Barbara Epler started working at New Directions in 1984, and is now the president and publisher. She has worked on the books of writers such as Roberto Bolaño, César Aira, Muriel Spark, Joseph Roth, Robert Walser, Stevie Smith, John Keene, Yoko Tawada, and Clarice Lispector, and many others. Independent since 1936, New Directions is a for-profit literary press that brings out about 35 new books a year and maintains more than 1,300 titles on its backlist.