Biblioasis is a Canadian independent bookstore and publishing company, based in
Windsor,
Ontario
Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
.
["Biblioasis is no mirage"]
''The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...
'', October 2, 2015.
Founded by Dan Wells as a bookstore in 1998,
["Biblioasis, indie publishing house, puts Windsor on the literary map with Giller finalists"]
CBC News
CBC News is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC ...
, November 6, 2015. the company began publishing books in 2004 with its first titles being poetry collections by Salvatore Ala and
Goran Simić.
[ The company has gone on to become one of Canada's most prestigious small press publishing houses;][ in 2015 alone, the company's titles included Anakana Schofield's ''Martin John'' and Samuel Archibald's ''Arvida'', both of which were shortlisted ]Giller Prize
The Giller Prize (known as the Scotiabank Giller Prize from 2005-2023) is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried co ...
finalists; Russell Smith's ''Confidence'', which was a longlisted Giller Prize nominee and a shortlisted Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize
The Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, formerly known as the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, is a Canadian literary award presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada after an annual juried competition of works submitted by publishers ...
finalist; and Robyn Sarah's ''My Shoes Are Killing Me'', which won the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry
This is a list of recipients and nominees of the Governor General's Awards award for English-language poetry. The award was created in 1981 when the Governor General's Award for English language poetry or drama was divided.Lucy Ellmann
Lucy Ellmann (born 18 October 1956) is an American-born British novelist based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Biography
Her first book, '' Sweet Desserts'', won the Guardian Fiction Prize. She is the daughter of the American biographer and literary c ...
's ''Ducks, Newburyport
''Ducks, Newburyport'' is a 2019 novel by British author Lucy Ellmann. The novel is written in the stream of consciousness narrative style, and mostly consists of a single long sentence that lists the main character's thoughts over the course of ...
''. After it was shortlisted for the United Kingdom's Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...
, the book saw heavy demand. Wells stated that ''Ducks'' was Biblioasis's fastest-selling title to-date. That same year, Biblioasis published Mark Bourrie's best-seller Bush Runner, which won the $30,000 RBC Taylor Prize
The RBC Taylor Prize (2000–2020), formerly known as the Charles Taylor Prize, was a Canadian literary award, presented by the Charles Taylor Foundation to the best Canadian work of literary non-fiction. It was named for Charles P. B. Taylo ...
for literary non-fiction.
Other writers published by Biblioasis have included Kathy Page, Terry Griggs
Terry Griggs is a Canadian author."Terry Griggs: Writers to Watch". ''Edmonton Journal'', 25 June 1995. Her book of short stories ''Quickening'' was a finalist at the 1991 Governor General's Awards, and she won the Marian Engel Award in 2003.
...
, Kevin Hardcastle, Alex Boyd, Ray Robertson, Cynthia Flood, Stephen Henighan, Richard Kelly Kemick, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Rebecca Rosenblum, Alexandra Oliver
Alexandra Edith Amelia Basekic (; born 1970) is a Canadian poet. She began as a Vancouver-based slam poet in the early 1990s, and appeared in the 1998 documentary film ''SlamNation''. Oliver won the 2014 Pat Lowther Award for her collection ''M ...
, Kris Bertin and Chris Turner.
Bibloasis publishes the magazine '' Canadian Notes & Queries'', currently edited by Emily Donaldson. One distinguishing characteristic of Biblioasis has been Dan Wells's delegation of the selection of parts of its list to volunteer editors, most notably John Metcalf (Canadian fiction), who in 2014 was awarded the Libris Award as Editor of the Year, largely for his work with Biblioasis.
References
External links
Biblioasis
Book publishing companies of Canada
Independent bookstores of Canada
Publishing companies established in 1998
1998 establishments in Ontario
Companies based in Windsor, Ontario
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