We're celebrating 50 years of publishing this year! We asked our authors to share some of their favourite memories for this blog series! Enjoy some stories of parties and awards in this post featuring Richard Scarsbrook, Elizabeth Ruth, George W. J. Duncan, and Farzana Doctor!
"Ten Good Seconds of Silence was my first novel, and so the launch and the publicity around the book was new and exciting. Receiving the call from my publicist to say I would be on the cover of NOW magazine the week of the launch was a thrill, as were the three calls from my editor each time the book was announced as a finalist for a literary award. Finally, The Lowest of The Low played at the launch, and a great event was had by all!" —Elizabeth Ruth
"I very much enjoyed working with the excellent people at Dundurn Press on Historic Unionville: A Village in the City, a memorable and rewarding experience. I am proud to have received the Stephen A. Otto Award for Scholarship for my book from the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario in October, 2019. A special thank you to Jane Gibson for creating the index for Historic Unionville, which makes the book convenient for use by genealogists." —George W. J. Duncan
"My favourite memory was at the 40th anniversary party. Dundurn sprung for champagne, a tarot reader (I asked him about the success of my India tour, which was going to happen a month later) and a photo booth. Jeffrey Round and I put on hats and feather boas and posed. I wish I still had that photo strip (maybe he saved it?)." —Farzana Doctor (We did ask Jeffrey if he had any photos, and unfortunately time and computer changes have worked against us here!)
"I have many great memories from being published by Dundurn (including an amazing Holiday party at the Arts and Letters Club, and the launch event for my novel The Indifference League, which included a book-cover photo booth for guests), but the launch party for my novel Rockets Versus Gravity was definitely one of the most momentous evenings of my life! We absolutely packed the Melody Room at The Gladstone Hotel, and the energetic crowd really enjoyed the live performances of intersecting scenes from the book, featuring characters played by friends from the Toronto acting and literary communities (including the ubiquitous Heather Wood, who was a Publicist at Dundurn). It was an amazing feeling for this book to be so enthusiastically welcomed by so many book-loving friends, and we sold so many copies of Rockets Versus Gravity that evening, it made The Globe and Mail bestseller list! But, the most exciting moment happened right before the party, when we found out that we were going to be parents! And of course, our daughter Vivienne, who is four now, absolutely LOVES books and reading. Congratulations, Dundurn, on fifty years of publishing!" —Richard Scarsbrook
