News & Announcements

With many industry instructors, panelists, guests to our faculty run classes, our students come to understand and practice the most current job-ready skills and approaches to problem solving and creativity in the publishing world. We interviewed Jamie Broadhurst, VP Marketing Raincoast Books and long-time sessional lecturer when he dropped by our office as we prepared for our annual Emerging Leaders in Publishing Summit for graduate students, faculty and industry professionals.

Welcome to the 2025 Emerging Leaders in Publishing Summit! Now in our 10th and final year, this four-day academic/industry intensive explores innovative ideas and has always been an opportunity to bring together a special combination of academics and industry to dig into current and meaningful issues, discussions and groundbreaking ideas in the landscape of publishing. Image: Panelist Eileen Cook, Author, our guest Feb 10

Zoe Wake Hyde and Alejandra Casas Niño de Rivera are among the talented MPub alumni who have joined forces with the Public Knowledge Project (PKP)

As we head into a new year, we also head into a new MPub! We recently chatted with SFU’s Publishing Director, Dr. Hannah McGregor, about the new direction and how the stream approach will provide MPub graduates with even more access and opportunities in the industry...

SFU Publishing Director Hannah McGregor's new book, Podcast or Perish, explores how the growth of scholarly podcasting may engender radical possibilities for how we conceive of knowledge creation and peer review, and the transformative potential of new modes of creating and reviewing expert knowledge.

Master of Publishing graduate Jarin Pintana recently presented at the 2024 Swiftposium, a first-ever academic conference on Taylor Swift's global impact, organized by the University of Melbourne in Australia. A devoted 'Swiftie', Pintana gives us an insight into what she calls the "highlight of her academic career". She also shares her experiences as both a fan and a keen observer of Swift's incredible legacy.

SFU Publishing senior lecturer Mauve Pagé has been recognized with the 2023 SFU Excellence in Teaching award for her commitment towards fostering a non-traditional and culturally-inclusive learning space for students. A champion for student-led pedagogy, Pagé is dedicated to implementing de-colonized ways of knowing in design education, all the while advancing her students’ professional and personal growth.

The FCAT Excellence Awards was established in 2018 to honour the hard work, dedication, and excellence that occurs across FCAT and beyond. This year's recipients also included SFU Publishing faculty members; Master of Publishing alumnus Heidi Waetchler, Adjunct Professor Amanda Lastoria, and Associate Professor Juan Pablo Alperin.

Master of Publishing (MPub) student Christina Morden recently joined Raincoast Books, a division of Raincoast Book Distribution In., an award-winning, Canadian-owned book wholesale and distribution company. In this interview, Christina discusses her new role as publicist, her love for romance novels, her time in the MPub, and more.

MPub alumnus Susan Juby’s Mindful of Murder is one of three titles to be shortlisted for the Leacock Medal for Humour. Published last year, Mindful of Murder is a fun and quirky story, set in an upscale spiritual retreat, where Helen Thorpe, a newly trained butler, finds herself entangled in a thrilling murder mystery.

In honour of Indigenous History Month, SFU Publishing spoke with Indigenous students from the MPub program and the IUPP, a bridge program which supports Indigenous students' journey into SFU. Spring 2023 marked the inclusion of a publishing minor course in the IUPP curriculum, signifying a necessary step in promoting Indigenous representation in publishing.

Hannah McGregor is an Associate Professor in SFU's Publishing Program. She is also a podcast host and a newly published author. Although Hannah is currently on leave, she spoke with us about her role within the program and her new book, A Sentimental Education.

Juan Pablo Alperin is an Associate Professor in the Publishing Program, the co-Scientific Director of the Public Knowledge Project, and the co-Director of the Scholarly Communications Lab. As a leading voice on issues of developing regions to the scholarly community through a combination of published research, presentations, and membership in the board of major international initiatives, Dr. Alperin was recently awarded a SSHRC Connection grant of $21,695 for research on “Broadening our understanding of Open Science.”

When SFU School of Communication alum Casey McCarthy received a promotional email about the master of publishing (MPub) program, she decided to pursue the program to upgrade her strengths and abilities. “I just wanted to take my skills to the next level. I was looking for something more transferable. I didn’t want to focus on one set path, but focus on things that I really enjoy doing — which is writing, research, and conveying information,” McCarthy says.

During the Summer, Claire Cavanagh, a current MPub student moved from Vancouver to Newfoundland to complete her thirteen-week professional placement with Breakwater Books, a publishing company with a focus on trade and celebrating the unique stories of Newfoundland and Labrador. Claire has now completed her professional placement as a Foreign Rights Consultant and has transitioned to a full-time position as a sales coordinator.

It is with great pride and pleasure that the SFU Publishing Program announces the establishment of The Greg Younging Publishing Award Endowment. The endowment will create a fully funded opportunity for an Indigenous student to complete the Master of Publishing (MPub) degree at Simon Fraser University.

Congratulations to Alex Krilow, a third-year Communications and Publishing student who has won the first-ever Greg Younging Undergraduate Award in Publishing!

As the Master of Publication application deadline fast approaches, we had the chance to interview Olivia Johnson, who is part of this year’s 2020/2021 cohort. Learn more about Olivia Johnson’s publishing experience and don’t forget to apply by February 1!

Amanda Lastoria has earned North America’s first Ph.D. in Publishing (Simon Fraser University). She also holds an MA in Publishing (Oxford Brookes University), a BA in French/Arts and Culture (SFU) and a Diploma in Arts Management (University of London).

Professor of Graphic Design in the School of Communication at the Royal College of Art, London, Dr. Teal Triggs presents the comic book world of Katy Keene at Emily Carr University’s Reliance Theatre

This interview is part of our "3 Questions" series with Publishing Minor students, Master of Publishing candidates, and MPub alumni.

This interview is part of our “3 Questions” series with Publishing Minor students, Master of Publishing candidates, and MPub alumni.

This interview is part of our "3 Questions" series with Publishing Minor students, Master of Publishing candidates, and MPub alumni.

To those unfamiliar, Sourcebooks is more than just the largest woman-owned book publisher and the largest trade book publisher in Chicago. Sourcebooks is an author-first, data-driven, innovative, mission-driven publisher. And with this model they’ve managed to achieve scores of New York Times bestsellers, hundreds of national bestsellers, and #1 selling titles in perennial categories.. “How do we accomplish those results?” Founder, Dominique Raccah, asked in rhetorical fashion at the start of her engrossing lecture, “I’ll tell you everything today.” Here are the highlights of 2019’s Jim Douglas Lecture with Dominique Raccah of Sourcebooks.

This interview is part of our “3 Questions” series with Publishing Minor students, Master of Publishing candidates, and MPub alumni.

Hannah McGregor (Ph.D., Literary/Theatre Studies, University of Guelph) is one half of that duo, and Publishing's newest Assistant Professor. Blending public scholarship and cultural phenomena is the magic that makes the fortnightly podcast so beloved by its 3500 listeners. To Hannah’s surprise, it also proved to be an asset in the job market, particularly with the publishing program at SFU.

Our Faculty's FCAT blog has a new showcase of Dr Juan Alperin (@juancommander), who has just been awarded a three-year SSHRC Insight Grant for "Understanding the Societal Impact of Research Through Social Media." The proposed project seeks to create an empirical and methodological basis for the systematic analysis of the societal impact of research through the engagement with scholarly documents on social media.

SFU Master of Publishing candidate Shed Simas is running a crowdfunding campaign to launch a Literary Speculative Fiction publishing house.

Canzine, presented by Broken Pencil, is underway at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts in downtown Vancouver today from 1-7pm. As a celebration of zines, their makers, and the ideas they give life to, the festival has drawn makers from all over the Pacific Northwest. This is the story of Portland-based zinemaker Jillian Barthold’s story as told in her own words.

Simon Fraser University marks the five-hundredth anniversary of the death of pioneering printer-publisher Aldus Manutius with a groundbreaking online resource.

Juan Pablo Alperin (BMath, MA) is a multidisciplinary scholar with over eight years of experience in online scholarly publishing. He recently joined the Publishing@SFU faculty, teaching “Technology and the Evolving Forms of Publishing” (PUB 802), “Technology and the Evolving Book” (PUB 401), and Publication of Self in Everyday Life (PUB 101). He is a collaborator on the Public Knowledge Project at Simon Fraser University and kindly agreed to the below interview.

Page Two, a literary agency with a twist, celebrates its first anniversary. Run by publishing veterans (and MPub alumni) Jesse Finkelstein and Trena White, Page Two represents authors seeking traditional publishing contracts but also atypical authors who are looking for innovative paths to publishing.

Last Tuesday Publishing@SFU welcomed the 20th cohort of MPubbers to the Master of Publishing program. Not only are the students new, so are some of the faculty. Indeed, a whole bunch of things are new.

Believe it or not, the SFU Master of Publishing program is 20 years old. And with 200 graduates calling the shots in publishing all over the world, we've got a lot to celebrate.