The Modern Poetry Collection
Archives & Research Collections
Carleton University
The Small Presses & Little Magazines: Ottawa, Ontario
ARC POETRY MAGAZINE (1978-Present)
Arc is a little magazine that developed out of the Canadian literary-magazine movement that rode the wave of literary production unleashed after Canada's Centennial year. Arc was founded in 1978 by three Carleton University professors: Michael Gnarowski, Tom Henighan, and Christopher Levenson. Arc provided a forum to document, shape, and cultivate local contemporary writing.
Arc left the financial umbrella of the university, receiving funds from various levels of government as well as the support of its subscribers. Eventually, both Gnarowski and Henighan left the editorial board of Arc to pursue other opportunities leaving Christopher Levenson as Editor. After Levenson resigned in 1988, there were a series of co-editors who split the burdensome task of managing and editing the magazine.
Notable poets published in Arc are Robert Eady, Carol Shields, P.K.
Page, Robin Skelton, and Erin Mouré. Today, the magazine has also expanded its scope to include artworks by visual artists, including Sarah Anne Johnson, Don Weir, Maria Hupfield, and Kristiina Lahde.
For over 30 years, Arc poetry magazine has featured poetry that offers new perspectives on verse, and has ignited new conversations about Canadian literature.
Arc continues to be published in Ottawa and currently has over 70 issues.
ANTHOS (ca.1970s-ca.1987)
Formerly named Ottawa Review, and renamed Anthos, a Journal of the Arts in 1978 to avoid confusion with Ottawa's weekly arts and entertainment guide, Ottawa Revue. The word 'anthos' refers to the ancient greek word for flower, or the best, peak, or acumen of any collection of things, animate or inanimate. In this way, the editors hoped to provide a forum for emerging and established poets and artists from Eastern Ontario to publish their work.
Patrick White was the founding editor and publisher of Anthos, Anthos Books, and was also the producer/host of Radio Anthos, a popular literary radio show on Q101 FM in Smiths Falls. White's vision for Anthos was to create a 'grass-roots' publication run by artists for artists. He hoped that it would enhance the feeling of solidarity and unity among Canada's literary and artistic communities--a feeling that White felt was lacking in Canada at the time.
In 1985, beginning with the thrid volume, the format of Anthos was changed to a more versatile tabloid newspaper format. It published a broad range of material, including poems, short prose works, photography and visual art, and also included reviews of new music, theatre, and restaurants. Anthos published poetry by Christopher Levenson, Robert Craig, Pier Girogio di Cicco among others. Notable artists and photographers published in Anthos are Justin Wonnacott, Peter Hodkinson, and Phera.
Anthos ceased publication in ca. 1987.
INSCAPE (1959-1960, 1963-1970)
Inscape was first published in 1959. It was a quarterly/tri-annual review of literature and literary criticism assembled and edited by the Hopkins Club associated with the Department of English at the University of Ottawa.
The name of the magazine comes from a term coined by Gerard Manley Hopkins. By "inscape," Hopkins meant the qualities of an object that distinguish it from all other objects in creation. In the "inscapes" of things Hopkins saw the manifestation of God in the world, and that "inscape" was to poetry what melody was to music. In this way, the term had relevancy as the title of a literary magazine emanating from a Christian university.
It served to provide a much needed literary outlet for the students and faculty at the University, as well as other writers. Inscape's editorial policy, in complete accord with its position as the English literary magazine of a Catholic University, preferred writing that was "ethically and theologically sound and significant to that which is not. And, indeed, if submitted material is deemed to be unsound in these respects, then, regardless of its excellence otherwise, it will be excluded." [1]
Occasionally, the editorial board would invite an extramural editor to work on issues of Inscape. One notable extramural editor was Michael Gnarowski who worked on several issues in 1970.
The final issue of Inscape was published in 1970.
[1] G.K. Hubbard, "Editorial Note" Inscape, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Summer 1959), 1.
HARBINGER POETRY SERIES (1996-1999)
The Harbinger Poetry Series was founded by Professor Christopher Levenson in 1996 and was published by the Carleton University Press (CUP). The series was dedicated to the publication of first volumes of poetry by Canadian poets. With many publishers going bankrupt in the 1990s, Levenson felt that this was an area that needed attention because he realized that it was difficult for poets to get their first books published. The name of the series, "Harbinger," points to this sense of heralding even better things to come.
Levenson also used the series as a way to fight against the gradual retreat of poetry from the Canadian publishing scene. He wanted the Harbinger Poetry Series to stand out from the rest of the poetry being published at the time:
I'm looking for the kind of book that's going to make some sort of immediate impact and is going to communicate at first reading. I'm interested in good poetry, good poets. The more good poets we can get out there, the better its going to be for everybody. [1]
Carleton University was the only university in Canada to publish a poetry series of this kind. Upon the dissolution of CUP, the Harbinger Poetry Series was published by the McGill-Queens University Press under the CUP imprint.
[1] Levenson quoted in "Carleton University Press launches new poetry series" by Juliet Young in TWAC v.17 I35, November 28, 1996. Print.
GOLDEN DOG PRESS (1972-1985)
Golden Dog was a literary periodical and book publisher founded by Michael Gnarowski in Ottawa from 1972. The press published books of poetry and literature. Writers published under Golden Dog Press are Louis Dudek, Leo Kennedy, Douglas Barbour, Christopher Levenson, Robert Eady, and George Johnston. The press was dissolved in 1985.
OBERON PRESS (c.1966-Present)
Founded in 1966 by Michael Macklem, Oberon Press focuses on publishing Canadian fiction and poetry, but also publishes criticism, biography, and autobiography. Oberon Press was founded specifically to publish Canadian fiction and poetry in generally uniform, utilitarian editions before the mainstream publishing community was really up and running.
Over the years, Oberon Press has published titles featuring the work of such writers as W.P. Kinsella, Raymond Souster, David Adams Richards, Marie-Claire Blais, Wayne Johnston, Leon Rooke, Frances Itani, Douglas Glover, Janice Kulyk Keefer, Elisabeth Harvor, John Metcalf, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Elizabeth Brewster, Hugh Hood, David Helwig, bpNichol, Audrey Thomas, George Bowering, Isabel Huggan, Bronwen Wallace, Norman Levine, Gary Geddes and Steven Heighton.
Oberon Press has also founded two influential anthologies—Best Canadian Stories and Coming Attractions. The Best Canadian Stories anthology, now in its fortieth edition, has been edited by David Helwig, John Metcalf, Clark Blaise, Leon Rooke and Douglas Glover, and features the best stories of the preceding year. Coming Attractions is an anthology that introduces previously unpublished writers, and it has appeared annually since 1980. It became the publisher of Raymond Souster's mature writing in the 1970s and is distinguished for keeping all of Souster's work in print.
Many of Oberon’s books are typeset in the company’s own printshop, using traditional hot-metal techniques. The books are printed on acid-free paper on a sheet-fed offset printing press.
Today, Oberon Press is one of the very few publishers with a continuing commitment to Canadian poetry.