Celebrating Forty Years of Poetry: Part Two

The second decade of publishing for the press saw some wonderful growth and changes. We won our second Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry with Robert Hilles’ lovely collection Cantos from a Small Room. Marja told me once of a fellow publisher getting a bit huffy with her at this second award, saying, “Why are you winning all the awards now?” But both Marja and Heather were deeply involved in the literary community at that time and as a result many talented authors found a home at the press. A.F. Moritz, Betsy Struthers and Maureen Hynes all had wonderful collections. Young authors like Richard Harrison and Catherine Owen brought collections to the press, starting a long and wonderful association with us. Hero of the Play, Richard Harrison’s second book with us is still in print. We released a tenth anniversary collection in 2004 and then it was reborn as 25 just a couple of years ago. A fascinating trajectory for a book of hockey poems that Marja had to convince the author was definitely publishable. Others such as John Terpstra and Nicole Markotić published with us and with other presses and are still publishing today. The press was firmly established as a strong poetry publisher with a record of bringing out wonderful, often award-winning, books.

1993, Cantos from a Small Room, Robert Hilles

1993, The Ruined Cottage, A.F. Moritz

1993, Running Out of Time, Betsy Struthers

1994, Hero of the Play, Richard Harrison

1995, Rough Skin, Maureen Hynes

1996, The Colour of Flight, Linda Waybrant

1997, The Church Not Made with Hands, John Terpstra

1998, minotaurs & other alphabets, Nicole Markotić

1999, The Parable Boat, Hannah Main-van der Kamp

2001, The Wrecks of Eden, Catherine Owen