Publishing company Caitlin Press has just found a new home in Halfmoon Bay. The energetic new owner, Vici Johnstone, is currently the general manager of Harbour Publishing and will continue in that role.
Johnstone was spurred by a desire to work closer to her passions - to see a book project through from beginning to end and to work with the authors that excite her.
"It's an opportunity for women to tell their stories," she said, since the press will be true to its roots as a small feminist literary press.
Is there room for another publisher on the Coast? One of Canada's leading regional publishers, Harbour, is just up the road, and Nightwood Editions operates from Roberts Creek. All three have family connections, but all have separate editorial boards and separate mandates. Johnstone doesn't see it as competition. They will co-operate and pool their distribution through Harbour's established networks.
Caitlin was founded in 1977 by Carolyn Zonailo on Gabriola Island. In the '80s, the literary press moved to Vancouver and published talented B.C. women writers, until in '91, Cynthia Wilson purchased the press and moved it to Prince George. There the focus changed - the books highlighted the issues, hardships and rewards of living in the rugged B.C. Interior.
"Cynthia didn't advertise that it was also a women's press, but she maintained a strong connection with women writers and continued to offer them a home for exploring and developing their craft," Johnstone said.
Wilson passed away in 2005, leaving Caitlin in the care of her brother Howard White of Harbour Publishing. For the past two years White has managed Caitlin, publishing two to four books each year.
Johnstone began her diverse career in the arts more than 30 years ago as a stage manager and sound designer for theatre. She's also spent time at CBC Radio, where she worked as a technical engineer and designer in current affairs and the arts. Since moving to the Coast, she developed her interest in media and entertainment by working for a time as new media producer for Basis Applied Technology, the Gibsons' software design firm. She wants to see Caitlin continue with the original mandates of the press: women and the B.C. Interior. Her 2008 lineup of literary and non-fiction is already in the works.
"It's a hard call to choose my favourites,, but I think Betsy Trumpener's Butcher of Penetang is pretty fun and Seeking Balance: Conversations with B.C. Women in Politics is an important book," she said. The first is a début collection of fiction, while in Seeking Balance by Anne Edwards, women who served as members of the provincial legislature or the Canadian parliament reveal their ambitions and their reactions to a political system designed and still dominated by men. The other two releases will be poetry by well-respected poets Kate Braid and Ken Belford.
More about the forthcoming season can be found online at www.caitlin-press.com.
