Isolarii

Its name originates from the Venetian tradition of 'island books.'[2] Clark was inspired to launch the company in 2013, when a friend sent him René Daumal’s book Mount Analogue, while working at a smartphone factory in China.[3][4]

In October 2020, Isolarii published F Letter: New Russian Feminist Poetry, which became a symbol for anti-government protests in Russia.[5]

Isolarii released Street Cop by Robert Coover and Art Spiegelman as a response to the United States Capitol attack in 2021. The New York Times described it as a “palm-sized lark”[6] and Michael Silverblatt called it “a secret book.” [7]

In March 2022, "The War Diary of Yevgenia Belorusets," a daily dispatch from Kyiv at 4 pm, garnered international attention, with support from Margaret Atwood and Nan Goldin. It was adapted into a podcast episode for This American Life[8] and, on March 3, 2023, inspired a statement by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announcing changes to Germany's military support for Ukraine.[9]

Dominick Ammirati wrote in Artforum that “the press has succeeded at imbuing the book form with the psychophysical qualities of a mala, a rosary, kombolói, a smartphone—objects that you pick up and feel almost anxious letting go of.”[2]

Isolarii has been compared to Hanuman Books[10] and described by Hans Ulrich Obrist as an “ingenious book club.”[11]

• In The Face of War: Ukraine 2022 by Yevgenia Belorusets, Nikita Kadan and Lesia Khomenko
• The Archipelago Conversations by Édouard Glissant and Hans Ulrich Obrist
• Modern Animal by Yevgenia Belorusets
• Street Cop by Robert Coover and Art Spiegelman
• Purple Perilla by Can Xue
• F Letter: New Russian Feminist Poetry, ed. Galina Rymbu, Eugene Ostashevsky, and Ainsley Morse
• Salmon: A Red Herring by Cooking Sections