Amplifying local voices

Fifty years after its inception, Portage and Main Press (318 McDermot Ave.), former Peguis Publishers, continues to be a place where writers have their voices heard.

P&M is celebrating its golden jubilee this year, and current owners Catherine Gerbasi and Annalee Greenberg said they are proud to be carrying and adding to their predecessors’ legacies.

Peguis Publishers was established in 1967 by Winnipeg bookseller Mary Scorer. It was the first full-time publishing company in Manitoba. According to Gerbasi, Scorer wanted to provide a medium for Manitoba writers’ voices to be heard across the province and the country.

In 1985, Winnipeg author Mary Dixon bought the company and focused on publishing educational resources for kindergarten and Grade 12 educators. In 2001 the company adopted its current name. Gerbasi and Greenberg took over P&M in 2007 and started its trade imprint, HighWater Press, which publishes books from a variety of Indigenous writers.

"Scorer championed in publishing Indigenous authors at that time. She was a visionary that way, focusing on regional literature history," Gerbasi said.

"At that time the idea of Canadian publishing was a seed, and she brought it here to the west. It was happening a little bit out east, and she brought it out west."

Both Gerbasi and Greenberg worked at P&M before purchasing the company and said they saw the company grow with the publishing of Canadian educators’ books. They stated that they look for innovative strategies that will help teachers improve their work.

P&M also works with Indigenous educators. Most recently, they’ve been working with Rebecca Chartrand, Seven Oaks School Division lead in Aboriginal education, who is looking at incorporating Anishinaabe teachings into Western teachings and find aspects from both that will benefit all students.

"A lot of our books are working with these very gifted teachers who have figured out how to incorporate these new ways of thinking in the classroom," Greenberg said.

"There’s something within this culture that would benefit all students and what is about these traditions of learning that can be taken to all students?"

While carrying Scorer’s legacy of giving voice to Indigenous writers, HighWater Press has published books by contemporary writers such as Indigenous Writes, a collection of essays by Chelsea Vowel, the award-winning children’s book When We Were Alone by David Alexander Robertson and Julie Flett and the classic novel In Search of April Raintree by Beatrice Mosionier.

"Our writers and artists are, especially here in Manitoba, a very creative, dynamic, vocal, and fearless group of artists that we support and advance," Gerbasi said.

Greenberg and Gerbasi explained that developing strong relationships with the authors is what makes the company’s success. These authors often point other authors to P&M.

"The body of our work speaks for itself," Greenberg added. "We have that word of mouth around the authors, but we also have a body of work that they can relate to."

P&M has expanded its reputation throughout the country, and they actively search for emerging writers and educators in other provinces that are doing innovative things at conferences and organization presentations, Gerbasi said.

"In this environment of self-publishing, and free content, and do it yourself, do it on your own, I think that there are writers who still are attracted to the idea of publishing through an established house that can advance the work in a way that a self-published writer…can’t necessarily do."

To learn more about Portage and Main Press and Highwater Press, go to www.portageandmainpress.com