Featured Press

Tell us a little bit about your small press, such as it's original history.

Burning Effigy Press was founded in 1999. Essentially, the concept was: a publishing house run by writers for writers. And we still hold true to that today, almost ten years later, everyone who works in editorial is also writer themselves. Back in the beginning our sole purpose was to help expose young and up-and-coming talent, particularly those who produced the sorts of poetry and fiction that were generally overlooked by mainstream publishers. We also wanted to provide new writers with a positive first publishing experience, one in which they were involved with the editing and publication process every step of the way.

For the first few years I went it alone, then Jeff Cottrill came along. Truth be told, I don't remember exactly when or how he became involved. For a time, we were working very closely together on the Strange Tongues reading series, and I guess his involvement in that naturally began to spill over to the press, especially since we were actively publishing his spoken word and fiction.

In 2006, I had something of a crisis of faith. I had become a little burned out on performing my own spoken word (I'd been doing it for ten years straight at that point) and several not-so-happy things went down business-wise. I came very close to shutting the press' doors that summer, and I probably would have if I didn't have a life-changing revelation instead. I have always been a HUGE fan of horror fiction, pretty much from the moment my mom started sharing folk tales of ghosts and demons with me when I was about five. I graduated to Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Clive Barker by the time I was in fifth grade. Now, as an adult, I'm the Associate Editor of Rue Morgue Magazine, heading up the books department. So really, everything was pointing me at the genre, but Burning Effigy was not publishing genre fiction. Why? Because I didn't think I would be able to land to the stories and authors I wanted. Something I was totally, absolutely, fundamentally wrong about. Thankfully, a very dear friend in the horror biz schooled me on the errors in my thinking and I decided to give it a shot.

As a result, I spent the latter part of 2006 developing a new business plan, and in spring of 2007, Jeff Cottrill and I relaunched the press. Jeff stepped up and took over the literary line, which gave me the opportunity to kick up a second line of genre fiction. The genre line came out of the gates with three books: Timothy Carter's SECTION K, Brett Alexander Savory and Gord Zajac's THE DISTANCE TRAVELLED: A LITTLE SLICE OF HEAVEN and Nicholas Kaufmann's GENERAL SLOCUM'S GOLD. GENERAL SLOCUM'S GOLD ended up becoming a huge, almost mind-blowing, success. I always knew it was a great story, but I don't think anyone was prepared for the attention it would bring us. It not only got rave reviews pretty much across the board, it made horror authors Brian Keene and Gary Braunbeck's "Year's Best" lists, and also made it onto the final 2007 Bram Stoker Awards ballot in the Long Fiction Category. And, of course, the Stoker Awards are horror fiction's highest honour. It didn't win, but it was one hell of a ride and certainly provided us with some much-needed confidence in regards to our re-launch. From there, we haven't looked back.

What does being part of the small press community mean to you?

I've always felt that no matter what you do and on what level you do it, that you should in some way be giving back to your community. That said, being part of the Toronto small press community and making sure we always publish local talent along with international talent is very important to us. It's also a great place to make new friends and meet people interested in collaborative projects, etc. One should never forget their roots.

What inspired you to start your own small press?

A terrible publishing experience when I was still too young and naive to know what I should expect and demand from a publisher. Public embarrassment can be a great motivator! In the beginning, I really wanted Burning Effigy Press to be everything that my first publisher was not. Essentially, a company that would take young writers under its wing and treat them and their work with the utmost respect. We may have changed focuses over the years, but our respect for writers remains absolutely steadfast.

What projects are you currently working on?

This fall we have two new chapbooks joining our literary line, a collection of dark poetry titled ON TENTERHOOKS from Liisa Ladouceur and EVERYONE'S EVERYMAN, a collection of spoken word poetry by Jazzoetry host Dale Percy, while Weston Ochse's REDEMPTION ROADSHOW will join our horror chapbook line. For next spring, we are working on a yet-to-be-announced chapbook from Canadian horror scribe Richard Gavin, and a second horror chapbook line which will be called FRESH BLOOD. Each volume in the FRESH BLOOD series will feature three short stories from genre up-and-comers. The first collection will be out in time for the Spring 2009 Toronto Small Press Fair. We are also in the process of editing a full-length horror novel for a Spring 2010 release - but we won't be announcing the author or title of that book until sometime next year, so you'll have to stay tuned to our website (burningeffigy.com) for more info on that.

Where can small press fans find your press next?

We have a booth at Toronto's Word on the Street on Sunday, September 28th. On Sunday, October 19th, we'll be vending at the Royal Sarcophagus Society's Bazaar of the Bizarre (6 Nobel Street, Toronto - 11am to 6pm). And of course on Sunday, November 9th, we'll be having our Fall Launch Party, with feature readings from Liisa Ladouceur, Dale Percy and many more. It all kicks off at 7:30pm at the Savannah Room (294 College Street, Toronto). If you are out at any of these events, please find us and say hello!