In a previous life I was managing editor of Vancouver’s Arsenal Pulp Press, one of Canada’s leading independent book publishers.

I have much to be thankful for of my experiences there, including the chance to work with many talented writers and artists. I received an e-mail from one of them today.

Wayde Compton was announcing the launch of the first title from Commodore Books: Fred Booker’s Adventures in Debt Collection.

Wayde Compton created three books for Arsenal while I was there: 49th Parallel Psalm, Performance Bond, and the anthology Bluesprint, which collected literature and orature from black writers who had lived in British Columbia.

He’s a brilliant and thoughtful writer who is committed to the conservation of a history that is all but forgotten and ignored in Vancouver and B.C.: the fact that there once was a thriving black community in the city.

Commodore Books is the “first and only black literary press in western Canada.” Wayde has come together with Karina Vernon and David Chariandy (that’s them pictured above; Wayde’s on the left) to create the publishing house. They’ve affiliated with the venerable West Coast Line.

From the Commodore Books Web site: “Our name recalls the Commodore, the paddle steamer which transported thirty-five black migrants from San Francisco to Victoria 147 years ago, during the Gold Rush; this small pioneer committee became the nucleus of British Columbia’s first black community.”

I wish them the best of luck.