Archipelago Books

What it reported doing in 2025

Archipelago books published fifteen titles over the course of 2025. In february, we brought out felix nesi's debut novel, people from oetimu, translated from indonesian by lara norgaard, followed by the harmattan winds by sylvain trudel, translated from french by donald winkler in march, and stay with me, our fifth title by hanne orstavik, translated from norwegian by martin aitken. In april we published wickerwork, a collection of poetry by christian lehnert, translated from german by richard sieburth, and in may we published the living and the rest by jose eduardo agualusa, translated from portuguese by daniel hahn, followed by gerbrand bakker's the hairdresser's son, translated from dutch by david colmer in august. In the fall, we brought out emmelie prophete's novel cece, translated from french by aidan rooney, a poetry collection titled say fire by selma asotic (bosnia), and two classic italian works-cesare pavese's the leucothea dialogues, translated by minna zallman proctor and luigi pirandello's one, none, and a hundred grand, translated by sean wilsey, followed by wieslaw mysliwski's needle's eye, translated from polish by bill johnston. With elsewhere editions, our children's imprint, we published my brother by laura djupvik and illustrated by oyvind torseter, translated from norwegian by martin aitken, and launched the first of our five-book series of quino's comic strip mafalda, translated by frank wynne. In the fall, we published marika maijala's a magician's flower translated from finnish by mia spangenberg, and xiong liang's take a walk with the wind, translated from chinese by chloe garcia roberts. We reprinted nine titles from our backlist, including works by elias khoury, mahmoud darwish, miljenko jergovic, karl ove knausgaard, jean giono, and julio cortazar. We continue to make every effort to keep all of our books in print, considering each one a contemporary classic. For each title archipelago published last year, we printed 200-350 advance review copies to send to reviewers, editors, booksellers, writers, professors, bloggers, reading groups, and librarians. We tailor these lists to each book to ensure that every publication has a chance to reach readers who are most likely to respond to, discuss, and appreciate it. We also solicit endorsements for every book, handpicking authors and booksellers who we feel might respond to a particular voice or subject. Our marketing budget includes the production and distribution of 6000 print catalogs. We held over 35 events in 2025. We hosted a beautiful jazz poetry reading at a jazz club in queens with bosnian poet selma asotic, who read from her work, say fire, as a jazz pianist and bass player performed their interpretations in response. We also partnered with a film programming collective, theater of the matters, to present a screening of a film called these encounters of theirs, which stages dialogues that first appeared in the leucothea dialogues by cesare pavese. Our translator minna spoke before an audience of 250 theater-goers about the transformative art of translation. Through events that stage dynamic readings, musical performances, and film experiences, we are reaching communities of readers and artists beyond our immediate circle. We also welcomed two authors from abroad for events here in New York city. Xiong liang travelled from china to present take a walk with the wind in bilingual presentation with the New York public library in manhattan and in the bronx, as well as at bookstores in manhattan and schools in brooklyn and manhattan. Emmelie prophete, author of cece, visited from haiti to present her work to readers at the brooklyn book festival and for an event at the flatbush branch of the public library. She and translator aidan rooney also presented the book at the brookline booksmith in boston. Our dedication to community and access extends to our donation efforts. This year, we donated to the poulin project, the brooklyn book bodega, lisa librar

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 55.7%; rating input score 56
• Program expense ratio: 67.3%; rating input score 67
• Fundraising efficiency: $7.7 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 24th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Fail
  • Document-retention policy: Fail
  • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Missing
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 16.6%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.45; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.18; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 8.8%; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 1.4% per year; rating input score 100; 20th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 4.1% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 5% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings