EP 209: Interview with Gaspereau Press co-founder, Andrew Steeves

In this episode, host Imelda Wei Ding Lo (a.k.a. Fortunus Games) interviews a special guest: Andrew Steeves, co-owner of Gaspereau Press, a literary publisher and printer based in Kentville, Nova Scotia, Canada. 

Imelda and one of the podcast co-hosts, Tete DePunk, first became aware of Gaspereau Press when we went to the Fisher Small and Fine Press fair at the University of Toronto back in September 2022. We were immediately struck by the originality and beauty of its books. According to the Gaspereau Press website (which we’ve linked to in the description), the press “employs an unusual mixture of techniques & technologies in its book production, ranging from traditional letterpress printing using metal type and photopolymer plates to modern offset lithographic printing using customized digital type.”

As for Andrew himself, he was born in Westmorland County, New Brunswick. After taking degrees in Criminology and English, he settled near Kentville, Nova Scotia, and founded Gaspereau Press with Gary Dunfield. He spends his time reading, writing, editing, designing, typesetting, printing, binding, marketing, selling and talking about books. 

Among his recent limited-edition letterpress books is Literarum Ex Arboribus: An Exuberant Showing of the Wood Type at Gaspereau Press (2020), a three-year undertaking that resulted in the creation of over 150 wood type specimens.

Imelda asks Andrew the following questions in this podcasts:

1. How is it like to run Gaspereau Press?

2. What does being a small press publisher mean to you? What's the philosophy behind your publishing program?

3. How have you been able to attract so many talented writers?

4. Your books have a unique style - who designs these books? Why are these particular styles chosen?

5. Where do you See Gaspereau Press 5 years from now?

6. What challenges do you face in the press/publishing market?

Links:

• Check out Gaspereau Press’ website: http://www.gaspereau.com/
• Gaspereau Press on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gaspereaupress/ 
• Gaspereau Press on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gaspereaupress 
• Gaspereau Press on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gaspereaupress

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