Author, poet, and editor Dionne Brand at High Park in Toronto on Aug. 16.Galit Rodan/The Globe and Mail
Soon after Nicole Winstanley left her post atop Penguin Canada last year to become president and publisher of Simon & Schuster Canada, she got in touch with one of her long-time authors, katherena vermette. What if, Winstanley offered, they built something new together?
The Winnipeg-based Red River Métis (Michif) poet and author, whose novels for Winstanley at Penguin included the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize winner The Strangers, was thrilled at the chance. She loved not just writing, but the world around it: teaching, mentorship, working with writers to refine their story – elements of editing that had, for much of her career, come to her in freelance and community work.
Last June, Winstanley hired vermette, adding “senior editor” to the author and Governor-General’s Literary Award-winning poet’s long list of titles. The writer really does plan to build something new, giving herself a mandate to amplify new voices from communities historically underserved by publishing: Indigenous authors, LGBTQ authors, neurodivergent authors. “All those are voices that we see in publishing, but don’t always see in publishing,” she says.
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There has always been some fluidity between writing and editing roles in big-name publishing. But editing has long been viewed as its own trade, one requiring a certain amount of patience and reckoning with ego death.
Recent hires by each of Canada’s major publishing houses suggests that there has been an evolution in this kind of thinking that embraces a more porous relationship between the jobs of writer and editor. They’re journalists, poets, essayists and multidisciplinary artists – many from marginalized communities – who want to open new doors in publishing.
Poet and author Katherena Vermette, who won the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize for her novel The Strangers.vanda4/Supplied
Most have already spent careers juggling book projects and part-time jobs, and now can tie up their literary interests in a single gig. Sometimes this comes with surprises – vermette can’t believe how many forms she has to fill out to shepherd books along. But it’s worth it to get the books she wants out into the world. That includes, so far, memoirs, wellness books and “a beautiful queer Christmas rom-com.” She adds: “I want to normalize weirdo manuscripts.”
Vivek Shraya, the seven-time Lambda Literary Award finalist whose artistic practice spans music, theatre, television, books and beyond, has similar hopes at Random House Canada, where she recently became a senior editor. “What I’ve run up against as an author is that, if you’re marginalized, you have to speak about your identity or your difference,” the I’m Afraid of Men and The Subtweet author says.
“And there’s a whole world of authors that are marginalized, but are speaking about all kinds of issues. That’s what I’m really excited about. I mean, I love thrillers. I like a queer romance.” She also likes getting into the weeds editing other writers, having run her own imprint (VS.) at Arsenal Pulp Press.
Kristin Cochrane, the chief executive officer of Penguin Random House Canada, wants each of her company’s seven imprints to have editor rosters with a variety of skills and experience. So while each one “minimally” has one traditional-career editor, there’s significant room for writer-editors who seek out books with their own particular verve.
It’s this strategy that saw Shraya join Random House Canada; that allowed the poet, essayist and novelist Dionne Brand to launch the Alchemy imprint within Knopf Canada, itself within Cochrane’s publishing empire; and that brought the prolific author David A. Robertson to launch Swift Water Books, which will focus on Indigenous-created children’s books.
Vivek Shraya, a seven-time Lambda Literary Award finalist whose artistic practice spans music, theatre, television, books and beyond, has just started working as a senior editor at Random House Canada.Robert Okine/Getty Images
“They’re not competing with the existing roster of editors we have within our company,” Cochrane says, “Rarely, if ever, will the books that each of them has on submission be seen by other editors at Penguin Random House, or indeed, at other competing houses.”
This new class of authors-as-editors are each taking their own approach to the job. Shraya’s position is part-time, freeing her up for the multitude of personal projects she takes on. Robertson is taking on the title of editorial director at Swift Water, letting him focus on acquiring new titles, but not necessarily editing itself. “I have a lot of leeway,” says Robertson, who is a member of Norway House Cree Nation and has written 33 books, mostly for children and young adults.
This rash of editorial hiring has also created a game of musical chairs among publishing houses: Robertson has published with numerous houses, and now has a job within Penguin Random House Canada, but he’s written both fiction and non-fiction for HarperCollins imprints.
HarperCollins Canada editor-in-chief Jennifer Lambert worked on Robertson’s latest book for adults, All the Little Monsters: How I Learned to Live with Anxiety. She also recently hired Lauren McKeon, whose 2021 book Women of the Pandemic was published by McLelland & Stewart, as her executive editor for non-fiction.
McKeon came from the journalism world, editing for magazines including This Magazine, The Walrus and Toronto Life while writing her three books on the side. “I was just so impressed by her ability to understand where a story needed to go, and how to connect at a human level with people,” Lambert says.
“I’ve always been enchanted by the possibility of non-fiction and its ability to connect people, create conversation, change policy and change lives,” McKeon says. Books, she adds, offer the possibilities of magazine stories on a bigger platform. “How could I not want to do it?”