Collectivité

Coteau Books

Dates: Coteau Books was established in 1975 and continues to publish to this day. Mandate: Coteau Books was set up as part of a non-profit publishing co-operative whose key goal was to publish prairie and Canadian writing - poetry, fiction, plays and children's books. Administrative relationships: Coteau was initially established as the book division of the Thunder Creek Publishing Co-operative. This co-operative also produced albums under the division Caragana Records. As Coteau grew and established itself, it became the dominant representation of the co-operative. Administrative structure: Originally based in Moose Jaw, Coteau's four original board members, Barbara Sapergia, Geoffrey Ursell, Robert Currie, and Gary Hyland, were responsible for editing and production, with the assistance of one person hired to handle orders. By 1983 Coteau had established a branch office in Regina with a managing editor and two additional employees. The four original board members were eventually joined by seven others in 1978 and 1983. In 1988, Gary Hyland quit the Co-operative to concentrate on his own writing. The Board of Directors still contains three of the original members of the Thunder Creek Publishing Co-operative: Sapergia, Ursell, and Currie.