Cormorant Books

Cormorant Books is committed to publishing the best new work in the area of literary fiction and creative non-fiction for the adult market.

Twenty years ago, Jan and Gary Geddes started Cormorant Books on their farm outside of Dunvegan in Eastern Ontario. Each of them had a reason for naming the company for this particular bird. According to Gary, the cormorant is such a good fisher that humans use it, with a wooden ring to prevent it from swallowing its catch.

Gary enjoyed being of use to Canadian writers briefly, then passing the responsibility and the glory to Jan, who had heard a rumour that the cormorant was a voiceless bird. She endeav- oured to give that bird a voice by introducing new writers to readers across Canada. Both Gary and Jan succeeded in acquiring the good catches, the new writers, and providing a foundation for a company that has introduced many significant voices.

Where are they now? Gary claims not to have swallowed all the manuscripts sent to him, however slick or fishy, but to have published some great Canadian books. He is now living in his favourite spot, the West Coast, and doing what he loves best, writing. His recent books include the acclaimed Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things and Sailing Home.

Jan Geddes now lives in Victoria and is working on a novel and is studying Latin. The hallmark of Cormorant’s twenty years of publishing is the discovery and promotion of new writing talent; in this time, the company has had ten books nominated for the various incarnations of the Books in Canada First Novel Award. The company’s fiction and translations have been nominated for many national, regional, and civic book awards and prizes.

Now in Toronto, keeping the Cormorant tradition established in 1986 alive has, at times, been difficult. At other times, it’s been relatively easy – finding a narrative voice of character and distinction, the new author with something to say that’s not been said before, rescuing the out-of-print authors whose reputations have tarnished with age and neglect.

Publishing books, such as those in the pages of this catalogue, is an adventure; it’s an intellectual pursuit without parallel. When a new book arrives from the printer, when an author receives her first glowing review, the hardest of times are forgot. We all live for these moments. The company’s dedication to publishing a diversity of voices from across the country continues, along with the belief that these voices are worth hearing. They are worth reading, not just for a small and select audience, but for the largest possible one, which is why we rely on booksellers and librarians, and why we rely on book reviewers and the media, who play as important a role in this endeavour as do we, the staff and authors of Cormorant Books

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 7th, 2009 at 8:13 am and is filed under Canada Books Companies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.