About
CA$ 2,357
35
What we’re doing:
Ever notice how Canadian literature lacks a contemporary anthology of short prose? We did too! So we decided to collect writing of 750 words or less and publish it as a real-life book through our brand-new press, Applebeard Editions!
It all began when we discovered a series of flash fiction anthologies compiled by American editors, and thought “What about the prose poems? What about flash non-fiction? What about the vignettes, and the monologues? And what about Canada?!”
It alarmed us how underserved these collective genres are in Canadian publishing, so we set out to combine all forms of short prose written exclusively by Canadian authors into the first-ever collection of its kind! BOOM.
Our contributors include a wide range of emerging and established Canadian writers, such as Governor General’s Award winners Lorna Crozier and George Elliott Clarke, Saskatchewan Book Award winners Sheri Benning, Lisa Bird-Wilson, Katherine Lawrence, Jeanette Lynes, and Dave Margoshes, along with other widely published and award-winning writers such as Randy Lundy, Cara-Lyn Morgan, Karen Mulhallen, and Priscila Uppal, as well as some spectacular up-and-coming writers, such as André Babyn, Terry Doyle, Amanda Earl, Jann Everard, a.m. kozak, Amy LeBlanc, Rasiqra Revulva, Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang, and many others to be announced. Our vision is to provide a platform for emerging and under-represented writers in Canada to showcase their work alongside established writers and to help fill the gap in Canadian publishing of this genre.
We will launch this collection in mid-June in Saskatoon, and early July in Toronto. Eventually, we hope to collect short prose from across Canada every year and publish it as an annual anthology akin to the Best Canadian Poetry series.
How you can help:
We need your help in order to be able to pay our contributors. It is a harsh reality that creative writing is a tough way to bring home the proverbial bacon, so we want to acknowledge the amazing work of these authors with financial compensation. It is also a harsh reality that publishing is a tough way to bring home the proverbial bacon, so we need your help to bring this physical book into the world: your generous donations will help us cover printing and shipping costs. For the two editors, Nicole and Geoff, this is a labour of tough-love.
Who we are:
Nicole Haldoupis and Geoff Pevlin are two young writers from Toronto and St. John’s, respectively, who met in Saskatoon, where they both completed the MFA in Writing program at the University of Saskatchewan. They have edited fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and academic writing for almost a decade. Nicole is a co-creator, editor, and designer of the Toronto-based literary magazine untethered, and the editor of Grain, and has worked at several other publications and presses over the years, including Descant, Existere, and Thistledown Press. Geoff has taught creative writing and high school English since 2011, copy edited for untethered, substantively edited the Weaving Words Anthology, and has read submissions for The Fieldstone Review. Nicole and Geoff serve on the editorial board of JackPine Press, a literary chapbook press based in Saskatoon, and have both spent a year as organizers of the River Volta Reading Series in Saskatoon.
Nicole has a cat, Clark. Clark likes to eat bacon and chase laser pointers. Geoff has six nieces and nephews who, incidentally, also like to eat bacon and chase laser pointers.
Risks and challenges
Publishing is a hard auld racket, especially for newer publications and presses. Printing costs are rising, and funding for new projects is scarce. We are on a tight timeline, and aim to have the book to the printer by the end of April. We are currently in the final stages of copy editing, designing, typesetting, proofreading, and preparing our files for printing. Compensating our contributors for their work is a priority for us, and we need your help to be able to do this.
We actually need around $5,467.63 in order to cover printing costs, shipping costs, and pay our contributors what we think they deserve for their work. Kickstarter’s policy is that if we don’t meet our goal for this crowdfunding campaign, then we won’t get any of the money. We are asking for only $2000 on Kickstarter, although we will need more than that.
The biggest risk is living in a world absent of this anthology. We have stories about boys who ride giant slugs and obsess over spaghetti, stories about swingers who drown in a lake during an orgy. We have prose poems that deal with the darkest corners of the human psyche: anxiety, PTSD, violence, drug use, school-yard bullying. We have meditations on the moving guy, the drum kit, the mermaid who lives in the Prairies. Do you really want to continue living in a world where this book doesn’t exist?
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Funding period
- (30 days)