Transit Books

Transit Books Transit Books is a nonprofit publisher of international and American literature, based in Oakland, California.

12/14/2025

An amazing night at City Arts and Lectures () with and to celebrate I WHO HAVE NEVER KNOWN MEN 💐💐💐

We couldn’t be more grateful for the crowd that came out last night to celebrate with us, dressed to the nines. We love ...
10/25/2025

We couldn’t be more grateful for the crowd that came out last night to celebrate with us, dressed to the nines. We love this community! Here’s to the next 10 and beyond! ❤️

A wonderful evening celebrating ANIMAL STORIES with Kate Zambreno and Zito Madu () at Hawthornden Brooklyn. Thanks to ev...
10/18/2025

A wonderful evening celebrating ANIMAL STORIES with Kate Zambreno and Zito Madu () at Hawthornden Brooklyn. Thanks to everyone who came out!

👋 from the Brooklyn Book Featival!
09/21/2025

👋 from the Brooklyn Book Featival!

Our special collector’s edition of Jacqueline Harpman’s I WHO HAVE NEVER KNOWN MEN, with a new intro by , is out in the ...
09/09/2025

Our special collector’s edition of Jacqueline Harpman’s I WHO HAVE NEVER KNOWN MEN, with a new intro by , is out in the world today! ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

“Mesmerizing . . . The book’s austere mystery—the atrophied and gelid world it depicts—provides a richly allusive consideration of human life.”—Deborah Eisenberg, The New York Review of Books

🌙 Deep underground, thirty-nine women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before.

🌙 As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl—the fortieth prisoner—sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others’ escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.

🌙 Jacqueline Harpman was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in 1929, and fled to Casablanca with her family during WWII. Informed by her background as a psychoanalyst and her youth in exile, I WHO HAVE NEVER KNOWN MEN is a haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic novel of female friendship and intimacy, and the lengths people will go to maintain their humanity in the face of devastation. Back in print for the first time since 1997, Harpman’s modern classic, here in translation by , is an important addition to the growing canon of feminist speculative literature.

Get your copy at the link in bio 🔗

What a beautiful opening night for Josephine Rowe’s tour! Thanks to for the conversation and everyone who came out to T...
09/05/2025

What a beautiful opening night for Josephine Rowe’s tour! Thanks to for the conversation and everyone who came out to Transit HQ to celebrate LITTLE WORLD 🪽🪽

Josephine will be at Green Apple Books on the Park () on Monday, September 8, with her editor ✨

New hats just dropped! You can’t miss ‘em! 🐝 Links to all colors in bio 🔗
08/28/2025

New hats just dropped! You can’t miss ‘em! 🐝

Links to all colors in bio 🔗

✨ Bay Area! ✨ Join us at Transit HQ on Thursday, September 4, to launch LITTLE WORLD with Josephine Rowe and Rita Bullwi...
08/21/2025

✨ Bay Area! ✨ Join us at Transit HQ on Thursday, September 4, to launch LITTLE WORLD with Josephine Rowe and Rita Bullwinkel (), wine reception and hanging to follow, and at Green Apple Books on Monday, September 8, with Josephine and Ashley Nelson Levy ().

Registration links in bio 🔗

Finished copies are in! ❤️‍🔥 Preorders for I Who Have Never Known Men (Collector’s Edition) will start shipping this wee...
08/05/2025

Finished copies are in! ❤️‍🔥 Preorders for I Who Have Never Known Men (Collector’s Edition) will start shipping this week.

It’s not too late to get your copy early—preorder link in bio 🔗

Join us for our biggest party of the year! We’re throwing an Edward Gorey–themed soirée on Friday, October 24, from 7 p....
07/15/2025

Join us for our biggest party of the year! We’re throwing an Edward Gorey–themed soirée on Friday, October 24, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at .berkeley in Berkeley to celebrate Transit’s 10th anniversary.

We’re drawing our party theme from 🕰️ The Very Fine Clock 🕰️ , written by Muriel Spark and illustrated by Gorey himself, coming from this fall. Gorey-inspired dresswear is encouraged: Edwardian costume, fur coats, top hats, fascinators, or something that’s been calling in your closet. 

Help us secure our next 10 years as a Bay Area literary institution, eat and drink among friends, and enjoy Gorey tarot readings, a book apothecary, special edition merch (only available for one night), a prize for best costume, and more. Your support will allow us to publish 25 new books in the next 18 months and put more international literature in our libraries, bookstores, and classrooms. ⛵ 📚 🌎

Space is limited—reserve your tickets now using the link in our bio. We can’t wait to celebrate with you! 🦇 🔮 🍻

☀️An excerpt from Jon Fosse’s VAIM (tr. Damion Searls) in the July issue of ☀️“So, I said, well here we are, I said, and...
07/10/2025

☀️An excerpt from Jon Fosse’s VAIM (tr. Damion Searls) in the July issue of ☀️

“So, I said, well here we are, I said, and I ran my fingers through my beard, my graying beard, I wasn’t young anymore, no, but I wasn’t an old man either, it would probably be fair to say aging, yes, an aging man, neither more nor less, and it was about time I stopped taking these little sprees to Bjørgvin…”

Links to the full excerpt in Harper’s and to preorder your copy of VAIM in bio 🔗

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Oakland, CA

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Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm
Saturday 9am - 5pm
Sunday 9am - 5pm

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