Tara Books

Tara Books is an independent publisher of predominantly visual books based in Chennai, India. We are a collective of writers, designers and book makers, and generate most of our titles in-house. We also work with creative professionals from India and abroad. Our engagement with the rich diversity of Indian folk and tribal art is particularly well known. We have brought many of these traditions into the book for the first time, by combining them with contemporary design and fine production. The image is central to our books. Visual language is a form of communication, and it has the ability to cut through barriers of class, caste and region. Several of our artists are from communities that continue to endure exploitation and inequality, and the books we have created with them bring in completely new perspectives for the reader. We experiment with the form of the book: from content and design, to paper and printing. We’re particularly well known for our books made completely by hand, which are printed and bound in our special book making workshop. These exquisite editions have won critical acclaim and recognition. We have also won major international awards for our books and publishing endeavour, the latest one being the Best Children's Publisher of the Year Award for Asia at the Bologna Book Fair 2013. Our vision of publishing is that of a genuinely collaborative process, relying on dialogue and mutuality. Publishing is a genuinely collaborative process for us.