The 55-year-old Vancouver press New Star Books is winding down after publisher Rolf Maurer says probationary funding decisions by the British Columbia Arts Council threatened its finances.
Maurer said this month that New Star would stop acquiring new books and focus only on promoting and distributing existing titles, ceasing plans to publish three books this spring. Maurer cited “his age and health” when announcing New Star’s wind-down, but privately e-mailed authors describing two years of frustrations with B.C.’s arts-funding body.
New Star had been designated as a “concerned status” organization by the BC Arts Council for 2023, and again for 2024, which threatened its future opportunities for operating-funding assistance from the council. In correspondence with New Star that Maurer shared with The Globe and Mail, the council had three “areas of concern” about the publisher.
Miskwagoode, by Marie Annharte Baker, published by New Star Books.Supplied
Its assessment committee in both years sought more information on staff treatment and compensation. It also found “a lack of relevant policies and strategies that indicate that the applicant is adapting to significant social changes, needs, and expectations,” including policies around “cultural safety for authors, staff, contractors, and others associated with the press.”
The Woman in the Trees, by Gerry William, published by New Star Books.Rayola Graphic Design/Supplied
The council’s committee also wanted the publisher to show “how inequities and a lack of diversity in the New Star list will be addressed, specifically in the areas of racial, cultural, and gender diversity.”
He said he later spoke with BC Arts Council staff by a video call. Maurer does not recall receiving a satisfactory clarification about “safety,” and said he did receive clarity on compensation issues, because he listed himself as a full-time employee, but only pays himself intermittently. He also recalled that arts-council staff suggested he take training sessions on equity matters.
Maurer said that in some years, his author list can skew towards males, but that he tries to diversify it over time, and has a backlist that includes poetry books by Marie Annharte Baker, who is Anishinabe from Little Saskatchewan First Nation in Manitoba, and the novel The Woman in the Trees by Spallumcheen band member Gerry William.
“I don’t think the arts council should be prescriptive,” Maurer said in a phone interview. “It should be enabling the conversation, not shaping it.”
The council uses peer-assessment committees to make funding decisions. Asked about New Star’s situation, BC Arts Council chair Sae-Hoon Stan Chung said in an e-mail that he admired “New Star’s fierce independence, their commitment to social justice and their support of new and established iconoclastic voices.” The publisher, Dr. Chung said, had chosen not to reapply for the operating-funding assistance for this year to upgrade its status, and could have been eligible for additional programs.
The council generally ends its operating-assistance funding for organizations that have been assigned with the “concerned” designation for three consecutive years. Documents show the council generally provided New Star with about $22,000 a year – about a tenth of the publisher’s budget, and crucial for keeping the press afloat. After two years of being unable to address the council’s concerns and, at 69, lacking the “massive reserves of energy” he once had, he decided to wind down New Star. The publishing-industry newsletter SHuSH, run by Sutherland House Books founder Kenneth Whyte, first reported Maurer’s decision was connected with BC Arts Council criteria.
Like many of its provincial peers, the BC Arts Council has seen its budget barely budge in recent years. Many arts councils across the country have faced massive demand for their funding since COVID-19 shutdowns five years ago and subsequent rises in inflation and interest rates, leading to fewer applicants in some jurisdictions getting funding.
