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The Association of Book Publishers of BC to honour 2016 publishing award recipients

September 9th, 2016

The Association of Book Publishers of BC (ABPBC) is pleased to present two awards recognizing outstanding contributions to the province’s publishing industry. Scott McIntyre, founding partner of Douglas & McIntyre Publishers, will receive this year’s Gray Campbell Distinguished Service Award, and Talonbooks, one of Canada’s oldest literary presses, will be honoured with the 2016 Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year Award.

Scott McIntyre: recipient of the 2016 Gray Campbell Distinguished Service Award
As founding partner and recently retired Publisher and Chairman of Douglas & McIntyre Publishers, which over his tenure published some 2,000 Canadian books, McIntyre nurtured and championed the careers of authors including Robert Bringhurst, Wade Davis, Douglas Coupland, Hilary Stewart, Doris Shadbolt, Will Ferguson, Bill Reid, Richard Wagamese, Wayson Choy, and Hugh Brody. For over 40 years Scott has been actively involved in government relations and industry association work in the cultural industries, and has served on a number of boards for various organizations both in Canada and internationally, including the Writers’ Trust of Canada, the BC Arts Board, the UBC School of Journalism, the Association of Canadian Publishers. He currently sits on the board of Creative BC, and serves as the Vice-Chair of the BC Achievement Foundation (of which he is a founding director) and as President of the Vancouver Institute at UBC.

When asked about his career highlights, McIntyre listed among his proudest achievements helping to establish the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity in 2005 (now signed by more than 140 countries), as well as “proving it was possible to build a major independent publishing house – one with national and international reach and very high editorial, design and production standards – that was based in Vancouver.” D&M was also among the first houses in Canada to devote a significant part of its list to books with an Aboriginal rights perspective.

In 1997, McIntyre became a member of the Order of Canada, and in 2012, he was honoured with the inaugural Ivy Award for his contributions to Canadian publishing by the International Festival of Authors. He also holds an honorary LLD from SFU.

The Gray Campbell Distinguished Service Award is presented annually by the Association of Book Publishers of BC to an individual or individuals who have made a significant contribution to the book publishing industry in the province. Named for the pioneering publisher and founder of Gray’s Publishing, the Gray Campbell Award recognizes the importance of the many individuals who comprise the book industry; their energy and creativity are essential to the continued creation and dissemination of books that tell our stories.

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Talonbooks: recipient of the 2016 Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year Award
Established in Vancouver in 1967, Talonbooks became a model of Canadian literary publishing under its founders, Karl Siegler, Christy Siegler, and David Robinson, and more recently under the savvy stewardship of current President and Publisher Kevin Williams.

Talonbooks began in 1963 as a poetry magazine directed by an editorial collective. The company soon recognized a need to publish books by the many authors and contributors with whom it was working, and eventually built a diverse list, including work by George Bowering, Ken Belford, Jane Rule, and Michel Tremblay.

Kevin Williams and Vicki Williams acquired the press in December 2007. A four-year period of ownership transition ensured that the editorial integrity of the list established by the Sieglers carried forward, while allowing for new perspectives on the operational side of the business.

Today, with more than 600 titles in print, Talonbooks focuses on publishing diverse literary fiction and nonfiction, as well as poetry and drama, in service of its mandate to bring all voices – mainstream and marginal – to the literary conversation. To wit, the press has been honoured with over 300 awards, including the Man Booker International Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award, and the BC Book Prize. Current President and Publisher Kevin Williams said, “It’s a privilege to have stewardship of a literary publishing icon such as Talonbooks and the task of preparing it for the future. We’re honoured to publish great authors such as Phyllis Webb, Fred Wah, and Marie Clements.”

The Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year Award is presented as deserved to an active BC book publishing company that has, in recent times, earned the respect and applause of the community of publishers for a specific publishing project, an extraordinary contribution to the BC publishing community, and/or its extended commitment to excellence in publishing. Jim Douglas was founder of J. J. Douglas Publishers, which later became Douglas & McIntyre.

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The BC publishing industry will honour McIntyre and Talonbooks at a reception in Vancouver on September 13, 2016.

The Association of Book Publishers of BC (ABPBC) is an association of provincially owned and controlled book publishing companies. The ABPBC works to support the long-term health and success of the Canadian-owned book industry in British Columbia.

The ABPBC Awards Dinner is sponsored by Friesen Printers and International Web exPress, and made possible by funding from the BC Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Vancouver, and Creative BC.