Small Press Saturday: Now Or Never Publishing

Aug. 28

The cover of Panegyric by Logan MacNair. — The cover of *Panegyric* by Logan MacNair.

Happy Saturday!

Vacations have ended. Time has meaning again. Small Press Saturday is actually posting on Saturday. And this Saturday, I am thrilled to introduce you to a quirky and edgy boutique Canadian publisher – Now Or Never Publishing.

Now Or Never Publishing is based in Vancouver and their tagline “pugnacious publishers of contemporary Canadian literature and generally friendly irreverence” says it all. And can I just say how much I freaking love their Scrabble tile logo?!

This small press, founded in 2005 by Sidney Shapiro and Walter "Widemouth" Bass, now run by publisher Chris Needham, only publishes Canadian authors and they publish fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and memoir. All of their titles have a certain bite to them, from literary and beautiful to darkly funny and genre bending.

One of their releases at the beginning of the pandemic last year caught my eye (and honestly any book released at the start of the pandemic needs a leg up – my heart goes out to the authors whose books were lost in the midst of world upheaval and lockdown). The book is called Panegyric by Logan MacNair and it hit my sweet spot due to my obsession with books about books, writers, publishing, etc. It is about an underachieving writer who has the lucrative opportunity to ghostwrite the memoirs of a notorious and eccentric businessman-turned-politician. The writing is dense and the book is bonkers and kind of like a fever dream.

There isn’t much more I can say about this small yet mighty press. You really should just hit their website and take a scroll through their new releases and backlist titles. Take a gamble on a new author and a genre you have never read before – I promise you, it is worth it.

Happy Reading!

– Stacey