Prototype is an independent publisher of fiction, poetry and hybrid books. We are committed to championing the work of new voices in contemporary literature, through the production of unique, high-quality books.

Prototype has become highly regarded for its commitment to publishing innovative writing in the 5 years since its inception. In addition to our prose and poetry, we have carved out a niche in the world of independent literary presses for our championing of interdisciplinary work that lies across the fields of fiction, poetry and visual art.

Our goal over the next two years is to grow and diversify our readership both across the UK and internationally, with a continued focus on literary fiction, poetry, hybrid works and literature in translation, and the addition of a new list of short-form creative non-fiction. This new list is a natural extension of the free-form work we already publish, enabling us to reach a new community of readers.

What We Do Differently

• We are a female-led organisation run by editors with a combined expertise in the fields of literary publishing and art book publishing.
• We are more than a publishing house; we also offer a distinctive programme of events, outreach programmes, and opportunities for unpublished writers. This is a critical way in which we stand out among other publishers. 
• In recent years there has been a shift among both writers and readers towards the creative and personal integrity of independent publishers. Corporate publishers are taking fewer risks, and authors increasingly value the dedicated approach of independents, with their loyal readerships. We are part of this growing network and community.
• There is a strong appetite among audiences for high-quality literary fiction outside the commercial mainstream, and for unique objects produced with care.
• The growth of our output will sustain and develop a well-respected list of both established and emerging writers from diverse creative and demographic backgrounds, and enable us to continue offering opportunities to writers from underrepresented communities.
• Our subscriber-based annual anthology is a crucial space for championing unpublished writers, and many of the authors published in our early issues have gone on to secure book deals. Public funding will allow us to develop the organisation so that we can act on such possibilities ourselves, rather than just being a springboard launching careers which we are unable to follow through on.
• Our unique position between the visual art and literature worlds gives us access to a very wide potential readership, and to opportunities for long-term collaborations and partnerships. 

Notable Achievements

• Gordon Burn Prize 2024 longlisting for Danielle Dutton’s Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other
• Poetry Book Society Recommendation for Hasib Hourani’s rock flight
• Goldsmiths Prize and James Tait Black Prize shortlisting for Amy Arnold’s Lori & Joe
• Republic of Consciousness Prize longlisting for Caleb Klaces’ Fatherhood
• Poetry Book Society Summer Choice for Lucy Mercer’s Emblem
• Poetry Book Society Recommendation for Lila Matsumoto’s Two Twin Pipes Sprout Water
• Receipt of an Arts Council Grant of £44,000 to launch the Prototype Prize and adjacent Development Programme
• Securing private funding of £15,000 from three private art collectors to launch the Prototype Prize
• The establishment of new, ongoing partnerships with frieze magazine, New Writing North, and South London Gallery
• 4 x English PEN Translates awards for fiction and poetry in translation
• Receipt of translation grants from the Fondation Jan Michalski, the Dutch Foundation for Literature, the Prokhorov Fund, the Italian Cultural Institute, Pro Helvetia (Switzerland), the Danish Arts Foundation, and the Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation
• Publisher Jess Chandler named as a Bookseller Rising Star: Class of 2024

Letters of Support

Project Outline & Intentions

A series of publications, events and development opportunities for emerging writers and artists, expanding Prototype’s reach and reputation as a publisher of hybrid literature, centred around the continuation of a high-profile interdisciplinary prize and adjacent development programme, with the internationalisation of our publishing output and the publication of a curated list of hybrid books.

A vital opportunity for organisational and leadership development, with R&D time for our publisher and editors, business and fundraising planning, content creation to reach new audiences, re-evaluation of our marketing strategies and building new partnerships with arts and literary organisations around the UK.

PROJECT OUTLINE

• Pioneering approach to publishing hybrid literature.
• Development and access opportunities for emerging writers and artists with longitudinal impact.
• Internationalisation of hybrid approach to build audiences and introduce new voices.
• Developing and strengthening of organisational structures and business skills to secure long-term stability.

INTENTIONS

• To impact the literary ecosystem by pioneering a new approach to publishing experimental, interdisciplinary, and hybrid literature.
• To elevating underrepresented writers (emerging, international, and global majority) through long-term career development and mentorship.
• To solidify the Prototype Prize as a key part of the literary landscape.
• To make experimental literature more accessible to wider and more diverse audiences, both regionally in the UK and internationally.

Prototype Development Programme

The Prototype Development Programme is a scheme offering extended support and career development to eight emerging writers and artists. The 2024 programme was funded by Arts Council England, in partnership with New Writing North, and run alongside the Prototype Prize.

While there are a growing number of opportunities and mentoring schemes for poets and novelists, there is a distinct lack of opportunities for writers and artists whose work sits between conventional literary forms, and this scheme aims to fill that gap.

The six-month programme offers remote learning and personal development through a series of group workshops and feedback sessions, alongside a programme of five seminars led by different pairings of curators, writers, publishers, editors, and literary agents, all carried out online, making them widely accessible.

• Offers extended support and career development to 8 emerging writers and artists.
• 6-month programme of remote learning and personal development through group workshops and feedback sessions, alongside a programme of seminars led by different pairings of curators, writers, publishers, editors, and literary agents.
• Partnering with New Writing North, ring-fencing 4 places for writers based in the North of England.
• Committed to longevity and sustainability, both in its duration and through the skills and experience it equips its participants with.
• 1st cohort successes: 3 writers signed to agents, 2 publishing deals secured, 4 prizes won.

DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME TESTIMONIALS

The Prototype Prize

The Prototype Prize is a biennial prize for published or unpublished writers and artists working at the intersections of different literary and artistic forms. The prize, which is open only to writers or artists resident in the UK or Ireland, awards £3,000 plus publication by Prototype to the best book-length project, and a second prize of £2,000 plus publication by Monitor Books to the best short-form work. Both prize-winners will also have an excerpt of their work published by frieze. The first iteration of the prize was supported by Arts Council England, with the prize money donated by Shane Akeroyd, Sadie Coles and Emmanuel Roman.

As a publisher committed to providing a home for hybrid and free-form contemporary works that often resist definition, we have first-hand experience of the challenges of supporting writing that sits between traditional publishing categories. We also know that there are many artists and writers working on exceptional projects that deserve publication, and the Prototype Prize aims to find and give a platform to the best examples of this work, and to offer its authors support through the completion of the writing process, to the editorial, design and production, and publicity stages.

• Fiction, poetry and non-fiction prose are all eligible, with no restrictions on style, form or subject-matter, with interdisciplinary approaches particularly welcomed.
• Looking for work that interrogates the boundaries of established formal, narrative and genre conventions.
• Submissions open to individuals and collaborative projects
• Committed to longevity and sustainability, both in its duration and through the skills and experience it equips its participants with.

Project Publication List

FAIR: THE LIFE-ART OF TRANSLATION by Jen Calleja

A literary translator work of autofiction by acclaimed author and translator. A satirical, refreshing and brilliantly playful book about learning the art of translation, being a bookworker in the publishing industry, growing up, family, and class.

DIARY OF AN ENDING by Lina Scheynius (with translations by Saskia Vogel)

A hybrid text and photobook by an internationally-renowned photographer with a cult online following. A daring work of autofiction, written in searingly honest prose, which parallels the raw and vulnerable intimacy of her photographic work, this book will appeal both to Scheynius’s established fanbase and establish her importance as an artist working across genres.

HAPPINESS by Yuri Felsen, trans. Bryan Karetnyk

Felsen was a leading modernist writer of the interwar Russian diaspora known as ‘the Russian Proust’, who died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Happiness is the 2nd second part of Felsen’s trilogy, following our acclaimed publication of Deceit in 2022. In free-flowing epistolary form, it continues the narrative, exploring the minutest psychological nuances of human relationships, from the bliss of romantic love to the agonies of jealousy and mental illness.

HELL OF SOLITUDE by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, trans. Ryan Choi

An eclectic mixed-genre collection by one of the most important and beloved Japanese writers of the 20th century. Most of the pieces are appearing in English for the first time and span a range of styles and forms, from the whimsical and the fantastical to the serious and the grave. The prose is interwoven with a gathering of Akutagawa’s poetry, a mode he was prolific in and examples of which are sparse in English.

HUMANIMAL: A PROJECT FOR FUTURE CHILDREN by Bhanu Kapil

A seminal hybrid prose work by one of the UK’s most innovative writers, and winner of the 2020 T.S. Eliot Prize. Combines documentary, poetic and narrative genres into an anatomy of human wildness, interweaving personal and postcolonial histories. This is the 2nd title we are reissuing from Kapil’s back catalogue, currently out of print, with rights already secured for further books to follow.

UNTIL THE TEARS ROLL DOWN MY CHEEKS LIKE HONEY by Selima Hill & Harriet Hill

A collaborative, hybrid work of poetry and visual art by one of our most significant female British poets, whose collections have been shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize, the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award. The poems, which explore desire and obsession, are accompanies by hand-drawn, cardboard cutouts as a playful response to each of the poems and to the narrative that runs through the collection.

BODY HORROR by Oliver Zarandi

Body Horror is a memoir that explores and excavates the author’s attempts to come to terms with his disordered eating as a teenager. The book interrogates the intersections of having a body, masculinity and queerness through the lens of memory, outsider art, painting, horror films, shock websites and pornography. It is a book told through obsessive affinities between the author’s body and art, and how that art helped him understand who he is today. Body Horror was shortlisted for the Prototype Prize.

GIRLBEAST by Cecilie Lind, trans. Hazel Evans

Highly-acclaimed in Denmark and soon to appear as a film, Girlbeast is a probing, unsettling and sensual reinterpretation of the Lolita narrative, where power dynamics are vague and ever-shifting and romantic encounters can’t always be separated from assault. It’s a story about the power and powerlessness that comes with being a girl. Through sharp speed-poetry-like writing, combined with a daring and addictive plot, Girlbeast offers a fresh take on the debate about #metoo, sexual consent and power dynamics.

Short-form Creative Non-Fiction List: Stagings

One of the organisational development goals of this project is to research, plan and launch a new list of short-form creative non-fiction, with the first book publishing in 2027, commissioned and managed by Aimee Selby.

As a fifth strand or ‘type’ within the wider Prototype list, the proposed list would be entitled ‘Stagings’. This strand will have an intentionally broad remit so as to allow for a flexible, diverse range of titles: it will encompass works related to the theatre, music, film, critical theory and ideas, ecology, philosophy and art writing, in any form but predominantly creative non-fiction.

In the first instance we would seek to identify existing titles either not published in English or out of print, and seek to acquire translation, distribution and publishing rights in order to establish the strand. We are not seeking to compete with more well-established trade publishers in scale or aesthetic but would focus on selecting relatively short books that could be accessible both in terms of purchase cost, physical size and to a broad cross-section of the market.

Who We Are

JESS CHANDLER: Publisher & Project Lead
Jess founded Prototype in 2019. She was a co-founder of Test Centre, which ran from 2011 to 2018, publishing innovative works of poetry and fiction. She has worked as an editor at Reaktion Books, and used to work as a researcher and producer on factual television programmes. She was also the Digital Editor of Poetry London for five years. Jess has extensive experience editing and publishing a range of books, from fiction and poetry to illustrated art books, literary biography, history and philosophy, specialising in poetry and hybrid, multidisciplinary works. Jess has been invited to give talks and seminars at institutions including Glasgow School of Art, Birkbeck and the Royal College of Art, and has been a tutor at the Poetry School.

AIMEE SELBY: Associate Editor
Aimee is a London-based freelance book editor who has worked in non-fiction arts publishing for 15 years. She has held project editor roles at the arts & humanities publishers Black Dog and Reaktion Books, and is a Senior Editor at Ridinghouse. She has built strong relationships with freelance clients including Prestel Publishing, Barbican Gallery, the National Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, Scheidegger & Spiess and Park Books, among others. Her edited volume Art & Text for Black Dog Publishing was one of the company’s most successful trade titles. She has worked with Prototype since 2020, and edited numerous Prototype books.

ASTRID ALBEN: Commissioning Editor: Translations
Astrid is a poet, translator and editor, and joined Prototype as Commissioning Editor for Literature in Translation in November 2021. Before joining Prototype, Astrid worked as CEO of the Poetry Translation Centre and was artistic director of PARS, an arts and sciences organisation she co-founded at the Rijksakademie voor beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. Astrid has worked as a curator for Parsons School of Design in New York and before that she was head of production at Saatchi & Saatchi Amsterdam. Astrid was awarded a Wellcome Trust Fellowship for her pioneering work across the arts and sciences in 2014. She is a Clore Fellow and the Chair of Poetry London. Her work is widely published, including in the TLS, Granta and by Prototype.

RORY COOK: Publicity/Marketing + Prize Partner
Rory is a writer and editor based in London. He is the editor of Monitor Books, which publishes poetry and writing by artists in bespoke editions. Between 2017 and 2019 he organised Murmur, a reading series in Manchester. He now co-organises Feature, a new series in London inviting interactions between the worlds of art, poetry, and performance: recent Feature events have taken place at Cafe Oto and IKLECTIK. He recently completed a PhD, on intermedial installation art and ekphrastic writing, and teaches at Goldsmiths and the University of the Arts London.