Latest news with #StephanieSinclair
National Post
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- National Post
Kanata Classics celebrates Canadian books
Article content Stephanie Sinclair began reading when she was two years old — and she's never stopped. Article content That suits her present day job as publisher of Toronto's venerable home for Canadian literature, McClelland and Stewart. And it's proved vital to the launching of a beautifully designed new series, Kanata Classics, that will honour the richness and diversity of Canadian literature over the decades. And if you want to understand why this groundbreaking event is happening on her watch, her Toronto childhood provides answers. Article content Article content 'I just devoured books,' she remembers. 'I loved them as a vehicle for being transported into someone else's world, either real or imaginary.' But Stephanie, an Indigenous child, also came to understand the importance of empathy — of being 'exposed to different ways of being with appreciation and respect. That is a part of what I've carried with me through my entire time.' Article content It's a philosophy that accompanied her to McClelland and Stewart two years ago after a successful career as a leading literary agent — and to the birth of Kanata Classics. The inaugural list of six titles, released this month, sees legendary Maritimer Alistair MacLeod's famed short story collection, Island, sharing the shelves with Maria Campbell's Halfbreed. Article content 'It was something that I was really really keen in starting up,' Sinclair says. The company's long-lived New Canadian Library series had reflected its commitment to honouring the country's literary heritage but 'part of my thinking in starting up Kanata was that we had made a mistake in not continuing with NCL and allowing it to adapt as the world has.' Article content Article content The series is being launched to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the company has described the initial six titles — three Indigenous-authored and three non-Indigenous — as an act of reconciliation in itself. Article content Sinclair embraces Canada's past literary legacy, which will be honoured in the new series, but has concluded that Canada 'hasn't been doing enough in its wider history to honour books published by Indigenous authors and other authors who have been neglected.' Article content It was during her years as a literary agent that she became fully aware of the diversity and richness of Canadian writing. 'I don't think our wider classical landscape has honoured how many different types of people, how many different types of stories exist here. For me, it was time to define what that conversation looks like.' Article content McClelland and Stewart today exists under the umbrella of Penguin Random House Canada. Sinclair began working with company colleagues and a special advisory board to develop the idea of a new series — 'and we hit the ground running.'
Winnipeg Free Press
28-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Carefully curated
A new series of books from publisher McClelland & Stewart that contemplates life in Canada coincides with the 10th anniversary of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Published on July 15, Kanata Classics' first six titles, which are all previously released works of fiction and non-fiction, feature writing by a range of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadian authors and feature new packaging and introductions. The initiative was spearheaded by publisher Stephanie Sinclair, who joined McClelland & Stewart (which is owned by Penguin Random House) in 2022. 'We started to talk about it within six months of my starting … the first conversations were enthusiastic,' she says. 'It felt really important to get it done in 2025 to honour the 10th anniversary of the TRC.' Nishga by Jordan Abel, Halfbreed by Maria Campbell, and Bear by Marian Engel are part of the Kanata Classics lineup. Sinclair worked with Robert Wheaton, Penguin Random House Canada's chief strategy and operations officer, to navigate the bureaucratic details and create an advisory board (which includes McNally Robinson Booksellers co-owner Chris Hall and Free Press columnist Niigaan Sinclair). 'I could ask them the big questions — not about title selections, but about the framing of the series,' she says. 'It felt really helpful to have this brain trust that I could go to for advice.' Publisher Stephanie Sinclair tapped an advisory panel including McNally Robinson Booksellers co-owner Chris Hall and Free Press columnist Niigaan Sinclair to curate the first six titles of the Kanata Classics series. One of her first choices was Nisga'a author Jordan Abel's Nishga. (Supplied photo) For Stephanie Sinclair, who identifies as Cree, Ojibwa, and German/Jewish, the first six books — three by Indigenous writers and the other three by non-Indigenous authors — speak to the experience of Canadian life. 'One of the things that was really important to me, as an urban Indigenous person who didn't grow up in ceremony or in community, was that the books speak to all of our relationship with land, and how differently that can be experienced,' she says. 'That's one of the threads through all the books. It's something that is so often overlooked, and that is really, deeply important to our survival on multiple levels.' With the titles selected, Sinclair then turned to finding writers to pen introductions to each of the books (save Maria Campbell's memoir Halfbreed — Campbell wrote her own introduction). 'I had a list of ideal people — I wrote to them, and everyone very enthusiastically and quickly said yes. It was beautiful … it just came together incredibly seamlessly,' she says. (Winnipeg's David A. Robertson wrote the introduction to Richard Wagamese's novel Medicine Walk.) Sinclair then enlisted book designer Kelly Hill to create the look and feel of the Kanata Classics series. 'Kelly really understood my vision for it, and has such an incredibly beautiful esthetic and brought such thoughtful care to all of the choices,' Sinclair says. Edmonton-based author Jordan Abel considers it an honour to have his book, Nishga, included in the Kanata Classics series. (Tenille Campbell photo) One of Sinclair's first choices for the Kanata Classics series was Nisga'a author Jordan Abel's Nishga. Originally published in 2021 by McClelland & Stewart, Nishga sees the Edmonton-based author grappling with the legacy of intergenerational trauma through fragments of memoir, transcriptions of talks as well as visual art and photography. 'I have a difficult relationship with this book — it's about intergenerational trauma and urban indigeneity and the afterlife of residential schools,' Abel says.' When I go to readings and perform parts of the book, there are only four or five pages that I can really even read from.' For Abel, the inclusion of Nishga in the Kanata Classics series was humbling. 'When I wrote Nishga, I had no real understanding of where it would go, or who would pick it up, or if anyone would pick it up, really,' he says. 'It's really an incredible honour for Nishga to be included alongside what I think are some of the best, most canonical texts in Canadian literature and also Indigenous literature,' he adds, calling Maria Campbell's Halfbreed 'maybe the most important book that I've ever read.' Island by Alistair MacLeod, Ru by Kim Thúy, and Medicine Walk, by Richard Wagamese were all previously released works of fiction and non-fiction. As part of Kanata Classics, the books will feature new packaging and introductions. Like Sinclair, Abel sees the books existing in conversation with each other as well as with Canadian readers about the experience of life in Canada. 'The books are all very different — they speak to really specific experiences within this nation … even the ones that resist that category of nation and Canadian nationalism,' he says. 'They attempt to shine a light on certain kinds of experiences that we don't always talk about, or that we don't talk about enough. I think these are underrepresented kinds of experiences of 'Canadian-ness.'' Sinclair hopes the Kanata Classics series is able to continue stimulating conversation and reflections by readers on life in Canada. 'I feel like the scope of how Canadians identify themselves has only gotten smaller over many years,' she says. 'Part of my aim with the series is, of course, to advocate for Indigenous storytelling, which has not been welcomed into the Canadian 'canon.' But I also want to make sure that books like (Vietnamese-Canadian author Kim Thúy's) Ru are there too, because they all speak to an equally important human experience.' Ben SigurdsonLiterary editor, drinks writer Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press's literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben. In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press's editing team before being posted online or published in print. It's part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
