About Us

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In its nearly 40 years of operation, Coach House has become and remained a hub of cultural and technological activity in this country. From its early days of printing draft-dodger pamphlets and commemorative flags to nurturing the literary careers of Ondaatje, Bowering, Anne Michaels and bpNichol to being the birthplace of current electronic publishing technology, Coach House has been the headquarters and meeting place for creative figures of every stripe. Located in the heart of the University of Toronto campus, Coach House was intimately involved with Rochdale College, the university’s first co-op residence and free university. It has also employed dozens of students over the years, offered regular tours to students and professors and printed books, catalogues, Christmas cards and letterhead for university clients such as the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Hart House, the Art Centre, the History of the Book in Canada and many others. Coach House, over the years, printed the literary journals of every single college on campus.

Who is CHBooks?

Coach House Books is a collaborative operation involving our regular staff and an ever-changing number of people from the writing, artistic, and publishing communities. And we all do a variety of work. But our primary staff and duties currently consists of:

Publisher: Stan Bevington was the founder and the original publisher of The Coach House Press in 1965. He is also the sole proprietor of Coach House Printing Ltd, a printer of fine books for the book trade since 1965. He has won numerous awards for design and is a pioneer in the use of computer technology in the realms of design, publishing and printing.

Editor-in-chief: Alana Wilcox is responsible for acquisitons and editing, as well as overseeing day-to-day operations. She is the author of A Grammar of Endings (The Mercury Press, 2000).

Managing Editor Christina Palassio is a mouthful to say. Luckily, most people just call her Christina, even when she's keeping the business end of Coach House together with a very very small piece of string.

Publicist Evan Munday can be identified by his penchant for wearing neckties in social situations that do not call for them. He is also responsible for review copies, author tours, book launches, advertising, award submissions and many other manner of publicity matters. He writes and illustrates the obscure comic book, The Amazing Challengers of Unknown Mystery.

Designer: Rick/Simon has been with Coach House Press/Printing, off and on, since 1967. He is an associate with a few art collectives, creating video and print design with VideoCabaret; costume design, percussion and stilt dancing with Shadowland on the Toronto Islands; and production design and performance with Caliloo Company in Trinidad & Tobago and Art Acts in Cleveland, Ohio.

Editorial Consultant (poetry) Kevin Connolly is a Toronto poet, editor and arts journalist. He was editor and co-founder of the influential 1980s literary magazine What! and published early work by many of Toronto's best writers through his Pink Dog chapbook series in the 1990s. From 1999 to 2003 he was arts editor, poetry columnist and lead theatre critic for Eye Weekly. His first collection of poems, Asphalt Cigar, was published by Coach House in 1995 and was a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Award. A second collection, Happyland, (ECW) followed in 2002. His most recent book, drift, (House of Anansi) won the 2006 Trillium Award for poetry.

Editorial consultant and Web editor: Bill Kennedy is a freelance editor, designer, proprietor of the new media development company Stop14 Media, and co-author of Apostrophe (ECW Press, 2006). He is also the Artistic Director of The Scream Literary Festival. Bill is responsible for the Coach House website and much of the poetry editing and design.

Editorial consultant: Darren Wershler-Henry is a writer, critic, and former editor at Coach House Books. He is the author of two books of poetry, Nicholodeon: a book of lowerglyphs, and the tapeworm foundry, which was shortlisted for the Trillium Prize. Darren is also the author or co-author of five books about technology and culture, including FREE as in speech and beer and Commonspace: Beyond Virtual Community (with Mark Surman). His most recent book is The Original Canadian City Dweller’s Almanac (with Hal Niedzviecki).