English

Arena is a Danish independent and nonprofit publishing house; the criteria for all of the publications of Arena are quality and necessity alone.

Arena publishes Danish and foreign poetry, fiction, essays and anthologies.

Arena introduces central works of the world literature not yet in Danish translation.

Arena presents contemporary poetry in translation providing an insight into the poetry of today.

Arena is not only a publishing house but also a literary community where literature and world, authors and readers are equally welcome.

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Authors and backlist
Complete list of authors published by Arena is found here.
Backlist covering books released between 1999 and 2012 with original titles is found here.

Series
The Classics Series introduces the most significant and not yet translated literature to a Danish readership. All the publications are bilingual, presenting both translation and original text. So far works of Francis Ponge (Le parti pris des choses), Shuntarō Tanikawa (A Chagall and a Tree Leaf / シャガールと木の葉) and Gertrude Stein (a collection of the speeches “Composition as Explanation”, “Portraits and Repetition”, and “Poetry and Grammar” as well as a collection of the portraits) have been released. See the books and read more in Danish

New Poetry is a series of anthologies of foreign contemporary poetry. The series captures tendencies in new poetry and primarily focuses on the work of younger poets. All the publications are bilingual, presenting both translation and original text. Anthologies of German, Polish and Icelandic poetry have been released so far. See the books and read more in Danish

Arena Dottir is the cross-aesthetic series of Arena, combining visual and verbal art. See the publications and read more in Danish

Arena Kontra was the micro-press series of Arena in the years 2010-2011 releasing chapbooks, pamphlets, mix tapes and the like. Arena Kontra was released in a very limited print run and distributed to the subscribers of the series exclusively. See the publications and read more in Danish

Arena Monografi is a new series of monographs on contemporary Danish literature edited by Tue Andersen Nexø and Elisabeth Friis. See the publications and read more in Danish

History
Arena was founded by Danish literary entrepeneur K. E. Hermann in 1953. His idea was to build a publishing house run by the authors themselves as an alternative to the existing commercial publishers, thereby providing the new quality literature with better possibilities of being published.

Through the sixties, seventies and eighties Arena was a leading publisher of Danish and foreign poetry and fiction, and the publishing house introduced the first translations of – among others – Samuel Beckett and Elias Canetti in Denmark. Prolific Danish authors published by Arena in those years include Poul Vad, Jens Smærup Sørensen, Bent Vinn Nielsen, Cecil Bødker, Dan Turèll, Johannes L. Madsen, Peter Laugesen, and Henrik Bjelke. Between 1953 and 1988 more than 1000 titles was released by Arena.

In 1988 Arena went into hibernation after some turbulent years, only arising anew in 1999 as an independent and strong profiled small press publishing house. Arena is now headed by a board of which Elisabeth Friis is chairman. The editorial is based in Copenhagen and toil doggedly to publish quality literature and thereby serve as a corrective to the commercial publishers.

Ordering
Please place your order by e-mailing us at mail@forlagetarena.dk

Contact
Forlaget Arena
Møllegade 8A
2200 København N
Denmark

telephone +45 50 51 79 19 (wednesdays 3-5pm)
mail@forlagetarena.dk

Banking information
Account no.: 8127944491
Account no., IBAN format (Europe): DK1020008127944491
BIC/SWIFT: NDEADKKK (or NDEADKKKXXX)

Bank:
Nordea Privatkundeafdeling Viborg
Sct. Mathias Gade 68
8800 Viborg
Denmark