Arsha Books

Arsha Books is a small independent publisher in the Old Talas Citadel Quarter of Talas, founded in 2009 by the former teachers Nazgul Ermekova and Talant Imanaliev. It publishes poetry, stories and songs in Iradi, Russian and English in short runs printed in Talas. Its best-known book is Aikokul Tursunbek kyzy's Twelve Kilometres (2015). Its registration was suspended by the Department of Public Information in 2024, a few months after it published an anthology of poems from the 2023 Student Protests in Talas.^[1][2]

History

The press began in a room above a saddler's workshop in the Köhne Diz, where it is still based and opens on Saturday mornings. Its name is the Iradi word for juniper (arsha), whose smoke is used for blessings in the mountains. It registered with the Department of Public Information in 2009 (no. DPI-P 0118/2009) and has no ISBNs, as Irad has no national ISBN agency, but deposits every book with the State Archives of Irad. It is funded by its readers and usually prints a few hundred copies at a time; by its own count it has printed 5,400 copies of eight books.^[1]

Its first book was Kök Tütün (2010), thirty-one poems about the Talas valley in winter by Nurila Bekbolot kyzy, bound by hand. It went on to publish the Russian-language poems of a Nurzhan refinery fitter, Igor Lysenko, with facing Iradi translations (Navbahor Notebooks, 2012); ninety-four horseback songs recorded in the upper Chatkal between 2008 and 2012, edited by Kubat Turdakun uulu (Jol Yrlary, 2013; see ırda); Twelve Kilometres, in Iradi in 2015 and in English in 2016; Toguz (2019), nine stories by Ulan Abdyraim uulu about horse thieves, the elders who judge them and the ninefold fine, told by a horse; and Ermekova's children's book Ak-Boz and the Winter Road (2021).^[1]

Suspension

Baylanyshsyz ("Without Connection", 2023) collected poems by 42 poets written in Talas in October 2023, during the student protests and the days without mobile data. In 2024 the Department of Public Information suspended the press's registration, citing a licensing irregularity; Human Rights Watch called the suspension censorship. The press has appealed and is awaiting a decision. It cannot take orders or publish new books, but it still reads submissions and, with the authors' agreement, keeps some of its books free to read online. Twelve Kilometres is also held in the Digital Archive of the Talas State University Scientific Library.^[1][2]

Books

References

1. ^ Arsha Books (2024). "Arsha Books." Talas.
2. ^ Talas Herald (2024). 'Department suspends publisher of protest anthology.' Talas.