Word Vancouver in Conversation with Mother Tongue Publishing

Mother Tongue Publishing is located on Salt Spring Island and along with publishing amazing BC authors they hold readings and book launches.

Let’s get to know a little more about Mona:

Mona Fertig at the age of 24 started the first Literary Centre in Canada in 1978, in Gastown. This offered the literary community a communal meeting place and cemented her as a literary landmark by the Vancouver Public Library. Mona and her husband moved to Salt Spring Island in 1990 and began Mother Tongue where for the next four years they went onto publish a small international literary periodical called (m)Other Tongues that featured:

Siphiwe Ka Ngwenya, Adriana Batista, Stacy Creamer, Erin Moure, Thich Tue Sy, bill bissett, Roma Potiki, Kim Morrissey, Yuki Hartman, Tsvetanka Sofronieva, Elizabeth Allen, Dorothy Livesay, Joyce Parkes, Duo Duo, Margaret Pinney, Ann Diamond, Willie Ka Tshaka, Mark Sutherland, Jane Covernton, Sharon Negri, Ronnie R. Brown, Kim Chi-Ha, Li Min Hua, Memoye Abijah Ogu, Deena Padayachee, Hans Raimund, Loreina Santos Silva, Fritzi Harmsen Van Beek, Nam Hunt, Tanya Lester, Ioannidou-Stavrou, Antonio D'Alfonso, Artuo Arias, John Barlow, Dorin Tudoran, Sandi Johnson, Muriel Karr, Rhonda Wauhkonen, Mercedes Roffe, Anne Burke, Sigitas Geda, Tim Lander, Liliane Welch, Marie Luise Kashnitz, Tom Savage, D.C. Reid, Marosa Di Giorio, Mark Warrior, Han Shan, Zoe Landale, Eugenio Montale, Richard Trumball and more!

We spoke with Mona Fertig of Mother Tongue Publishing, about new books from BC authors, the excitement of publishing local authors and how Mother Tongue came to be!

What inspired you to start Mother Tongue Publishing?

In 2008, (m)Öthêr Tøñgué Press, after eighteen years as an established private literary press on Salt Spring Island that specialized in publishing limited signed edition chapbooks of Canadian poetry, letterpressed broadsides and bookart, we decided to expand our publishing mandate, and enter into trade publishing. Creating a legacy of regional art and literature, also meant staying small and beautiful. There were 4 main reasons I travelled on this path. 1. We needed more women publishers in BC. 2. I received a grant to write a book about my father’s life as an outsider artist, but no publisher in BC was interested (this was the beginning of Mother Tongue’s 10 years of publishing the acclaimed Unheralded Artists of BC series). 3. I knew I could do a good job. 4. The Canada Council told me they needed more literary presses.

What is the best book you have read that other people might not have heard of? 

Here are a few favourite books in my library, I can’t pick best or under the radar.

-A Suit of Light, Anne Hebert

-Mrs Blood-Audrey Thomas

-Time-Etel Adnan

-Translations of the Gospel Back into Tongues-C.D. Wright

-Giovanni’s Room-James Baldwin

-All We Saw-Anne Michaels

How do you discover the writers or works that you publish?

Through submissions, recommendations, mentorship, literary sleuthing and prescience.

Are there any new or forthcoming titles you are excited to share with the literary community?  

Road Trips, Journeys in the Unspoiled World, by Trevor Carolan is an excellent, joyful and timely read. Literary Non-fiction. Just released. I will be publishing The Pocket Guide to the Unheralded Artists of BC in the fall, and that will be historic. And my new book of poetry, Islander, will be coming out next year.

What are you looking for in the books you publish not only as a publisher but as a reader?

Literary ch’i- sound, (breath), depth, (beauty), perception, (insight), lasting power, (timelessness), originality (power).

What have been the most exciting aspects of publishing local writers so far?

The finished beautiful book, new voices found and nurtured, community created, friends made, …stories added to the warp and woof of regional literary history.

What is the importance of reading and art during this time? 

Reading and art are lifelines, trap lines, ley lines, ways into and out of the labyrinth.

They open our hearts, take us deeper, give us respite and courage, joy and memory.

What are the biggest chances / uplifting moments you have experienced during the pandemic?

 We are taking a big chance in signing new authors, as book sales have nosedived since the pandemic. Publishers are trying to keep their heads above water. The good news is some emergency financial support has arrived via some arts councils. In uncertainty keep focused. Land is in/sight.

You can find more at:

mothertonguepublishing.com/

Twitter: @monasbooks