Author Spotlight Q&A: Kate Hargreaves

We are so excited to share another Author Spotlight Q&A! Today we are spotlighting Kate Hargreaves, author of tend and Leak.

B*: What does being part of the Book*hug author family mean to you?

KH: As someone who has been part of the Book*hug family both as an author and on the other side of the industry as a book designer, I feel particularly privileged. Not only did Jay and Hazel take a chance on publishing Leak, my first poetry book, but in between Leak and my second collection tend, I got to be part of so many other titles from a design perspective. Across the board, I was able to see the amount of care, intention, and effort with which the whole Book*hug team brings their titles into the world, and I have been able to connect with brilliant authors across genres through my work with this press. Particularly lovely was being able to design a cover for Jennifer LoveGrove and then have her deftly edit my poems for tend. It is this kind of overlapping of relationships, of collective effort, that makes being a Book*hug author feel like being part of something at once bigger and also small in the best way.

B*: Can you share another title from the Book*hug catalogue that has left a lasting impression on you as a reader?

KH: This is a difficult question because in diving into each title I designed, in order to get the correct tone and imagery for the cover, I fell in love with so many Book*hug books. However, the one that stands out the most to me, and which I find myself reaching for often, is Deep Salt Water by Marianne Apostolides with art by Catherine Mellinger. When I was sent this manuscript to design, along with the collages, I was already familiar with Swim, and I had found its genre-crossing, embodiedness, and beauty striking. Deep Salt Water is similarly evocative but also very different. It is at once beautiful and soft and difficult and real, and I think about it often. The first time I read it in its finished book form, I was sitting by the water, and experiencing the sounds and smells and sensory input of that setting. Absorbing Apostolides’ words and Mellinger’s art was the perfect way to take it in. I don’t think I put it down once until I was finished.

B*: When we see more large publisher consolidations and huge conglomerates dominating the marketplace, what does it mean to you to be published by an independent publisher like Book*hug Press?

KH: I am so grateful for Book*hug as an indie press because of all the genre-crossing, relationship blending, collective collaborative effort, and love that goes into everything they do. It is palpable and warm and full of clear intention. I feel very lucky to have had a chance to have my work cared for amongst the other Book*hug titles and to be able to contribute my small piece of design work to the catalogue as well, to get to know other Book*hug authors and their works, and to get to know the Book*hug team. Everything about the experience feels in stark contrast to a corporate model, and we are so lucky to have them.

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Kate Hargreaves is the author of the poetry collection, Leak, as well as Jammer Star, a roller derby novel for young readers, and Talking Derby, a book of prose vignettes. She holds an MA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Windsor, where she received the Governor General’s Gold Medal in Graduate Studies. Her work has appeared in literary journals across Canada, the US, and the UK. As a book designer for numerous Canadian presses, Hargreaves has received honours from the Alcuin Society for Excellence in Book Design, the CBC Bookie Awards, and the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. She grew up in Amherstburg, Ontario, and lives and works in Windsor.