by Han Kang, Jenny Erpenbeck, Katherine Boo, Sayaka Murata, Herta Müller and Lydia Cacho. 

Rausing said: ‘Thirteen years ago Eric and I founded Portobello Books together with Philip Gwyn Jones. Since then we have gone to publish some extraordinary books, many of which have won prizes and great acclaim. I am so proud of everything we have achieved, but publishing all our books under the Granta imprint allows us to truly focus on building our reputation as a quality publisher of global literary fiction and non-fiction and will bring the editorial vision of the books and magazine closer together".