Over 3,500 books, or a million pages ago, our (still!) proudly independent house started with humble origins: in 1973, Jack David, a grad student at York University, found out there was funding available for the English Graduate Students Association. Using some of this funding, Jack published the first issue of a journal, Essays on Canadian Writing, in 1974. The journal grew and thrived, leading to the incorporation of Essays on Canadian Writing Limited by Jack David and Robert Lecker in 1977. In 2003, Robert would sell his shares to Jack, and one year later, David Caron joined ECW as co-publisher. Ten years later, Jack sold his shares to David, but the two remain joint co-publishers, steering the ECW ship.
In the 50 years since our founding, we’ve published a heady mix of commercial and literary works that strive for a uniform standard of excellence: the best writing; the most exciting, controversial, and insightful takes on the hottest subject matter; groundbreaking design; and high production values. Thanks to great authors, we’ve had runaway successes with Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, Ghost Rider by Neil Peart, and more recently, Denison Avenue by Christina Wong and Daniel Innes.
As the company has grown and evolved, so has our list. The early journal prioritized Canadian voices and criticism, and we still do, and now we’re dedicated to diversifying those voices. In January 2021, we launched the first round of our BIPOC mentorship program, which eventually led to the publication of Rebecca Hirsh Garcia’s The Girl Who Cried Diamonds & Other Stories in 2023. Another mentee, Kim Spencer, published her award-winning book Weird Rules to Follow with Orca in 2023. The program continues to this day and aims to find and nurture upcoming writers from BIPOC communities and equip them with tools and information to navigate the industry.
In the last decade, we’ve also been thinking beyond literary ecosystems to the planetary ecosystems that sustain us all and attempting to make our business as environmentally sound as possible. All of our books are printed on paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, and the majority of books are printed on paper that is 100% post-consumer waste — our books don’t come at the cost of forests. Our office has been powered by renewable Bullfrog Power energy since 2012, meaning we’ve funded a corresponding amount of renewable energy into the grid to displace polluting energy. In 2024, New Society Publishers and ECW led the development of two industry-changing carbon calculation products. These free-to-use tools are being shared with the international publishing community so publishers have the data to make more sustainable decisions. In 2022, ECW also became the second publisher in Canada to be certified as a B Corporation, making our commitment to people and planet an official part of our policy.
A major priority in the last decade has been creating books to serve all readers. We were among the first publishers to expand into ebooks so that we could reduce the production and shipping of printed books and allow readers more flexibility and accessibility. Since 2019, we have used a born accessible framework when creating our Later, in March 2021, we received our certification as a Benetech Certified Accessible Publisher and became the second publishing house in Canada to earn this certification.
Since 2015, ECW has proudly produced more than 600 audiobooks in-house, becoming a leading Canadian audiobook producer and spending more than $3 million in Canada to date bringing books to your ears. Founded in 2018, ECW’s Bespeak Audio Editions imprint is all about bringing the best of contemporary Canadian literature to audiobook readers around the world. Each of these audiobooks is written, performed, and published by a team of Canadian creatives. ECW produces audiobooks for more than 35 other publishers and distributes audiobooks for 30 publishers anywhere audiobooks are sold. We also license our titles to other audiobook publishers such as Tantor, Dreamscape, OrangeSky, and Audible.
Looking back at the employees and authors that ECW has welcomed these past 50 years, we feel immensely grateful to have created a company that is not only dedicated to great books, but also to community, sustainability, accessibility, We hope you’ll keep reading for the next million pages!