April 1st, 2026
KJIPUKTUK/HALIFAX – Today, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Nova Scotia Office published Risking the Loss of Critical Ideas and Diverse Voices: Nova Scotia Book Publishers Facing Unprecedented Instability, contributed by Fernwood Publishing.
This article details the importance of the Publishers’ Assistance Fund to Nova Scotia publishers and highlights the cultural, economic, and political importance of independent, local book publishers.
Access the article, contributed by Fernwood Publishing, one of the previous funding recipients, here: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/risking-the-loss-of-critical-ideas-and-diverse-voices-nova-scotia-book-publishers-facing-unprecedented-instability/
Anumeha Gokhale, Marketing, Sales and Distribution Manager of Fernwood Publishing, says, “The loss of publisher funding will not be felt only in offices or on spreadsheets; it will be felt in whose stories get told, taught, and remembered.”
Insurgent Love author Ardath Whynacht, published by Fernwood, is quoted: “Nova Scotian authors are writing incredible books. We’ve always punched above our weight in arts and culture here. I want my kids to be able to walk into a library and find generations of our stories at their fingertips. The province’s austerity budget isn’t just silencing this generation of local publishers–they’re robbing the archive.”
Whynacht continues, “As a writer, I’ve seen how my book travelled. It’s connected me to communities of readers in places I didn’t expect. I don’t want to read an AI-edited paperback. My bookshelves are filled with books by small publishers around the world because they put out the most important and most interesting stories. The provincial government has carelessly vandalized our publishing ecosystem here.”
CCPA-NS director Christine Saulnier says, “As this article makes clear, government funding of local publishers makes it possible to take risks to publish the most underheard or cutting-edge thinking, while also keeping books accessible and affordable. This is an industry with proven significant economic returns on investment and tremendous benefits to communities. The cut of $700,000 is a small fraction in the Nova Scotia budget that will have a tremendous negative impact.”
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For more information or to arrange interviews with the author, please contact: Ruby Harrington at [email protected].
The CCPA-NS is an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with social and economic justice issues and environmental sustainability.
