Who We Are

Paraculture, Inc. is an American corporation based in Virginia, specializing in the packaging and marketing of visual culture, primarily in the form of books.

Paraculture’s principals, Lisa Lytton and Antony Shugaar, bring decades of professional experience to the company. Paraculture Books also relies upon a diverse and extensive network of professional creatives with deep insight into the creation of successful illustrated books.

Lisa Lytton has over twenty-five years of experience in illustrated book publishing, forming Paraculture Books in 2005 after ten years as a senior editor at National Geographic, both in books and on the magazine. Prior to her career at National Geographic, Lytton was creative director for Thomasson-Grant, a photography book publisher in Charlottesville, VA.  She began her career as a small design firm, Lytton Design, in Savannah, GA, and worked closely with Golden Coast Books and Peachtree Publishers, learning every facet of publishing from the ground up.

Antony Shugaar is a translator and journalist with a special interest in Mediterranean Europe. He received a 2007 NEA fellowship for his translation of Sandokan (Melville House, 2009), and translates books for Harvard, Columbia, and Princeton University Presses. Shugaar has written book reviews for the Boston Globe, the Washington Post Book World, and the Journal of Modern Italian Studies. Vendome Press will publish his new book, Coast to Coast: Vintage Travel in North America, in October 2009. He is currently working on a book of Italian history for Steerforth Press. Additionally, he has translated eight novels for Europa Editions, and two books by Primo Levi for a new collected works (Norton 2010). Shugaar has a Master of Science degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism (MS, 1981), a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA, 1980), and a Diploma Superiore from the Università per Stranieri at Perugia.