Portugal: Kiala aims to bring Black authors from the margins to the heart of publishing

The imprint founded by Elga Fontes entered the market in May to tackle the lack of Black authors and show their work goes beyond racism, discrimination or suffering. In 2026 it will publish two books and already has its 2027 list agreed. Kiala (source in Portuguese) was born from an idea that had been on Elga Fontes' mind for years: creating room in the Portuguese publishing market for Black authors. The imprint of the publishing house Vírgula d’Interrogação officially entered the market in May this year and intends to publish books exclusively by Black authors, but its founder rejects the notion that this amounts to setting up a closed-off space or a literary category of its own. "Kiala is a word in Kimbundu [one of Angola's Bantu languages] that means to illuminate or bring light," explains Elga Fontes, who saw in the name a concise expression of what she wanted to build. The idea began to take shape about two years ago, when, then working as an editor at Vírgula d’Interrogação, she presented the project to Diana Almeida, the publishing director. After getting the green light, roughly two years of brand-building followed. The need for the imprint arose in part from Elga Fontes' own experience as a reader and publishing professional. During her master's degree, she analysed the catalogue of a Portuguese publisher and found that, among the hundreds of books brought out in the three years she examined, only about 10% were by non‑white authors. Later she extended her analysis to other publishing groups and also followed the new releases announced by publishers with which she partners as a content creator. The conclusion, she tells Euronews, was similar: "There was, and still is, a lack of space for books by Black authors." In Portugal, she adds, she is not aware of any formal study or platform that systematically tracks racial representation in the publishing market. For Elga Fontes, the problem cannot be pinned on a single player in the process of getting a manuscript published, from editors, literary agents and critics to readers themselves and what they look for. The Portuguese market is small and fragile, publishers chase titles with commercial potential and social media tends to amplify books that already attract attention. At the same time, she believes, some readers are less open to works that stray from what is seen as the norm. "There is no culprit. And Kiala is not intended as a criticism, it is meant as encouragement," she says. An imprint to break out of the stereotype One of the principles guiding Kiala is precisely to push back against the idea that literature by Black authors must necessarily be about racial experience. For the publisher and founder, talking about a single "Black experience" is reductive: Black people's lives are diverse, even if some are marked by common problems such as racism. The imprint also wants to challenge the automatic link between Black authors and stories of pain. "With Kiala we also wanted to unsettle the notion that a Black person can only write about racism and suffering", she explains. The problem, she adds, also lies in the way works are assessed. "We tend to see the creations of Black people as an exception, not as universal," she says. A white author can write about virtually any topic and have the quality of their work acknowledged regardless of the subject; for Black authors, she believes, that principle does not always hold. That is why Kiala is not only looking for books centred on racial issues. Its first title, Feminismo na Periferia (source in Portuguese) by US writer, activist and cultural critic Mikki Kendall, "is a non‑fiction book that challenges a feminism presented as universal and addresses themes such as ethnicity, class, poverty and violence". The second title, scheduled for November, will be The Death of Vivek Oji, by Akwaeke Emezi, who is from Nigeria. A celebrated novel, originally published in English in 2020, it explores identity, discovery and family and is also rooted in aspects of Nigerian society. Several criteria shape the choice of titles. The team tries to understand "what conversation this book might spark or continue in Portugal" and what readers may find in it. "A good book is a book that never stops saying what it has to say. That is our guiding star when choosing our books. A book that has a lot to say," sums up Elga Fontes, pointing to this idea as one of the main selection criteria. "Not every Black person gets published" The imprint explicitly uses race as a criterion to tackle an inequality that Elga Fontes sees as very real, but not as a sufficient condition for publication. "Our racial criterion is purely instrumental," she explains. "It is not a statement that Black authors form a homogeneous literary category that has to be confined to a single space." Asked about the possibility that Kiala might end up pushing Black authors to the margins of the wider market, instead of fully integrating them into it, she rejects that interpretation. "Kiala is present across the publishing market, as far as we can manage. We do not have just a Kiala bookshop, we do not have just a little corner where Black authors can be. Our aim and our work is precisely to bring in the voices of Black authors where they are not yet present, where they are scarcely represented, because Kiala is an imprint of 'affirmative action' created to correct a very real under‑representation in the publishing market," she argues. For that reason, Kiala wants to be part of the traditional book market, rather than setting up a parallel circuit just for Black authors. The aim is "to normalise the idea of walking into a Portuguese bookshop and finding Black authors from different countries, in different genres and with different perspectives, without that being seen as something exceptional". The imprint itself acknowledges that it may be seen as a niche publisher — or even as a racist publisher. "There are many possible perceptions, but it is not my job to police what people think of Kiala. My job is simply to publish books by Black authors," she stresses. The same concern for representation extends to the team that produces the books. Proofreaders, translators, designers and other professionals must meet quality standards, but Kiala also seeks to bring in Black professionals. The founder believes such professionals do exist in Portugal, even if they "face more obstacles to entry, because there are in fact very few working actively with publishers". Kiala is not the pioneer of this kind of project. Internationally, Elga Fontes mentions, for instance, New Beacon, a publisher and bookshop in the United Kingdom that only publishes Black authors. In Brazil there is Malê, which publishes Afro‑Brazilian literature. In the United States there is Black Classic Press, which focuses solely on classics of literature by Black authors. In the heart of Paris, Présence Africaine Editions, created in 1949 to provide thinkers, writers and researchers from Africa and the diaspora "with a sounding board" so that their literary and scientific work can benefit from better conditions of dissemination and accessibility across the world. "Many people did this work long before Kiala existed. I believe Kiala exists because of that work and because of those people," says Elga Fontes. Growing without losing sight of the mission Kiala is still small for now. In 2026 two books will be published and, in 2027, the plan is to increase to three. The 2027 list is already closed and will consist entirely of fiction. For 2028, the publisher intends to bring out Portuguese authors. The ambition, she explains, is not to become a big publisher at any cost, but to build a benchmark catalogue and show that it is possible to combine editorial quality, economic sustainability and "survive by betting on Black authors". "Of course we would like to recoup the investment we make in our books," says Elga Fontes. "That alone would be ideal for us, as it would allow us to go on publishing more and more." Among the main obstacles are distribution, production costs, the price of paper and the small size of the Portuguese market. The publisher also points to the cost of living and the country's reading habits as factors that make it particularly difficult for independent publishers to remain sustainable. "As for reading habits, although they have grown considerably in recent years, Portugal remains one of the countries that read the least in Europe. That is why books have to be more expensive, because publishers need to be able to make a profit, to stay afloat, to pay workers, to pay for the production of books," she explains. Despite the challenges, she sees one goal as more important than Kiala's own growth: reaching the point where the imprint is no longer needed. "I would very much like Kiala's very premise to become obsolete, unnecessary, even absurd," she says. All it would take, she suggests, is for the imprint's work to encourage other publishers and publishing projects to invest more in Black authors. Until then, Kiala will go on seeking out voices that, in its founder's view, still do not have enough space on Portuguese bookshop shelves. One absence that surprises her most is Octavia E. Butler, the African American author considered a major reference in science‑fiction literature, whose books have only begun to be published in Portugal in the past few years. Ultimately, the aim is for Black authors to stop being an exception in bookshop catalogues. And for them to be read simply for what they write, whether it is about identity, fantasy, humour, science fiction, family or any other subject. "There are many books by Black authors that are not about racism, and thank goodness for that," concludes Elga Fontes. Elga Fontes' reading suggestions - Lendários, by Tracy Deonn, published by Desrotina in October 2022 - The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett, published by Alfaguara Portugal in June 2021 - A Cama Onde Elas Se Deitam, deFaridah Àbike-Íymídé, published by Desrotina in May 2024 - Finding Me, by Viola Davis, published by Cultura Editora in August 2024 - Irmãs Brown, by Talia Hibbert, series published by Desrotina