The Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia (ABPBC) announced the 2022 recipients of two awards recognizing outstanding contributions to the province’s publishing industry. UBC Press, for the project RavenSpace, will receive the Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year Award, and Margaret Reynolds will receive the Gray Campbell Distinguished Service Award. The recipients will be honoured at an industry reception to be held in Vancouver on November 24, 2022, in the first ABPBC awards event after a two-year hiatus.
Authors L-R Paige Raibmon, Davis McKenzie, Harmony Johnson, Elsie Paul
The Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year Award UBC Press, for its project RavenSpace, is the recipient of the Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year Award. In 2021, the press celebrated 50 years of publishing, and under Director Melissa Pitts, the press continues to be innovative and forward-thinking. In 2019, under the direction of Assistant Director Darcy Cullen, UBC Press launched RavenSpace, an open-source, collaborative publishing process for Indigenous communities and scholars created in partnerships with publishers, Indigenous and technology organizations, libraries, and museums. RavenSpace provides digital tools and methods for Indigenous communities and scholars to work together, and with other creators, to achieve their vision for sharing knowledge and stories. It prioritizes Indigenous access and participation and upholds the protocols of knowledge and heritage sovereignty in the vibrant public exchange of ideas. The inaugural book in the RavenSpace platform, As I Remember It: Teachings (Ɂəms tɑɁɑw) from the Life of a Sliammon Elder, is available here.
Still from the first RavenSpace publication, courtesy UBC Press.
The Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year Award is presented to an active BC book publishing company that has, in recent times, earned the respect and applause of the community of publishers for a specific publishing project, an extraordinary contribution to the BC publishing community, and/or its extended commitment to excellence in publishing. The award was established in 2001 to recognize the contribution made to the publishing industry in British Columbia by publisher, editor, and consultant James Jardine Douglas.
Margaret Reynolds is the recipient of the Gray Campbell Distinguished Service Award. Throughout her career, Reynolds worked tirelessly to improve the well-being and vibrancy of BC’s publishing industry in her capacity as the Executive Director of the ABPBC, as a board member of various publishing-adjacent organizations, and as a liaison with government, booksellers, libraries and schools. During her time at the ABPBC, she provided leadership on initiatives such as the launch of Poetry in Transit, the establishment of a Publishing Tax Credit, the Environmentally Sound Paper Initiative, the BC Books for BC Schools catalogue, and much more. Alongside colleagues from BC’s film, music, magazine, and digital media communities, Reynolds was pivotal to the creation of Creative BC in 2013, an economic agency to support the creative industries. She was also a founding president of the Word on the Street (now WORD Vancouver).
The Gray Campbell Distinguished Service Award is presented to an individual or individuals who have made a significant contribution to the book publishing industry in the province. Named for the pioneering publisher and founder of Gray’s Publishing, the Gray Campbell Award recognizes the importance of the many individuals who comprise the book industry; their energy and creativity are essential to the continued creation and dissemination of books that tell our stories.
Founded in 1974, the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia (ABPBC) represents 25 BC-owned companies. The ABPBC supports the aspirations and activities of its membership through cultural, economic, and political initiatives and engages book-related communities in British Columbia, Canada, and beyond. For more information, visit books.bc.ca.
