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Véhicule Press is an independent English-language publisher based in Montréal, Québec. Véhicule is comprised of four imprints: Signal Editions, Esplanade Fiction, Ricochet Books, and Dossier Québec. The press, led by co-publishers Simon Dardick and Nancy Marrelli, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023. Publishing a mix of poetry, fiction, translations, and social history, the press has been described as a publisher which seeks "to educate the world about the unique and diverse histories and peoples of Montreal and Quebec."[1] Dardick has confirmed this thought in interviews, saying that they "see [them]selves as a national indie publisher, but with an emphasis on exploring and explaining Quebec culture to the rest of Canada."[2] The press is supported by the Canada Book Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles du Québec (SODEC).
History
Véhicule Press was founded in 1973. The publisher's early history is connected to Véhicule Art Inc. (a gallery founded in 1972) and the Véhicule Poets. The gallery "composed originally of thirteen local artists, was united by the desire to create and disseminate quality art through low-cost exhibits and educational programs." The press "effectively began as a community printing project" running out of the same space as the gallery.[3]
Indeed, the gallery, in a proposal for a grant program, numbered the services they wished to provide with their printing press. These were publishing materials for non-profit groups, artists, and individuals at cost price, teaching artists and students about printing in experimental workshops, and literature necessary for the functioning of Véhicule operations. The press was meant to be "not a publisher of books" but rather "a cheap and accessible print shop for the community."[4]As Véhicule gained visibility in Montreal's art scene, a weekly reading series which ran for almost a decade was established. Michael Ondaatje, Al Purdy, and F.R. Scott all read in this series, amongst other local (or non-local) names.[5]
Simon Dardick joined the gallery in 1973 as a typesetter. As time passed, the gallery built a relationship with the Canada Council, applying for grants and receiving funding which allowed Véhicule to continue printing and publishing. In 1974, the press was registered as an imprint under Dardick's name, a crucial step to receiving Canada Council funding separately from Véhicule Art Inc. Véhicule was legally incorporated as the Coopérative d'Imprimerie Véhicule in Quebec in 1976.
The press's first books counted Bob McGee's Three Dozen Sonnets and Fast Drawings, Ken Norris's Vegetables, Claudia Lapp's Honey, and George Bowering's The Concrete Island: Montreal Poems 1967-71. Ken Norris' poetry collection was printed with seed packets glued to the centre of each copy, which, along with Norris' poems, won Vegetables "an Honourable Mention for Design Excellence in the 1975 Look of books/Les plus beaux livres competition."
By 1983, Véhicule Art Inc. was dissolved. However, the press continued on its own.
Imprints
Signal Editions
Award-winning Canadian poet and translator Michael Harris founded the press' poetry imprint in 1981. The founding editor went on to edit over 50 books of poetry in his 20-year tenure, passing the baton to award-winning Canadian poet, essayist, and editor Carmine Starnino in 2001. After his own 20+ years as editor, Starnino has become the press' associate publisher, leaving Signal Editions to Michael Prior, Vancouver-based award-winning poet. Many books published under the imprint have garnered critical acclaim.
Esplanade Books
The fiction imprint at Véhicule Press, Esplanade Books, was founded in 2003 and remained under the supervision of founding editor Andrew Steinmetz until Dimitri Nasrallah, renowned Lebanese-Canadian novelist, took over in 2013. Under Nasrallah, the imprint saw an increase of one to two published books per year to four. In an interview, Nasrallah declares that "it was also quite important for [him]–and for Simon and Nancy–to feature a more diverse offering of writers." Further, Nasrallah pushed the press to "take advantage of [its] cultural proximity to the French publishing scene and translate an exciting new generation of writers."[6]
Ricochet Books
Brian Busby, writer and literary historian, is the founding editor of Véhicule's Ricochet Books, which was launched in 2010. With titles such as The Crime on Cote des Neiges, Sugar-Puss on Dorchester Street, and The Body on Mount Royal, Ricochet, a series of vintage noir mysteries, is "dedicated to bringing back into print some of the best Canadian pulp novels of the postwar period."[7]
Dossier Québec
Launched in 1986 with The Milton-Park Affair: Canada's Largest Citizen-Developer Confrontation, the Dossier Québec series is edited by Dardick and Marrelli. It focuses "on the history of Montreal" and "explores Quebec's social history."[8] Dossier Quebec has been cited as the imprint which "opened the door for Véhicule Press, enabling it to publish in a field that, second to poetry, would eventually define the publishing house."
Awards
Co-publishers Simon Dardick and Nancy Marrelli were awarded the Judy Mappin Community Award by the Québec Writer's Federation for their "significant and longstanding contribution to the development and/or dissemination of English-language literature in Quebec" in 1998.[9]
Finalist for the 2023 Canada Reads, Hotline, Dimitri Nasrallah
Winner of the 2022 QWF Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, Prophetess, Baharan Baniahmadi.
Winner of the 2019 Trillium Book Award for Poetry, Sit How You Want by Robin Richardson
Finalist for the 2019 Pat Lowther Memorial Prize for Poetry, East and West, Laura Ritland
Finalist for the 2018 Frank Hegyi Award for Emerging Authors, Wrestling with Colonialism on Steroids: Quebec Inuit Fight for Their Homeland, Zebedee Nungak
Second Place in the 2018 Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry, Table Manners, Catriona Wright
Finalist for the 2017 QWF Cole Foundation Prize for Translation, Sun of a Distant Land, David Bouchet, translated by Claire Holden Rothman
Finalist for the 2016 Governor General's Literary Awards for Translation, The Goddess of Fireflies, Geneviève Petterson, translated by Neil Smith
Finalist for the 2016 Lambda Literary Awards for Fiction and shortlisted for the 2017 Frank Hegyi Award for Emerging Authors, Breathing Lessons, Andy Sinclair
Finalist for Canada Reads 2016, Niko, Dimitri Nasrallah
Winner, 2015 QWF Concordia University First Book Award, Swing in the House and Other Stories Anita Anand
Finalist for the 2015 Amazon.ca First Novel Award and QWF Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, New Tab Guillaume Morissette
Winner of the 2013 Ottawa Book Award for Fiction, The Love Monster Missy Marston
Winner of the 2013 Governor General's Award for Translation and the 2013 QWF Cole Foundation Prize for Translation, The Major Verbs Pierre Nepveu, translated by Donald Winkler Finalist for the 2013 Governor General's Award for Translation, Canada's Forgotten Slaves: Two Hundred Years of Bondage Marcel Trudel, translated by George Tombs
Winner of the 2013 Heritage and History Book Award for Poetry, Gift Horse Mark Callanan
Winner of the 2011 QWF Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, Niko Dimitri Nasrallah
Finalist for the 2011 Governor General's Award for Translation Finalist and 2011 QWF Translation Prize, Meridian Line Paul Bélanger, translated by Judith Cowan
Winner of the 2010 Governor General's Award for Poetry, Boxing the Compass Richard Greene
Finalist for the 2010 Governor General's Award for Poetry and 2010 QWF A.M. Klein Award for Poetry, Circus Michael Harris
Finalist for the 2010 QWF Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-fiction, A Place in Mind: The Search for Authenticity, Avi Friedman
Winner of the 2008 QWF A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry, Sympathy for the Courier, Peter Richardson
Winner of the 2008 CAA Award for Poetry, The Mechanical Bird Asa Boxer
Finalist for the 2008 Governor General's Award for Translation, Orfeo, Hans-Jurgen Grief, translated by Fred A. Reed
Finalist for the 2008 QWF Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, Chef, Jaspreet Singh
Finalist for the 2008 QWF Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, Pardon Our Monsters, Andrew Hood
Winner of the 2007 Danuta Gleed Prize for Best Short Fiction Collection, Pardon Our Monsters, Andrew Hood
Finalist for the 2007 Trillium Book Award for Poetry and 2007 Ottawa Book Award, Out to Dry in Cape Breton, Anita Lahey
Finalist for the 2007 Atlantic Poetry Prize and the 2007 E.J. Pratt Award, Red Ledger, Mary Dalton
Finalist for the 2006 Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award and the 2006 Expozine Alternative Press Awards, Garbage Head, Christopher Willard
Finalist for the 2005 amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award, The Rent Collector, B. Glen Rotchin
Finalist for the 2005 American Literary Translators Association
Prize and winner of the 2004 Governor General's Literary Award for Translation, Mirabel, Pierre Nepveu, translated from the French by Judith Cowan
References
edit- ^ "A Voice of English-Montreal: The First Twenty Years of Véhicule Press, 1973-1993" Amy Hemond, iii.
- ^ "Steady at the Helm: Montreal's Véhicule Press turns 50," Cassandra Drudi, May 10th 2023, Quill & Quire, https://quillandquire.com/omni/steady-at-the-helm-montreals-vehicule-press-turns-50/
- ^ Hemond, 28.
- ^ Hemond, 34.
- ^ Hemond, 34, 35.
- ^ "Interview with Dimitri Nasrallah of Esplanade Books," Chad W. Post, Tree Percent (a resource for international literature at the University of Rochester), http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/2019/02/20/interview-with-dimitri-nasrallah-of-esplanade-books/
- ^ Steven W. Beattie, "How ricochet books is bringing back forgotten Canadian pulp fiction" Quill and Quire October 12 2017 https://quillandquire.com/omni/how-ricochet-books-is-bringing-back-forgotten-canadian-pulp-fiction/
- ^ Hemond. Drudi, Quill & Quire.
- ^ "Judy Mappin Community Award," Québec Writer's Federation, https://qwf.org/prize/judy-mappin-community-award/