1Shadekeep
Some news about the future of Gaspereau Press from a posting, hopefully okay to share here as well. (source: https://www.instagram.com/p/C7v8zH2uJl_/ )
Regarding the future of Gaspereau Press
At the end of 2025, Gary Dunfield and I will be leaving Gaspereau Press after 28 years as printers and publishers. With our departure, the offset printing and trade bindery activities of Gaspereau Press will effectively come to a conclusion, but we are pleased to announce that the literary publishing program and the Gaspereau Press name will continue under the ownership of Keagan Hawthorne. Keagan is presently the proprietor of Hardscrabble Press, a micropress based in Sackville, New Brunswick. He intends to relocate Gaspereau Press to New Brunswick and carry on in a similar spirit there, building upon the cultural enterprise that Gary and I began in 1997.
During the transition we expect day to-day operations to carry on as normal. Keagan will be joining us as Associate Editor. I will be selecting, editing and designing trade books for the 2025 publishing season while at the same time assisting Keagan as he selects and prepares books for publication in 2026. Gaspereau Press books will continue to be manufactured at and distributed from the Kentville location until late in 2025.
And what will happen to Gary and I? Gary wishes to retire, which is why he initiated the winding-up of our partnership and the sale of the business. I considered the option of buying Gary out and carrying on as sole owner, but decided that the challenge of re-imagining and retooling Gaspereau Press for the future was better entrusted to a fresh set of hands. My own post-Gaspereau plans are still taking shape, but will likely involve some combination of freelance writing, editing, book design and teaching. I also intend to keep producing fine letterpress books, chapbooks and broadsides under a new press name.
We will be sharing more details in coming months. Gary and I are incredibly grateful for the support that the community has shown Gaspereau Press and its authors over the years, and we are excited to see what’s next for the press under Keagan Hawthorne’s leadership. We hope you are too.
- Andrew Steeves
Regarding the future of Gaspereau Press
At the end of 2025, Gary Dunfield and I will be leaving Gaspereau Press after 28 years as printers and publishers. With our departure, the offset printing and trade bindery activities of Gaspereau Press will effectively come to a conclusion, but we are pleased to announce that the literary publishing program and the Gaspereau Press name will continue under the ownership of Keagan Hawthorne. Keagan is presently the proprietor of Hardscrabble Press, a micropress based in Sackville, New Brunswick. He intends to relocate Gaspereau Press to New Brunswick and carry on in a similar spirit there, building upon the cultural enterprise that Gary and I began in 1997.
During the transition we expect day to-day operations to carry on as normal. Keagan will be joining us as Associate Editor. I will be selecting, editing and designing trade books for the 2025 publishing season while at the same time assisting Keagan as he selects and prepares books for publication in 2026. Gaspereau Press books will continue to be manufactured at and distributed from the Kentville location until late in 2025.
And what will happen to Gary and I? Gary wishes to retire, which is why he initiated the winding-up of our partnership and the sale of the business. I considered the option of buying Gary out and carrying on as sole owner, but decided that the challenge of re-imagining and retooling Gaspereau Press for the future was better entrusted to a fresh set of hands. My own post-Gaspereau plans are still taking shape, but will likely involve some combination of freelance writing, editing, book design and teaching. I also intend to keep producing fine letterpress books, chapbooks and broadsides under a new press name.
We will be sharing more details in coming months. Gary and I are incredibly grateful for the support that the community has shown Gaspereau Press and its authors over the years, and we are excited to see what’s next for the press under Keagan Hawthorne’s leadership. We hope you are too.
- Andrew Steeves
2NathanOv
That’s too bad to hear! I hope Keagan continues to hire Andrew for book design work.
I’d love to see the Henry series continue under the new ownership, though I know we’re getting at least one more volume before the transition occurs anyway.
I’d love to see the Henry series continue under the new ownership, though I know we’re getting at least one more volume before the transition occurs anyway.
3Shadekeep
>2 NathanOv: Agreed! And Andrew mentions his own intention to continuing doing fine press under a new name, so perhaps in some fashion we are not losing one fine press but rather gaining two.
4What_What
>3 Shadekeep: Would be kinda odd for someone to buy a business, only to have the previous owner essentially go and elsewhere recreate the same business he just sold wouldn’t it.
5ChestnutPress
>4 What_What: Not really the case. The mainstay of Gaspereau Press is its trade titles, whereas Andrew Steeves will just be printing limited fine press editions.
6What_What
>5 ChestnutPress: Gotcha!
7NathanOv
>4 What_What: Not particularly. Unless they retire, most people who sell off a successful business in their field of expertise continue working in that same field.
8Shadekeep
Andrew Steeves has announced the name of his new press - Press of the Varying Hare. Below is the meat of his Instagram post on the topic.
@varyinghare
The name of this account has been changed, but it will continue to focus on my life and my work in printing and publishing. As I will be leaving Gaspereau Press at the end of 2025, I’ve rebranded this account VARYING HARE after my new printing and publishing venture— Press of the Varying Hare. During the coming year I’ll be building a letterpress printshop near Black River Lake, Nova Scotia, moving my equipment and restarting my publishing career as the sole proprietor of a new press. Press of the Varying Hare will publish letterpress books, chapbooks and broadsides, as well as offer printing and typographic design services on a freelance basis. This new venture will aim to occupy a space between literary trade publishing and ‘fine press’ publishing, much as my friend Gray Zeitz’s Larkspur Press has done in rural Kentucky for the past 50 years. ¶ I will continue to post about Gaspereau Press from time to time until my involvement ends, but I want to direct those interested in GP to a new IG account that has been established to focus exclusively on the promotion of its books and authors; this new account will be managed by other hands.
@varyinghare
The name of this account has been changed, but it will continue to focus on my life and my work in printing and publishing. As I will be leaving Gaspereau Press at the end of 2025, I’ve rebranded this account VARYING HARE after my new printing and publishing venture— Press of the Varying Hare. During the coming year I’ll be building a letterpress printshop near Black River Lake, Nova Scotia, moving my equipment and restarting my publishing career as the sole proprietor of a new press. Press of the Varying Hare will publish letterpress books, chapbooks and broadsides, as well as offer printing and typographic design services on a freelance basis. This new venture will aim to occupy a space between literary trade publishing and ‘fine press’ publishing, much as my friend Gray Zeitz’s Larkspur Press has done in rural Kentucky for the past 50 years. ¶ I will continue to post about Gaspereau Press from time to time until my involvement ends, but I want to direct those interested in GP to a new IG account that has been established to focus exclusively on the promotion of its books and authors; this new account will be managed by other hands.
