Skip to Main Content

Let’s Talk About It: York University Libraries Authors Series

In preparation for the October 2025 Let’s Talk About It: York University Libraries Authors Series, we will present collections items relevant to each speaker.

Coach House Press

Long considered one of the leading small-press publishers in Canada, Coach House Press was founded in 1965 by printer Stan Bevington and editor Wayne Clifford. In its formative years, Coach House was a cohesive printing and publishing unit, publishing innovative and activist open-form writers from the United States and Canada in a style characterized by hand-set type and multi-coloured offset printing. 

Currently, Coach House has been at the centre of a number of innovations in the use of digital technology in publishing and printing, from computerized phototypesetting to desktop publishing. Notably, the pioneering SGML/XML company, SoftQuad, was founded by Coach House’s Stan Bevington and colleagues Yuri Rubinsky and David Slocombe. Coach House is one of the few Canadian publishing companies that prints its own titles. The printing operations also print books for several other small Canadian publishers and literary magazines. Find out more through the Coach House Press Papers at the University of Toronto's Discover Archives.

House of Anansi

House of Anansi Press was founded in 1967 by writers Dennis Lee and David Godfrey to publish work by Canadian writers. Anansi owes its name to the West-African spider god Kwaku Anansi, one of the world’s greatest folk heroes. Godfrey, who taught in Ghana in his twenties, admired the wise but mischievous prankster who created the world. The two named their publishing venture House of Anansi Press, both as a nod to the small-but-mighty spider god, and a poke at a certain other publishing “House.”  Find out more About House of Anansi Press.

ECW Press

At first the acronym was self-descriptive: Essays on Canadian Writing (the name of the journal of literary criticism started in 1974). But as the company grew and changed, the name also changed. The company has been called Essential Canadian Writing, Excellent Contemporary Writing, or, more recently, Extreme Cutting-Edge Writing. And these names have been, and still are, appropriate. But each of those letters represents a particular strain of ECW Press’s diverse passions — Entertainment, Culture, Writing. Find out more About ECW Press.

Book*hug Press

Celebrating adventures in literary publishing since 2004, Book*hug Press is a Canadian-owned and operated, radically optimistic independent publisher working at the forefront of contemporary book culture. It specializes in bold and dynamic literary fiction, literature in translation, poetry, and narrative nonfiction. It publishes critically acclaimed, award-winning literary books with a strong and recognizable brand, and readers turn to us for engaging and intelligent books. It champions emerging and established writers whose work meaningfully contributes to and reflects contemporary culture and society, as well as books that challenge and push the boundaries of cultural expectations. Find out more About Book*hug Press.

Gap Riot Press

Gap Riot Press publishes experimental, visual, innovative, and genre-blurring work by primarily Canadian poets that push the limits of poetry. Gap Riot Press is run collaboratively by women. Gap Riot Press is anarchist at its heart and communal by nature. Gap Riot Press manifests from the dire need for new voices not only in what we read and hear, but in the very production and publication of poetic texts. Gap Riot Press introduces a new invasive species of poetics and production that is radical, intersectional, and speaks contrasting volumes. Gap Riot Press began and continues in conversation. Find out more about Gap Riot Press. 

View more titles by Gap Riot Press.

Dundurn Press

Established in 1972, Dundurn Press is currently one of the largest independent publishing houses in Canada, with over 2,500 Canadian-authored titles in print. Dundurn Press is best known for its robust publishing program spanning these five decades as well as its fiction titles that speak to diverse and international audiences. It publishes books that reflect the world, satisfy curiosity, enlighten, and entertain. It seeks to amplify and elevate exceptional Canadian voices, particularly those that have not yet been discovered or have been previously underrepresented in trade publishing. Find out more About Dundurn Press.

View more titles published by or about Dundurn Press

Broadview Press

Founded in 1985, Broadview Press' focus is very much on the humanities and social sciences—especially literature, writing, and philosophy—but with a broad range of academic approaches and political viewpoints. It strives to produce high-quality, pedagogically useful books for higher education classrooms—anthologies, historical texts, sourcebooks, surveys of particular academic fields and sub-fields. It welcomes the perspectives of authors from marginalized and underrepresented groups, has a strong commitment to the environment, and publishes a select list of titles with a specifically Canadian emphasis. Find out more About Broadview Press.

View more titles published by or about Broadview Press

Gordon Hill Press & The Porcupine's Quill

Gordon Hill Press and The Porcupine’s Quill are publishers of poetry, innovative fiction, lyric non-fiction, and literary criticism. They strive to publish exemplary writing by a diversity of writers in beautifully printed books. They emphasize writers living with invisible disability through our Gordon Hill Press imprint. They also publish chapbook-length poetry through Sheffield Chapbooks imprint. FInd out more About Gordon Hill Press and The Porcupine’s Quill.

View more titles published by or about Gordon Hill Press & The Porcupine's Quill.