Monday, January 13, 2025
I have made the painful decision to wind down the operations of New Star Books. I have stopped acquiring new titles; the Fall 2024 program is the last that I will have seen through to press.
There are several factors that have led to this decision, including my own age and health, increasing difficulty of access to the marketplace, and the cold wind blowing in New Star’s direction from our arts councils, whose support of our work is a condition of existence.
New Star will continue to promote and distribute titles in print, through our trade distributor, UTP Distribution; New Star’s own website; and Amazon.com as well as Amazon.ca. However, it will no longer be acquiring new books for publication.
I’m grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to engage in meaningful work, and to work with writers in bringing their books to readers. I’m grateful to have lived and worked in an era when the value of the work we do, as publishers, writers, and others involved in publishing, was valued, and supported by citizens through the taxes they pay. I am proud of the role, however small, that New Star, over the last 55 years, has played in creating a dialogue in this country about how we live. There will be time to celebrate the press’s history and contributions; this is not the moment for that.
— Rolf Maurer