Quiet, tenacious Canadian publishing

Gaspereau Press is one of Canada’s most iconic independent presses (called “Canada’s most stubborn publisher” by The Walrus) with a long-standing emphasis on in-house printing of high-quality, limited runs of books. Founded in 1997 in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, by Andrew Steeves and Gary Dunfield, Gaspereau Press’ legacy and backlist transferred in 2025 to Keagan Hawthorne, poet and owner of a micro-press called Hardscrabble Press. Earlier this year, Hawthorne moved Gaspereau Press to Sackville, New Brunswick. It was an “explosion of books,” he told Christian Courier (CC).

Maaike VanderMeer: When did you realize that you aren’t only a poet, but a publisher? What compelled (inspired) you to take ownership of Gaspereau Press?

Keagan Hawthorne: For me, both publishing and writing poetry were originally ways of finding and making community. I’ve been a reader my whole life, and reading is such a solitary activity – it’s essentially eavesdropping, though you’re listening in on a conversation that you’re intended to hear. Well, I turned to writing as a way of speaking back to that conversation, attempting to participate in, and contribute to, this very meaningful exchange. Becoming involved in publishing was the next logical step. Literature really is like a slowly unfolding conversation, and a publisher’s job is to hold the space in which that conversation happens. It’s a rare privilege, being able to enable others to do the work they do best.

VanderMeer: On the website, Gaspereau Press is described as an “alternative publishing model.” Can you talk more about what makes it unique?

Hawthorne: There are several things that make Gaspereau unique as a publisher. One is our commitment to operating outside of the orbits of the major cultural centres in this country: Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. There are other publishers operating in rural areas or from small towns, but few have the national reach that Gaspereau does. One thing we take pride in is demonstrating that there is vital cultural work going on in non-urban areas.

A book can only do its best work in the world when the details of its physical production are tended to with love and attention. 

Another thing that makes Gaspereau unique is our belief that a book can only do its best work in the world when the details of its physical production are tended to with love and attention. Reading is a physical as much as a mental task: you hold the book in your hands, your bum is on a seat (or not), the pages make a sound when turned, your eyes take in the colour of the paper and the proportion of the page. And all of these physical details contribute to the reading experience. You simply cannot divorce the experience of receiving a text from the actual text itself when considering how that piece of writing will affect you. For some reason, this fact has been largely ignored by our culture, but it’s fundamental to how we make books. Related to that is the issue of design. We’re passionate about typography and design. Of course, there are other presses committed to producing well-designed books, but we’re the only trade publisher in the country (maybe the world!) that lets you browse books by typeface on our website.

VanderMeer: In a CBC article, you mention that taking the press to Sackville keeps costs reasonable for the business. What else does it take to keep a small press going?

Hawthorne: A lot of teamwork, a big physical location to store and distribute the books, working capital, and a degree of luck. It takes a boggling range of skills to run a small press like Gaspereau, from programming computers to organizing manufacturing pathways to dealing with interpersonal conflicts to writing marketing copy. One benefit of operating in a rural place is that there are fewer distractions to pull you away from your core tasks. But a big challenge is finding people with the necessary skills to work for you. We are incredibly lucky to have the team in place that we do.

VanderMeer: You mentioned outsourcing the book binding; what practical considerations went into that decision?

Hawthorne: The typesetting and design will continue to be done in-house. The printing and binding of the books’ interiors are being outsourced. The specific form of binding that was previously used will change, but the paper we print on will stay the same, as will the look and feel of the pages. So I don’t think that any of the character of the books will be lost. And we did keep some of the printing and binding equipment, which we will use for smaller editions and reprints. So, some of the work will be outsourced, and some will still be done by us.

Printing and binding books at scale requires a lot of infrastructure, and to justify the investment, you need to be printing more books in a year than Gaspereau publishes. It doesn’t make much sense to have expensive machines sitting around idle for half the year. Previously, Gaspereau also operated as a commercial print shop, printing items like restaurant placemats to pay for the machines. That wasn’t a business I had the capacity to continue.

VanderMeer: Will Hardscrabble Press remain its own micro-press or will it become an imprint of Gaspereau Press?

Hawthorne: Hardscrabble Press will essentially disappear. Some of the work I did at Hardscrabble, including the series of chapbooks “Notes on the Craft,” will continue to be produced, but under the Gaspereau banner.

VanderMeer: I see you’ve published John Terpstra, a dear friend of CC. Is there anyone on the horizon we should watch for?

Hawthorne: Well, John has a new book of poetry coming out in September. Our first publication of the season is going to be Ian Roy’s collection of short stories Astrid Aghast, which are absolutely riveting. In April, there will be a new poetry collection from Michael Goodfellow, a haunting reworking of oral and seafaring lore from Nova Scotia’s South Shore. Jamella Hagen is a Yukon-based poet and educator with a Gaspereau Press book out this spring, and in the fall, we’ll have new books by both Don McKay and Robert Bringhurst, two of Canada’s “thinking and singing poets.”

VanderMeer: What do we risk losing if alternative publishing models disappear?

Hawthorne: Human cultures are ecosystems, and the same rules apply to both when it comes to diversity: the greater the diversity of species and individuals in an ecosystem, the more resilient and productive that ecosystem will be. Not every type of publishing model will fit every book. Gaspereau Press would not be able to do a Stephen King novel justice, however fine our production values and integrity. But the multinational publishing corporations could never provide the kind of care and attention we lavish on a newly-discovered poet or novelist. And our literary landscape is better off with both Stephen King blockbusters and quiet, considerate poetry.