Toronto-based publisher Dundurn has been refocusing, becoming more cutting-edge, relevant, and socially aware since founder and publisher emeritus Kirk Howard sold the imprint to new owners in 2019. A new generation of leadership and staff have been modernizing the imprint’s vision and scope. The new branding aims to honor the publisher’s history while telling the story of its direction.
With this new vision comes a new look. Dundurn tapped designer David Taylor at Awake Studio to create a new adaptation of the company’s logo that updates the iconic castle colophon in the shape of rounded arched windows. The logo’s new vibrant magenta modernizes the burgundy and beige of the old logo.
The imprint’s new focus is more editor-driven and aims to appeal to a more diverse and younger readership. This means cutting down on production from about 100 titles a year to around 50 or 60 and giving editors the licence to champion books as passion projects.
One way the imprint intends to do this is to embrace and nurture new talent. In fact, about 35% of the company’s titles slated for this year are from new writers, many of whom are people of color. The imprint aims to attract “exceptional Canadian writers” that tell “important stories that reflect the world, satisfy curiosity, enlighten, and entertain,” per the company’s new mandate.
The Son of the House, a debut novel from Nigerian-Canadian lawyer and author Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia, and The New Wedding Book: A Guide to Ditching All the Rules by lifestyle media personalities Michelle Bilodeau and Karen Cleveland are just some examples of what is in store. Guidebook Ten Garments Every Man Should Own by Pedro Mendes, psychological thriller The Day She Died by S.M. Freedman, and the novel The Doomsday Book of Fairy Tales by Emily Brewes are also on the list for this spring.
“Our books will provide a portal into a place not yet known to the reader, where new voices and stories will be discovered,” the company’s mandate says. “We invite readers and writers into a new home for previously underrepresented voices in our diverse cultural and literary community. Like our readers, we’re curious, courageous, and forward-thinking. Read with us. These are your stories.”
The imprint will continue to publish across numerous genres, from literary and genre fiction, to biography, history, lifestyle, and public policy, to middle grade and teen fiction.
“I’m excited that we’re becoming a contemporary, forward-facing business,” says Dundurn Press publisher Scott Fraser. “With a new street-level retail storefront opening later in 2021, we’re opening ourselves up to the community and publishing innovative books in a welcoming environment, instead of behind the walls of Dundurn as a castle.”
