Oakville News
Lots of us love to read, and many of us try to write, but it is a daring few who attempt to carve a niche in today's vast publishing world and go on to fulfil that dream – and right here in Bronte.
Plumleaf Press is the passion of President and Publisher Maggie Goh, who created, owned and ran Rubicon Publishing, Inc., one of Canada's leading educational publishers for 40 years. When she sold Rubicon last year to a United States company, Ms. Goh turned her full attention to the imprint she had created in 2015 and fulfilled her longing to publish 'books to linger over' primarily for women and children.
'I've been in publishing forever. It's in my blood. I can't stop,' she says, seated at her desk in her small airy office in the heart of Bronte.
Plumleaf combines Goh's father's surname, Lee (李), meaning plum, in Chinese, and her mother's last name, Ye (葉), meaning leaf. In her thoughtful explanation on the company website, Goh explains that in Chinese tradition, the plum symbolizes integrity, fortitude, tenacity, and blessing, while a leaf symbolizes renewal and hope. Surely the aim of every writer who has ever put pen to paper, or more likely these days, finger to keyboard!
Ms. Goh and her staff of three are dedicated to providing readers with beautiful books that offer inspiration and enchantment, as well as providing a voice for this country's rich diversity of authors and artists. She seeks out writers with a distinctive voice as well as gifted artists, illustrators and designers who can bring an author's story to life as a published book not just to enjoy reading but for the artistry of the book itself.
The company's first publication to hit the bookstores was The Woman in This Poem in 2015, featuring the work of well and lesser-known female poets from the past 150 years. It is edited by American poet Georgia Heard, who had become acutely aware of the power of poetry while putting together an anthology of poems to comfort children post 9-11. The Woman in This Poem is organized into the topics of love, motherhood, work, family and friends, and balance.
"Many readers tell me they don't read poetry," laments Ms Goh.
So, in the spirit that perhaps we don't realize what we are missing, this fall, Plumleaf Press is bringing out Nocturne: Poems to Linger Over, a collection of classic and contemporary poems put together by Marilyn Lightstone, late-night host of Nocturne on New Classical FM. The book will feature many of the poems Lightstone recited on air, including her own illustrations.
Success in the demanding world of Canadian publishing has not been long in coming for this small publisher.
The Food Doula Cookbook: A Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy and a Nourished New Mom by Lindsay Taylor won gold in last year's Taste Canada Awards for the best cookbook written by a Canadian author featuring content and recipes related to specific nutritional or health needs or lifestyle choices.
And on a topic that could not be more different, a picture book for 3-7 year-olds titled Twelve in a Race by Catherine Little and illustrated by Sae Kimura retells in rhyme the story of the 12 animals that form the Chinese zodiac – this year being the year of the rabbit, in case it has slipped your mind. This enchanting book garnered a starred review by the influential Quill and Quire magazine dedicated to books and publishing.
And so, back to the past – and also the future.
This year marks the hundredth anniversary of this country's Chinese Immigration Act 1923, better known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, which drastically restricted all Chinese immigration to Canada. Until 1947 when it was repealed, only about 15 Chinese immigrants gained entry into Canada.
Oakville News
In remembrance of that shocking period and also in celebration of Asian Heritage Month, which does recognize the contribution to Canada made by Canadians of Asian background, Plumleaf Press is launching I Am Not a Ghost.
Historically accurate, this is a fictional story of a Chinese railway worker who came to Canada to work on the Great Canadian Pacific Railway and would surely have died but for help from Amelia Douglas, the wife of a governor of British Columbia.
This tale by David Bouchard is aimed at the 7 to 12-year-old market and describes the racism and hardship Chinese newcomers to Canada faced during that troubling period in this country's history. Illustrator Sean Huang's evocative paintings illustrate the text. Based in Regina, Saskatchewan, this young artist has paintings in many private and corporate collections.
Asian Heritage Month is a great time to highlight this enterprising publisher, which is heading for a busy late summer and fall. Several new books are listed in Plumleaf's catalogue, including a retelling in poetry of The Halifax Explosion by celebrated poet Dr. Afua Cooper.
And if your taste runs to a freshly designed classic of yesteryear Plumleaf Press also has reprints of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by English author Anne Bronte first published in 1848 under the pseudonym Acton Bell, The Grey Woman By Elizabeth Gaskill and Lady Susan, an early work by the incomparable Jane Austen.
So next time you are wandering in Bronte, give a metaphorical tip of your hat as you pass Plumleaf Press at 100 Bronte Road, the little publisher that tried - and succeeded.
