In April, Nicole Winstanley took over as president and publisher of Simon & Schuster Canada, following a distinguished 15-year career at Penguin Random House Canada, where she most recently served as publisher of Penguin Canada and VP of PRHC. Prior to that, she was a literary agent and director of foreign rights at Westwood Creative Artists.
A twinge of imposter syndrome comes to many shifting into top jobs, but Winstanley found inspiration and motivation from working with one of her previous authors, director and Oscar-winning screenwriter Sarah Polley. “Sarah’s essay collection Run Towards the Danger, which I published at Penguin Random House, inspired me to push myself more and reconsider the story I was telling myself about myself and who I was and who I could be,” she says.
Jonathan Karp, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster, had no doubt. “Nicole Winstanley is one of the most highly regarded publishers at work in Canada,” he said in the announcement of her elevation.
Her colleagues also agree: in August, she was given the 2024 Ivy Award, the top prize for Canadian editors, which is bestowed by the International Visitors Program of the Toronto International Festival of Authors and chosen by a judging panel of fellow publishing professionals.
Winstanley has cultivated an impressive roster of Canadian and international authors, including Polley, Amazon Canada First Novel Award winner Mona Awad, and Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize winner katherena vermette. She also acquired and published internationally celebrated writers such as Arundhati Roy, Khaled Hosseini, and Zadie Smith. “I was also the publisher of Nita Prose, who was a longtime editor at S&S and has now left to write full time,” Winstanley says.
As she settles into her new role, she is focused on building upon S&S Canada’s existing strengths while charting new territory. One of her primary goals is to foster a sense of community within the company. “We aren’t the biggest publisher in the market or the smallest, but we’re the right size to be having a unified conversation about the books we love,” she says. “When there aren’t competing priorities or conflicting interests, all of us can rally around the same book at the same time, which I think is exciting.”
Winstanley is committed to expanding the publisher’s roster of Canadian authors. She highlighted several recent acquisitions, including a novel by Catherine Leroux set in a near-future Montreal, and a work of nonfiction by Saeed Teebi on the Palestinian experience.
Winstanley’s publishing philosophy has evolved over the years, from what she describes as “books for everyone” to a more nuanced approach. “Sometimes you need a book to entertain you to get away from the stress of your life or distract you from a particular pain or if you’re deep in the throes of grief,” she explains. “But other times you need a book to help you make sense of a moment.”
She also recognizes the critical importance of representation in publishing. Her approach to diversity and inclusion is multifaceted, focusing on hiring diverse colleagues, supporting multicultural literary events, and actively seeking out underrepresented voices. She added vermette as a senior editor to her team to focus on acquiring books from underserved communities. “I was really fortunate to work closely with her, as her editor for three of her adult novels,” Winstanley says. “It became clear that a new and meaningful partnership was possible—one in which she has the room to celebrate Indigenous, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ authors communities.” Vermette is Métis and among her first acquisitions is Holy Bear Woman by Esther Tailfeathers, about the impact of the opioid crisis on Indigenous communities.
Another example of this commitment is S&S Canada’s support for the new Muslim Literary Festival in Toronto. Such initiatives, Winstanley believes, are crucial to expanding the publishing landscape and reaching new audiences.
As she grows in her new role, Winstanley is mindful of S&S’s legacy while pushing for innovation. “We’re not rebuilding or fixing Simon & Schuster, but rather, we’re building on the successes that everyone here has contributed to,” she says.
