Members of the new management of Interlink Publishing are, from left, Leyla, Hannah, and Maha Moushabeck, as well as Harrison Williams, not pictured. Image: Interlink Publishing
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Michel and Ruth Moushabeck Hand Off
Many of our Publishing Perspectives readers who travel are very familiar with publisher Michel Moushabeck who in 1987 co-founded with Ruth Moushabeck the independent press Interlink Publishing in Northampton, Massachusetts.
It has operated for 37 years as what the company describes as the only Palestinian-owned publisher in the United States, with a specialization in translation of literature from the Global South.
Today (July 30), the company has announced that Ruth and Michel Moushabeck have transferred ownership of the company to their three daughters Leyla, Hannah, and Maha, and to their son-in-law Harrison Williams.
Among the company’s bestselling titles have been Palestine on a Plate: Memories From My Mother’s Kitchen by Joudie Kalla; Rainbow Revolutions: Power, Pride, and Protest in the Fight for Queer Rights by Jamie Lawson; a James Beard Award-winning cookbook, Ethiopia: Recipes and Traditions From the Horn of Africa by Yohanis Gebreyesus; and poetry collections by Mahmoud Darwish.
‘A Form of Resistance’
Michel and Ruth Moushabeck near the time of the 1987 opening of Interlink Publishing. Image: Interlink Publishing
Over the years, Interlink’s lists have included fiction in translation; nonfiction; and children’s books. The company today puts its emphasis on “amplifying marginalized voices and sharing the rich cultures of the world.”
In a comment from the new four-person leadership group, we read, “Our mission remains unchanged. We believe in amplifying the voices so often excluded in the mainstream.
“We’re dedicated to sharing the history, art, music, literature, and beauty that our culture and so many others bring to the world—and we see this as a form of resistance.”
The team members share experience in working for major houses including Simon & Schuster; Chronicle Books; and Yale University. They also understand the cultural framework of the family’s provenance in the Katamon neighborhood in Jerusalem (Al-Quds, “the holy sanctuary”), as seen as the capital of Palestine. They were forced to leave during the displacements of what in Arabic is called the Nakba (“catastrophe”) of 1948, and then as refugees during the Lebanese Civil War, when almost 1 million people fled that country.
Their creation of Interlink was a response, they say, to the negative stereotyping and misrepresentation of Arab and Palestinian cultures they found in the States when they arrived in Brooklyn.
The company reports that today it produces some 80 titles annually, has a backlist of more than 1,000 titles, and includes literature, history, contemporary politics, art, and cultural guides as well as its cookbooks and illustrated children’s books.
More from Publishing Perspectives on independent publishing is here, more on Arabic is here, more on translation is here, and more on Palestine and publishing is here.