My name is Denbeigh Whitmarsh and I am entering my fourth year in an honours program at McGill University in the Department of French Literature, Translation, and Creation (DLTC), minoring in History, Anthropology, and Quebec Studies. I have also dabbled in English Literature, both for courses and for pleasure. I enjoy writing and have won several small prizes for poetry and short fiction. I have had poetry published in Montréal’s feminist magazine the F-Word, in the online mental health magazine The Empathy Journal, and Montreal literary magazines The Veg and Yolk. Last summer, I was hired to research, ghost-write, and publish a book on the history of women’s hockey in Canada, titled OFFSIDE – A Memoir – Challenges Faced by Women in Hockey, by Rhonda Leeman Taylor. As such, Shoreline Press was the perfect place for me to have been this summer—as I worked hands-on with authors and manuscripts, all the while kneading and combing through remarkable works of local literature.
Shoreline Press is a small, quaint publishing house based out of Hatley, QC (recently moved from St. Anne, QC), run by Editor-in-Chief Ms. Angela Leuck. Its mission is to provide access to quality publishing services to local authors in Quebec who might not otherwise have had the opportunity to be published by the major corporations that dominate the field (i.e. amateur or first-time authors, or those whose books are important but less marketable to a general audience). I absolutely adored the opportunity to learn from an experienced publisher and editor like Ms. Leuck, and especially the chance to work with texts by very talented local and/or first-time authors.
I greatly appreciated the chance to improve my revision skills and my understanding of the world of small-scale English-language publishing in Quebec, as I had hoped for going into the program. I value the knowledge I learned from the AELAQ, the Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec (Association des éditeurs de langue anglaise du Québec), whose Zoom meetings interns attended eagerly with Ms. Leuck, picking up all kinds of wonderful knowledge about the secret world of small-press publishers in Quebec, as well as tidbits about online strategies for marketing during COVID, the process of obtaining government grants, the bureaucratic proceedings of an official general meeting, and more. I also picked up skills in digital manuscript layout (how to properly format and space a book and cover pages for printing), Catalogue in Process (CIP) applications (registering the books with the National Library of Canada), and how to file for an ISBN (through the government of Canada). It was also fulfilling to learn about the finer points of copy-editing, content-editing, and work out some of the intricate cogs of literature and the English language.
I had the opportunity to work on three manuscripts during my internship: Mr. Josh Quirion’s Towners and Other Stories, Dr. Heather Davis’ Are We Lost Yet?, and Ms. Kate Armour Reed II’s A Woman’s Touch: Kate Reed and Canada’s Grand Hotels. Davis’ work is a narrative of the true story of her amazing six-month trek from Quebec through the Maritimes and down into the United States in 2012, with her 7-year-old daughter, her husband, and their dog Carmanah. The story was written as a final thesis for Davis’ Masters degree at UBC. Quirion’s Towners and Other Stories is a novella and collection of short stories that all explore in narrative format the intricate relationship between “Metros” from the big city, and “Towners” from rural Quebec. Both are first-time authors, although Quirion is also the founder of Montreal’s literary magazine The Yolk, and Davis has taught at both CEGEP and University levels. I have also had the pleasure of working with Ms. Kate Armour Reed II, the grand-daughter and biographer of Kate Armour Reed I, Canada’s first professional decorator, and the main reason that Canada’s grand CPR hotels (Banff Springs, the Algonquin, Place Viger, Chateau Frontenac, etc.) became so renowned for their luxury.
Kate Reed’s manuscript was certainly the highlight of my internship experience. Reed wrote with elegant and easy prose, making her text highly readable and yet so riveting, perhaps due in part to the incredible content purveyed about her namesake grandmother, a historic figure of female empowerment and astonishing artistic talent. However, due to the high volume of beautiful 17th and 18th century photos scattered throughout the manuscript, the document was nearly impossible to send over email, even in PDF format. This was a great challenge and involved waiting for over an hour to either download or upload the document with new changes via WeTransfer. We also experienced multiple problems navigating various platforms for the layout and design of Quirion’s multi-story manuscript, which were resolved with much struggle, compromise, and consultation of Google.
While I did not receive academic credit for this internship, it was an experience which will undoubtedly shape my career path and academic future, providing me with invaluable tools while working in-depth with texts, language, and literature. I am sincerely looking forward to applying some of these skills in History, Quebec Studies, and French Literature courses during my final semester at McGill, as well as in Graduate Studies in the coming years. I am very grateful to all the alumni and donors who have given me the chance to pursue this rewarding and rich experience at Shoreline Press. Thank you!
