History
Pushkin Press was founded in 1997 by Melissa Ulfane, whose ambition was to bring literature in translation to the UK. It is notable for rediscovering less known European classics of the twentieth century and is largely responsible for reigniting worldwide interest into authors such as Stefan Zweig and Antal Szerb.
In 2012, Pushkin Press was bought by Adam Freudenheim, then Penguin Classics Publisher, and Stephanie Seegmuller, a former Penguin senior business development manager. Seegmuller left Pushkin in March 2015.
In 2013, Pushkin Press created Pushkin Children's Books, an imprint dedicated to publishing tales for younger readers. In its first year, Pushkin Children's Books published English translations of the French children's series Oksa Pollock by Anne Plichota and Cendrine Wolf, the first of which, The Last Hope, was the company's bestselling title in 2014. Dutch Classic The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt, translated into English by Laura Watkinson, has been the company's most successful children's book. Other children's titles in translation include Jakob Wegelius's The Murderer's Ape (translated by Peter Graves), followed by The Legend of Sally Jones and Sally Jones and the False Rose. In 2025, Pushkin launched Pushkin Children's Classics.
In Autumn 2013, Pushkin Press created ONE, an imprint focused on literary debuts that initially published one exceptional fiction or non-fiction title a season. All titles published under the ONE imprint were initially commissioned and edited by Elena Lappin. Lappin left Pushkin in 2017, but the ONE imprint continues with the focus on contemporary English-language originals.Titles published by ONE include Chigozie Obioma's The Fishermen, shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize, and Rebecca May Johnson's Small Fires: An Epic in the Kitchen
In 2014, Pushkin Press published Anthea Bell's English translation of Erich Kästner's 1949 German children's novel The Parent Trap, the basis for Disney's 1961 film adaptation of the same name starring Hayley Mills and its 1998 remake starring Lindsay Lohan. Then in 2020, Australian actress Ruby Rees recorded an unabridged narration of Bell's translation for Bolinda.Pushkin also published Bell's translations of Kästner's The Flying Classroom and Dot and Anton. Pushkin also published Bell's translations of Kästner's The Flying Classroom and Dot and Anton.
In September 2015, they launched Pushkin Vertigo, a foreign crime imprint, publishing crime novels translated into English from around the world, notably focusing on Japan and France. In 2024 it won the CWA Dagger for Best Crime and Mystery Publisher.The Pushkin Vertigo list includes Japanese classics such as Seishi Yokomizo's The Honjin Murders and Yukito Ayatsuji's The Decagon House Murders, and more recent translated titles such as Uketsu's Strange Pictures (2025). English-language authors on the list include Callum McSorley, whose debut Squeaky Clean won the McIlvanney Prize.
In 2021, Pushkin published a new translation of Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz's rediscovered novel The Passenger, translated by Philip Boehm. It became the publisher's first Sunday Times top-ten bestseller and its first Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month, and was the first Pushkin title to sell more than 100,000 copies.
In 2024, Pushkin acquired New Hampshire–based narrative nonfiction publisher Steerforth Press and its sister company, Hanover Publisher Services. Pushkin has had a relationship with the companies since 2014, when Hanover began distributing Pushkin in the U.S. through Penguin Random House Publishers Services.In 2025, Steerforth became an imprint of Pushkin Press US, and former Little, Brown editor Ben George joined Pushkin Press US as executive editor to lead its US list.
In 2026, Pushkin Press acquired the literary estate of Stefan Zweig, strengthening its position as his principal English-language publisher.
