Arsenal Pulp Press is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 independent book publishing company, based in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. The company publishes a broad range of titles in both fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

 and non-fiction

Non-fiction

Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...

, and is noted for founding the annual Three-Day Novel Contest

Three-Day Novel Contest

The Three-Day Novel Contest is an annual Canadian literary contest conducted in September of each year. The contest, which is open to writers from anywhere in the world, gives entrants three days to write a novel...

 (now run by the 3-Day Novel Co.).

Authors who have been published by Arsenal Pulp (full books or in anthologies) include Richard Amory, Allan Antliff

Allan Antliff

Allan W. Antliff is an anarchist activist, art critic and author who has written extensively on the topics of anarchism and art in North America....

, Mette Bach

Mette Bach

Mette Bach is a Vancouver author, teacher, screenwriter, and director. She was born in Denmark and grew up in North Delta, BC. Mette attended Simon Fraser University where she received a Bachelor of Arts with an Honours English major...

, Tanya Barnard, S. Bear Bergman

S. Bear Bergman

S. Bear Bergman is a transgender author, poet, playwright, and theater artist. Bergman identifies as neither male nor female and prefers pronouns "ze" and "hir".-Biography:...

, Marusya Bociurkiw, Michael Bronski, Carellin Brooks, Clint Burnham, Nick Burns, Dreena Burton, Patrick Califia

Patrick Califia

Patrick Califia , born 1954 near Corpus Christi, Texas is a writer of nonfiction essays about sexuality and of erotic fiction and poetry. Califia is a bisexual trans man.-Biography:...

, Anna Camilleri, David Campion, David L. Chapman, David Chariandy

David Chariandy

David Chariandy is a Canadian writer. His debut novel Soucouyant was nominated for ten literary prizes and awards, including the 2009 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award , the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize , the 2007 Governor General's Award for Fiction , the 2007 ForeWord Book of the Year...

, John Robert Colombo

John Robert Colombo

John Robert Colombo, CM is nationally known as the Master Gatherer. He is among Canada's most prolific authors of serious books...

, Wayde Compton

Wayde Compton

Wayde Compton is a Canadian writer. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia.Compton has published two books of poetry, one book of essays, and edited the first comprehensive anthology of black writing from British Columbia. He co-founded Commodore Books with David Chariandy and Karina Vernon in...

, Daniel Allen Cox

Daniel Allen Cox

Daniel Allen Cox is a Canadian author and columnist. Shuck, his semi-autobiographical debut novel about a New York City hustler, was a Lambda Literary Award and a ReLit Award finalist...

, Ivan E. Coyote, Brad Cran, Amber Dawn, Larry Duplechan, Tess Fragoulis

Tess Fragoulis

Tess Fragoulis is a Canadian writer and educator. Born in Heraklion, Crete, she was raised in Montreal, Quebec, where she attended Concordia University. Her first book, Stories to Hide from Your Mother , was nominated for the QSPELL First Book Award. One of the stories was adapted for the...

, D.M. Fraser, Jon Furberg, Hiromi Goto

Hiromi Goto

Hiromi Goto is a Japanese-Canadian editor, fiction writer, cultural critic, arts advocate, youth organizer, teacher of creative writing and a mother of two children.-Life:...

, William Gibson

William Gibson

William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...

, Gabriella Goliger

Gabriella Goliger

Gabriella Goliger is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. She won the Journey Prize in 1997 for her short story "Maladies of the Inner Ear", and has since published two books, Song of Ascent in 2001 and Girl Unwrapped in 2010....

, Brett Josef Grubisic

Brett Josef Grubisic

Brett Josef Grubisic is a Canadian novelist and editor, and professor of English at the University of British Columbia. He obtained degrees from University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia...

, Celia Haig-Brown, Matthew Hays

Matthew Hays

Matthew Hays is a Canadian film critic, writer, film festival programmer and academic. He won a Lambda Literary Award for his 2007 book The View from Here: Conversations with Gay and Lesbian Filmmakers....

, Gord Hill, Nalo Hopkinson

Nalo Hopkinson

Nalo Hopkinson is a Jamaican science fiction and fantasy writer and editor who lives in Canada. Her novels and short stories such as those in her collection Skin Folk often draw on Caribbean history and language, and its traditions of oral and written storytelling.Hopkinson has...

, Sean Horlor

Sean Horlor

Sean Horlor is a Canadian poet, actor, television producer, columnist and blogger. He is the author of Made Beautiful by Use , published by Signature Editions, and co-host/associate producer of Don't Quit Your Gay Job, an original Canadian comedy television series that premiered on OUTtv in...

, Brian Howell, Robert Hunter

Robert Hunter (journalist)

Robert Lorne Hunter was a Canadian environmentalist, journalist, author and politician. A member of the Don't Make a Wave Committee in 1969 with Dorothy and Irving Stowe, Marie and Jim Bohlen, and Ben and Dorothy Metcalfe...

, George K. Ilsley

George K. Ilsley

George K. Ilsley was born in Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1958. He is the author of a collection of short stories, Random Acts of Hatred, which focuses on the lives of gay and bisexual men from childhood to early adulthood and a novel, ManBug.Ilsley provided facetious responses to an...

, Joey Keithley, Sarah Kramer

Sarah Kramer

Sarah Kramer is a vegan cookbook author from Canada. She is the best-selling author of How It All Vegan, The Garden of Vegan and La Dolce Vegan....

, Natasha Kyssa, Richard Labonte, Larissa Lai

Larissa Lai

Larissa Lai is a Canadian writer, critic, and professor.Born in La Jolla, California, she grew up in St. John's, Newfoundland. She attended the University of British Columbia and, in 1990, graduated with a B.A. in Sociology. Subsequently, she earned her MA from the University of East Anglia, and...

, Betty Lambert, Catherine Lang, Nicole Markotic, Ashok Mathur

Ashok Mathur

Ashok Mathur is an Indo-Canadian writer and visual artist, an associate professor of English and modern languages at Thompson Rivers University. He holds a Canada Research Chair in Cultural and Artistic Inquiry, and is the director of the Centre for Innovation in Culture and the Arts in...

, Mark Leiren-Young

Mark Leiren-Young

Mark Leiren-Young is a Canadian journalist, screenwriter, playwright and occasional performer in the comedy duo Local Anxiety. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.-Writing:...

, Dorothy Livesay

Dorothy Livesay

Dorothy Kathleen May Livesay, was a Canadian poet who twice won the Governor General`s Award in the 1940s, and was "senior woman writer in Canada" during the 1970s and 1980s.-Life:...

, Michael Lowenthal

Michael Lowenthal

Michael Lowenthal is an American fiction writer, author of three novels, most recently, Charity Girl . Currently an instructor of creative writing at Lesley University and Boston College, he has been the recipient of fellowships from the Bread Loaf and Wesleyan writers' conferences, the...

, Suzette Mayr

Suzette Mayr

Suzette Mayr is a Canadian poet and novelist who has written three critically acclaimed novels. Currently an associate professor at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Arts, Mayr's writing and teaching is often focused on issues of race and ethnicity in Canadian culture...

, Bridget Moran

Bridget Moran

Bridget Moran , née Drugan, was a prominent social activist and author in British Columbia. Born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland,...

, Michael Nava

Michael Nava

Michael Angel Nava is an attorney and writer.He is a third-generation Californian of Mexican descent. He was born and raised in Sacramento. He was the first member of his family to attend college, graduating with honors from the Colorado College in 1976. He received his J.D...

, Billeh Nickerson

Billeh Nickerson

Billeh Nickerson is a Canadian writer, editor, performer, producer and arts advocate.-Personal life:Nickerson was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, grew up in Langley, British Columbia, lived in Toronto, Ontario, and currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia...

, David Nandi Odhiambo

David Nandi Odhiambo

David Nandi Odhiambo is a Canadian novelist. He was born on June 24, 1965 in Nairobi, Kenya, and moved to Winnipeg, Canada in 1977. He has a PhD in English Literature from the University of Hawaii, Manoa, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a B.A...

, Stephen Osborne

Stephen Osborne

Stephen or Steven Osborne may refer to:*Stephen Osborne , Canadian writer and editor of Geist magazine*Steven Osborne , British pianist*Steve Osborne, music producer...

, Allan Peterkin, John Preston, Shaun Proulx

Shaun Proulx

Shaun Proulx is a Canadian media entrepreneur, performer, humorist, and radio and television personality. Presenter of his own show, The Shaun Proulx Show on OUTtv, he also regularly contributes to The Globe and Mail and to Toronto's LGBT newspaper Xtra!...

, Andy Quan

Andy Quan

Andy Quan , is a Chinese-Canadian author who now lives in Sydney, Australia. In his writing, he frequently explores the ways in which sexual identity and cultural identity interact...

, Darlene Quaife

Darlene Quaife

Darlene Alice Quaife is a Canadian novelist. Her first novel, Bone Bird, won a 1990 Commonwealth Writers Prize, for Best First Book, Canada and the Caribbean....

, J. Jill Robinson

J. Jill Robinson

Jacqueline Jill Robinson is a western Canadian writer, editor and teacher. She is the author of four collections of short stories. Her fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in a wide variety of magazines and literary journals including Geist, the Antigonish Review, Event, Prairie Fire and...

, Michael Rowe

Michael Rowe (journalist)

Michael Rowe is an award-winning Canadian writer and anthologist. He has written for, among other publications, the National Post, Globe & Mail, The United Church Observer, The Huffington Post and The Advocate....

, Jane Rule

Jane Rule

Jane Vance Rule, CM, OBC was a Canadian writer of lesbian-themed novels and non-fiction.-Biography:Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Jane Vance Rule was the oldest daughter of Carlotta Jane and Arthur Richards Rule. She claimed she was a tomboy growing up and felt like an outsider for reaching six...

, Lawrence Schimel

Lawrence Schimel

Lawrence Schimel is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, translator, and anthologist whose work frequently deals with gay and lesbian themes, and with Jewish themes. He was born in New York, and received his B.A. in Literature from Yale University. Schimel is a member of the National...

, Sarah Schulman

Sarah Schulman

Sarah Miriam Schulman is an American novelist, historian and playwright. An early chronicler of the AIDS crisis, she wrote on AIDS and social issues, publishing in The Village Voice in the early 1980s, and writing the first piece on AIDS and the homeless, which appeared in The Nation...

, Sandra Shields, Jean Smith

Jean Smith

Jean Smith is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead singer of the Vancouver-based band Mecca Normal, as well as a painter, novelist, lecturer and filmmaker...

, jae steele, Louis-Georges Tin, Karen X. Tulchinsky

Karen X. Tulchinsky

Karen X. Tulchinsky is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, anthologist and screenwriter from Vancouver, British Columbia. She is openly lesbian.- Literary/ Film Television Career :...

, Michael Turner

Michael Turner (musician)

For other people named Michael Turner, see Michael Turner.Michael Turner is a musician, and writer of poetry, prose and opera librettos....

, Sylvia Tyson

Sylvia Tyson

Sylvia Tyson, CM , is a musician, performer, singer-songwriter and broadcaster. From 1959 to 1974, she was half of the popular folk duo Ian & Sylvia with Ian Tyson....

, David Watmough

David Watmough

David Arthur Watmough is a Canadian playwright, short story writer and novelist.Watmaugh was born in London, England, and attended King's College London. He has worked as a reporter David Arthur Watmough (born 17 August 1926) is a Canadian playwright, short story writer and novelist.Watmaugh was...

, Thomas Waugh, Cathleen With

Cathleen With

Cathleen With is a Canadian writer and author. Skids, her short story collection about Vancouver street kids from the Davie Village to the Downtown Eastside, was shortlisted for the 2007 Relit Awards. She was also shortlisted for the 2005 Western Magazine Award for her story “Carny”, which was...

, Jim Wong-Chu, and Christine Wunnicke. The company has also published art books by or on the work of Stan Douglas

Stan Douglas

Stan Douglas is an artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He has exhibited internationally, including Documenta IX, 1992, Documenta X, 1997, Documenta XI, 2002 and the Venice Biennale in 1990, 2001 and 2005...

, Peter Flinsch

Peter Flinsch

Peter Flinsch was a German-Canadian artist, who worked as a set designer and art director for television programming produced by Radio-Canada the French language service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation....

, Attila Richard Lukacs

Attila Richard Lukacs

Attila Richard Lukacs is a Canadian artist.-Biography:In 1985, Lukacs graduated from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia and is a member of the loosely defined category of 'Young Romantics'. He moved to Berlin in 1986, working at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien...

, and Ralf König

Ralf König

Ralf König is one of the best known and most commercially successful German comic book creators. His books have been translated into many languages...

.

History

Established in 1971, Scriveners’ Pulp Press Limited was one of several ventures in alternative arts and literature of the early 1970s. In addition to fiction, poetry and drama titles the Press issued a twice-monthly literary magazine, Three-Cent Pulp, from 1972 to 1978, which introduced a loyal readership to new writing and graphics from around the world. In 1977 Pulp held its first 3-Day Novel Contest, a literary marathon held over the Labour Day weekend during which registered contestants attempted to write a novel in three days. Pulp Press sponsored the event until 1991.

In 1981 the Press initiated a subscription library service, the Arsenal Collaborative Library, to serve as a central distribution point for readers, writers and publishers. Membership, which was free,
entitled subscribers to free catalogues and advantageous purchasing arrangements. Arsenal, although still a literary press, gradually added literary non-fiction titles to its list in the areas of cultural, gender and multicultural studies. It also established the Tillacum Library, a Native imprint managed by Randy Fred, founder of Theytus Books, the first aboriginal book publisher in Canada; titles included "Children of the First People" by Dorothy Haegert, "Stoney Creek Woman: The Story of Mary John" by Bridget Moran, and "Resistance and Renewal: The Kamloops Indian Residential School" by Celia Haig-Brown. In 1988 the Press introduced a new series “Little Red Books”, compilations of quotations and anecdotes about major personalities and provocative issues. In the early 1990s Arsenal started distributing its books in the US, and its publishing programme was further developed to include books on gender studies and gay and lesbian literature as well as titles which reflected its commitment to publications about British Columbia. In 1999, it published "How It All Vegan!", a vegan cookbook by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard, which became the press' biggest seller of all-time and launched a series of vegan and health-related titles by Kramer, Dreena Burton, jae steele, and others. In the fall of 2001 Arsenal Pulp Press celebrated its 30th anniversary.

The management and editorial team during its first decade of operation included Stephen Osborne

Stephen Osborne

Stephen or Steven Osborne may refer to:*Stephen Osborne , Canadian writer and editor of Geist magazine*Steven Osborne , British pianist*Steve Osborne, music producer...

, William Gregory Enright, D.M. Fraser, Jon Furberg, and Charles Tidler. In 1982, following the sale of its typesetting and printing operations, Pulp changed its name to Arsenal Pulp Press. In 1988 Brian Lam joined Arsenal following a co-op placement at the Press while studying creative writing at the University of Victoria. Lam became president in 1992 and co-owner with Stephen Osborne, one of the original founders and now editor of the literary magazine Geist. Currently the company is managed by Lam (publisher) and vice-president/associate publisher Robert Ballantyne.

The company's books are distributed in Canada by the University of Toronto Press, in the U.S. by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, in the U.K. and continental Europe by Turnaround Publisher Services, and in Australia and New Zealand by NewSouth Books.

Arsenal Pulp Press has been named a finalist for the Small Press Publisher of the Year Award by the Canadian Booksellers Association in 2004, 2008, and 2010. In 2007, it won the Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year Award from the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia.