When I purchased the press and moved it to Hamilton, we continued going our own way, as the steel city was not seen at that time as a place for the arts. But we found a thriving literary and arts community here and we’ve grown much since then. I believe this ability to see potential where many companies might shy away is what sets us apart. Whether it’s a dedication to poets, seeing the beauty in a post-industrial city, encouraging our authors to blur literary genres and making space for new voices, we find books that change how people think about literature in Canada. 

Maria Zuppardi, host of the Publisher’s Weekly recommended podcast, Get (Can)Lit, joins us today to talk about one of our favourite bookish topics ever: small press CanLit. Her answer to our question about reading books from small presses astounds and reminds us of why we started reading in the first place: to lose a bit of ourselves, and find a bit we never knew existed.