“I am grateful to fate for three gifts: to have been born a woman, from the working class and an oppressed nation. And the turbid azure of being three times a rebel,” wrote the Catalan poet, Maria Mercè Marçal. It’s this line that inspired the name of a new publishing house, 3TimesRebel, specialising in works by women in translation from minority languages – Catalan, Basque, perhaps Gaelic or Scots – and based in, of all places, Dundee.

Bibiana Maas, the woman behind this project, has some of that Catalan rebel spirit herself – a divorcee and single mother of three from Manresa, Catalonia, who landed in recent years in Scotland. “The thing is,” she says, “that two years ago my life changed and I got divorced and I had to start again. And I found myself feeling invisible because the last four years I was home-schooling my girls and you know even though I’m a highly educated woman and well-prepared, with a lot of experience, it was like okay you come from nowhere. It’s what many women face, and for me it was very frustrating. That was when I started to think, what do I want to do with my life? “

Maas had done masters degree in book publishing before she had children, thinking that she would like to be involved in the world of books. “But life is very complicated,” she says, “and my first daughter came and then the second one and then the third one, then we moved from Barcelona to the UK.”

The passion for books and publishing, however, had remained. “I thought, okay, if I can make the invisible visible again, if I can help other women to be seen, especially here in the English-speaking world, then that would be good. And this is all tied up with minority languages.”

The first two books came out this month, Mother’s Don’t, a dark tale of motherhood by Basque author Katixe Agirre that revolves around a writer’s obsession with a woman who killed her babies, and Dead Lands, the astounding debut by Catalan author Núria Bendicho, a raw, grimy and polyphonic story of murder and family dynamics.

The Herald:

Maas’s mother tongue is Catalan and she grew up in Manresa, a city 60km inland from Barcelona, home to a strong independence movement and a historic site for Catalan separatism. It was there that the “Bases of Manresa” key documents that defined a project of self-government for Catalonia, were signed in March 1892. It was there, too, that former Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, symbolically chose to launch his new party, Crida Nacional per la República in 2018.

Maas was not able to vote in the 2017 Catalan independence referendum, which was held in spite of being declared illegal under Spanish law, because she was living in England at the time. “It was terrible,” she says, “My family, my dad, my sisters, they were all trying to put a vote inside a box. It was very easy, nothing dangerous at all. It was quite stressy.”

It seems particularly relevant to be speaking with her with weeks of the announcement of a date for Indyref 2. It’s clear, from talking to her, that she feels her current home country and her mother country are bonded by the politics of independence. She describes it as a “sisterhood”.

That sisterhood was one of the reasons she was so keen to set up her publisher here. “It probably wouldn’t be the same if it was in London. I know Scotland has minority languages that are in even a worse position than Catalan. So it’s very important. For instance, I would love to publish, some day, a book by a woman that writes in Gaelic, or in Scots.”

Maas had originally moved to Scotland because her husband was an academic and found a job here “It was a no brainer that I wanted to come here – I lived in England for five years but I didn’t hesitate when the opportunity to come up here arose. Because I guess it’s that sisterhood with Catalonia. I’ve been here for three years now in Scotland. I wouldn’t change it. I don’t want to go anywhere. I want to stay here. It’s like being at home.”

She is, she says, “very excited” about the prospect of an Indyref2. “I’m a supporter of being able to choose whatever you want. This is the main thing, and of course, in Catalonia it is not possible. They don’t have the chance to have a proper referendum because the Spanish state don’t let them.”

“In Catalonia now things are getting worse. In the schools they have restrictions on teaching Catalan. They have to teach 25 percent in Spanish. It’s very complicated. It’s tiring. And for me the most sad point is not just being able to choose what you want. That’s why I really would like for Scotland to be able to just ask it again. Just have the possibility to ask is so important.”

For her, the Marçal quote was a guide to the principles of her publishing house “It has three pillars. One is that I’m only going to publish women, and the second one is that she talks about an oppressed nation, so I’m only going to publish books in minority languages. The third one is she talks about being born from the working-class – and for me, that’s about giving back to the community, so for example I want at the ever end of the year when we do the balance, I will give our benefits to a charity that supports women. We are also fairtrade – and pay everyone involved fairly.”

Maas is drawn to dark, challenging stories. “What I want is that when you read the book, you get out of your comfort zone. I want to challenge you through fiction and speak about uncomfortable or challenging topics through fiction. Mothers Don’t is about how difficult it is to be a mum in this world that doesn’t support mothers at all. It starts with a very strong scene, from the very first page. Dead Lands has a dramatic start as well and talks about the weight of patriarchy in a family, and how it chokes the women of the stories. For example another one is coming in October, and it’s about a relationship between two women and it’s a story of abuse. It’s one woman abuses the other woman and that’s interesting.”

The theme of early motherhood is one she is particularly drawn to – a phase she was so fascinated by she even became a birth educator. "When I had my children I had to do something. It was very difficult with the three girls and I had to do something around the girls and I’m a very active woman so I couldn’t stay at home. I thought my other passion is motherhood and all that involves births. So I went back to university again in England, because before moving to Scotland I was in Birmingham. I went there to study with the National Childbirth Trust to be an antenatal teacher and a doula."

In the UK we read very little translated literature. “The percentage is between 3-5 percent of the books are translated,” Maas says. “So it’s really nothing. But being a publisher in the UK I understand why they don’t translate because it’s so expensive. You also have lots to publish here from people who write in English so you don’t need to go and find. But there are lots of books around the world, beautiful books that have to be read. They can’t be hidden.

The Herald: Bibiana Maas, founder of 3TimesRebel press

“It’s about learning that there’s more beyond the English-speaking world – that you can learn things from other cultures that you don’t know. Through books, though fiction, through stories. It can open your mind. When you start reading fiction in translation it’s quite addictive because it’s like stepping into another’s world. That’s why I want to give voice particularly women that write amazing stories and no one can see them outside their own territory.”

Maas believes growing up as part of an oppressed nation, speaking an oppressed language, has the effect of making people more empathetic. “Anywhere you go in the world you have a bond with other people who are from an oppressed culture or speak a minority language. I think there’s an automatic link when you find someone or go somewhere with the same oppression.”

It’s this that she has found here in Scotland. “It’s a bond,” she says. “You recognise the pain of the other very easily, you empathise.”

Mother's Don't and Dead Lands are available from 3TimesRebel press.