Arsenal Pulp Press

Arsenal began life in 1971 as Pulp Press Book Publishers, founded by a collective of university students and associates (among them, Stephen Osborne, current publisher of Geist magazine) disenchanted by what they perceived to be the academic literary pretensions of Canadian literature at the time. The early ’70s were a fertile and exciting period in alternative arts and literature, and life at Pulp was no exception.

Arsenal has become well-known internationally for its gay and lesbian publishing program. Its first book in this subject area was 1993’s Queeries, the first book of gay male prose ever published in Canada, edited by Dennis Denisoff (author of the novel Dog Years).

It is interested in literature that engage and challenge readers, and which ask probing questions about the world around us.

With a staff of five, located in the historic Vancouver district of Chinatown, Arsenal publishes between 14 and 20 new titles per year, as well as an average of 12 to 15 reprints; their books are distributed in Canada, the US, Great Britain, Australia, and English-speaking Europe, and translations of our books have appeared in China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, France, Spain, Italy, German, Turkey, and Brazil.