Simon & Schuster’s Atria imprint has teamed up with British independent publisher Short Books to start a new imprint called Marble Arch Press. The imprint—the name refers to the famous London landmark near Hyde Park—will premiere in fall 2012, releasing (in the U.S. and Canada) roughly 12 books annually (in print and digital) from Short Books’ list. Atria said the goal of the imprint is to bring “the best in contemporary British writing to the North American marketplace.”
Short Books was founded in 2001 by journalists Rebecca Nicolson and Aurea Carpenter and initially published only nonfiction. In 2008 the house, which is located in London, released its first fiction list. The press has published a number of U.K. bestsellers, including Simon Barnes’s How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher, Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Good Granny Guide, and David Brooks’s The Social Animal. Judith Curr, executive v-p and publisher of Atria, said of the partnership: “The Short Books list reflects the varied interests and impeccable editorial taste of its founders.”
The deal marks the first copublishing arrangement for Atria.
