Ian Roy | Astrid, Aghast

Ian Roy

Astrid, Aghast

Sackville, Canada: Gaspereau Press, 2026

208 pp., 20 x 13.5 x 1.7 cm., softcover

Edition size unknown

Last month Gaspereau Press launched its first title since moving to Sackville, New Brunswick, under new ownership. 

Founded almost thirty years ago in 1997 by Andrew Steeves and Gary Dunfield in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Gaspereau Press took pride in doing everything in house: editorial, publicity, sales, distribution, design, typesetting, printing, and binding.

“You can’t say I’m alienated from my labour,” Steeves told The Walrus magazine, “I’ve touched every book.”

This artisanal boutique approach to publishing is responsible for much of the acclaim the press has received over the years, but also led to perhaps the most infamous and controversial tale in their storied history.

Johanna Skibsrud’s book The Sentimentalists - a debut novel, published in an edition of 800 copies by Gaspereau - was nominated for the prestigious Giller Prize, in 2010. This is typically the lottery ticket that publishers wait a lifetime for - the kind of attention that can lead to a financial windfall and help keep the lights on. 

But the press was not interested in upscaling their production. The hand-made operation could not handle more than a thousand books a week, and made it known. 

“We got here because we make nice books,” Dunfield said. “The independent book stores, most of them understand that very clearly. They like our books, most of them can pick our books out blindfolded because we make nice books, and that’s our reputation. And a year from now this will have blown over … and we’ll still make nice books and the bookstores will still like them. So why would we change that? That’s what we do. We got here because that’s what we do. And our future is to keep on doing that.”

Then The Sentimentalists - viewed by many as the ‘dark horse’ nominee - won the award. The fifty-thousand dollar prize is typically accompanied by a huge sales bump, known as The Giller Effect. Random House and other big publishers offered to print large quantities of the novel, to help meet demand. When Gaspereau waited a few days to mull the offers over, they were vilified in the press. 

"Pretentious. Antediluvian. Mean-spirited," wrote Tasha Kheiriddin in the National Post, accusing them of sabotage. The Globe and Mail wondered if “perhaps some grudging admiration is due to anyone who hews to a principle” and ran the misleading headline "Author's angst grows over unavailability of Giller winner.” Toronto Life declared “Public denied award-winning book by territorial East Coast publisher.” 

Ultimately, Gaspereau sub-licensed the book to Douglas & McIntyre, who produced a trade edition 

which shipped 30,000 copies ten days after the prize was announced. It retailed for $19.99, ten dollars cheaper than the hand-made Gaspereau Press version, which still racked up 4000 orders. 

Gaspereau gave up the foreign rights to the novel completely. 

The pair weathered the storm and the iconoclastic approach helped cement the legacy of the press that operates by its own rules. They operated together for another fifteen years, until Dunfield announced his intention to retire and they started looking for a succession plan. 

Keagan Hawthorne is a poet and proprietor of Hardscrabble Press, a micropress that shared many of same principles as Gaspereau. He was chosen to succeed Steeves and Dunfield, and has been working closely with the pair long before the transition. The Hardscrabble Press ­will be folded into the larger Gaspereau publishing program and Hawthorne will strive to maintain the approach of his retiring predecessors. 

He shares the pair’s love of letter-pressed covers and their notion of the book as a beautiful object, and brings an indefatigable work ethic. He has also secured one of the most iconic buildings in town to house the press (not sure if this is public knowledge yet)

“Above all else I remain committed to the values that for me, as a  long-time reader and lover of these books, exemplify everything that  Gaspereau Press stands for: great design, careful attention to the  details of production, and a commitment to literature that reminds us of  who we are, and what we have the potential to become,” he wrote on the Gaspereau website. 

At the standing-room-only launch for Astrid, Aghast, Hawthorne introduced its author while carrying his young daughter in his arms, who infectiously giggled into the microphone at every opportunity. He described the manuscript as one of the most exciting pieces of mail he had ever received. 

The book is available for $28.95, from Gaspereau Press, here. 

"The stories in Astrid, Aghast are by turns funny, poignant, magical, and humane. Two public-library workers fall in love with each other’s foibles while stuck in an elevator. A young boy stumbles upon a bucket of eels that stirs up family memories he’d rather forget. A solitary entomologist tries to make sense of a life filled with pianos and beetles. Ian Roy takes us on journeys through a world that is like our own, but not quite: a taxi driver falls in love with his car-jacker; an old man claims he can fly—and can, or almost.

This remarkable collection is understated, often slyly humorous, and peopled by characters so finely-drawn each one seems as familiar as they do strange.”

- press release