Our Story
The aim of the imprint is to publish Eurasian literature in English in print and
electronically for distribution in UK and worldwide, and to publish English literature in
Eurasian languages, especially for schools and universities in Eurasian region.
Many Central Asian writers wrote in Russian during the time of the Soviet Union, rather
than in their native language, to reach the then potential reading public of 250 million or so.
Much less was written in the native languages, so there is a rather small corpus of literature
originally written in the native languages, compared to many other countries and languages
across the world. This lack of native literature is a hindrance to the development of the
state languages and therefore reduces the scope for native language improvement through
reading for pleasure.
Some of this was translated into Russian and a small fraction from there into English.
There were no translations direct from native languages into English. By publishing native
literature in English, Hertfordshire Press will bring that neglected literature to a much wider
audience, thereby encouraging local writers to prepare their works in their own languages.
Textbooks may also be translated into English.
English literature is published extensively in Russian, and that’s how it is read by the native
peoples of Central Asia, where Russian was the common language in Soviet times. The
governments of the new independent states of Central Asia are promoting the use of their
state languages, especially by educating their populations through the medium of native
languages, rather than through the Russian language as was previously the case
There is no English literature published in Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik. or Turkmen (all Turkic
languages) or Tajik (a Persian language), so the publication of English literature in these
languages will encourage students and adults in Central Asia to improve their knowledge
of their native language by also having access to foreign literature. Textbooks may also be
translated from English.
