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Hyderabad Book Trust is branching out into English language book publication and announces the launch of an imprint dedicated exclusively to material relating to and emanating out of the Telugu/Dakhni speaking states, including from Urdu. This, we believe, is the first English language imprint by a publishing house to focus on material pertaining to a particular linguistic region.

The imprint is branded SouthSide Books in order to clearly signal the inspiration behind this initiative. While English language publications in India have made tremendous progress over the last couple of decades, there is still a discernible lacuna in the material available to readership interested in books pertaining to particular regional cultures and ethnicities.  

English has become the primary reading language for exponentially growing numbers of people in the Telugu/Dakhni speaking world. We now have the unusual situation where readers, especially younger people, are interested in good literature, both fiction and non-fiction, pertaining to their region, culture, and politics, but are unable to read fluently in their mother tongues. SouthSide Books will cater to this readership.

SouthSide Books’ first list will launch in 2023 and the initial acquisitions include a memoir, short stories, historical readings, a novel, a travelogue and a biography.

Hyderabad Book Trust is a 43 year old publishing house -  a not-for-profit collective that has been publishing alternative literature - the best of global and Indian literature in translation, and original commissioned literature, in Telugu, since 1980. These books have depicted the life and tribulations of marginalised sections of society, examined the Hindu epics under the lens of history and caste oppression, memorialised the lives of those who have contributed to change in society from Che Guevara, Martin Luther King, Marie Curie to Phoolan Devi, Ambedkar, Phule and Periyar. Over these 42 years, HBT has published over 400 books.