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The Porcupine's Quill was incorporated in 1974, originally as the production arm of Dave Godfrey's Press Porcepic. This year(2008) the proprietors of the Porcupine's Quill,Tim and Elke Inkster,have been given the Order of Canada. Globe and Mail

THE ORDER OF CANADA 74 other snowflakes

July 3, 2008: And among those who bring literature to the public were the heroic publishers Elke and Tim Inkster of The Porcupine's Quill (for production quality as well as the contents of their books)

A number of the early titles (pre-1980) were slim volumes of poetry written by first-time authors that Tim Inkster knew from his student days editing literary magazines at the University of Toronto in the late 1960s. E.J. Carson's Scenes (1977) is one example of such a title. Ed Carson has subsequently distinguished himself as a publishing executive with Random House, Harper-Collins and currently Pearson Education Canada. Brian Henderson (Paracelsvs, PQL 1977) is now the publisher at Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

The Porcupine's Quill published Jane Urquhart's little poetry book The Little Flowers of Madame de Montespan in 1983, and her collection of stories, Storm Glass, in 1987. Jane Urquhart has subsequently achieved international fame and fortune with her novels (published by McClelland & Stewart) such as The Whirlpool and Changing Heaven.

The Porcupine's Quill has now been in business, in the same location, under the same management, for over twenty-five years.

Editorially, the early influence of poet Joe Rosenblatt has evolved to the current advice of John Metcalf (since 1989) with a predictable shift away from poetry towards fiction as the press began to contemplate larger volumes. That said, one of the more ambitious projects in recent years was the two-volume publication of the Collected Poems of P.K. Page. The Hidden Room, Volumes One and Two has been described as `one of the two dozen best books ever published in Canada.'

Early production-skill acclaim (notably from the Leipzig Book Fair and the Art Directors' Club of New York) has been augmented by recent editorial recognition that saw PQL place two out of five nominations for the best English language fiction in the 1991 Governor General's Awards (Blue Husbands by Don Dickinson and Quickening by Terry Griggs) and follow up with another fiction nomination in 1993 for Caroline Adderson's Bad Imaginings.

Forests of the Medieval World by Don Coles took first prize in the 1993 Governor General's Award for poetry.

Russell Smith's How Insensitive (1994) marked the third time in five years we'd reached the shortlist in English-language fiction with a first book by a hitherto-unknown author. How Insensitive was also short-listed for the SmithBooks/Books in Canada first novel award and the Trillium Award.

PQ has won the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Young Adult Historical Fiction (1991) for Fire Ship by Marianne Brandis and the John Glassco Translation prize (1991) for Matt Cohen's translation of Gaetan Brulotte's stories The Secret Voice.

They have won their first Q-SPELL award for Ray Smith's A Night at the Opera (1992) and have twice won the Ethel Wilson B.C. Book Prize for fiction (1991 and 1993) for Don Dickinson's Blue Husbands and Caroline Adderson's Bad Imaginings.

More recently Elizabeth Hay's Small Change was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award (1997), the Rogers'/VIACOM prize administered by the Writers' Development Trust and the Trillium Prize. Buying on Time, by Antanas Sileika, was shortlisted for the City of Toronto Book Award in 1998, and for the Leacock Award. Jacob's Ladder by Joel Yanofsky was shortlisted for the Prix Parizeau and the Grand Prix de Montreal, and Promise of Shelter by Robyn Sarah was shortlisted for the Q-Spell award.

Most recently Mike Barnes' Aquarium won the Danuta Gleed Award for the best first collection of stories (1999), Linda Holeman's Devil's Darning Needle was shortlisted for the McNally Robinson prize in Manitoba, Michael Winter's One Last Good Look was shortlisted for the Newfoundland Book Award and K.D. Miller's Give Me Your Answer was shortlisted for the CNIB/Torgi Talking Books of the Year Award as well as the Upper Canada Brewing Writers' Craft Award.