Dalkey Archive Press


Dalkey Archive Press is a publisher of fiction, poetry, and literary criticism in Illinois in the United States, Dublin, and London, specializing in the publication or republication of lesser known, often avant-garde works. The publisher is named for the novel The Dalkey Archive, by the Irish author Flann O'Brien.
Founded in Chicago in 1984, Dalkey Archive began as an adjunct press to the literary magazine Review of Contemporary Fiction, itself founded by John O'Brien, John Byrne, and Lowell Dunlap and dedicated to highlighting writers who were overlooked by the mainstream critical establishment. Initially, the Press reprinted works by authors that were featured in the Review but eventually branched out to other works, including original works that had not before been published. In December 2006, Dalkey Archive relocated to the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana to be part of the university's commitment to global projects that will complement the Press's commitment to translations.
Modelled on such publishers as Grove Press and New Directions, Dalkey Archive's emphasis is decidedly upon literary fiction, usually of a modernist or postmodernist bent. In the publisher's own words, Dalkey Archive "place a heavy emphasis upon fiction that belongs to the experimental tradition of Sterne, Joyce, Rabelais, Flann O'Brien, Beckett, Gertrude Stein and Djuna Barnes." One of the publisher's primary goals is to keep all of its books in print, regardless of their commercial success, in the interest of maintaining the availability of works that it deems culturally and educationally valuable.
In 2011, the Press was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle; its authors and translators have been recipients of many major awards, including the Nobel Prize, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize, the Vondel Prize, and the Premio Valle-Inclán award.

Offices

Its offices are located in McLean, Illinois;ï Dutch House in London; and the Trinity College Centre for Literary Translation in Dublin.

Selected publications

Dalkey Archive has published a variety of books and authors from many countries. In some cases, the publication of certain books by Dalkey Archive has led to a resurgence in their author's popularity, particularly in the United States, as happened with Felipe Alfau and Flann O'Brien. Some notable books and authors published by Dalkey Archive are listed below.