Vancouver-based D&M Publishers, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month, has received a 45-day extension from the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Its creditor protection has now been extended until January. 4, 2013.

The company, Canada’s largest independent publishing house, includes Douglas & McIntyre and Greystone Books. D&M continues to operate while working with a trustee, the Bowra Group, to find an investor or purchaser for its assets. The Bowra Group is accepting offers until 2 p.m. (PST) November 26.

Documents filed in October show that D&M collectively owes its creditors more than C$6 million. Creditors owed the largest amounts include, the Bank of Montreal (C$2.4 million), printer Friesens Corporation (C$1.4 million), Von Holtzbrink Publishing services (C$354,000), Vancity Capital Corporation (C$272,000). Various authors are also among the creditors.

D&M is known for producing high quality books on art and architecture, politics, native and Canadian culture, food and the environment, including many award-winners. Greystone Books' nonfiction title by Candace Savage A Geography of Blood: Unearthing the Memory from a Prairie Landscape, published in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation, just won the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction this month.

New Society, a subsidiary of D&M, is a separate legal entity, has not filed for protection and continues its business as usual.