The Porcupine's Quill
Celebrating thirty-five years on the Main Street
of Erin Village, Wellington County
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The Porcupine’s Quill is remarkable in Canadian publishing in that most of the physical production of our journal is completed in-house at the shop on the Main Street of Erin Village. We print on a twenty-five inch Heidelberg KORD, typically onto acid-free Zephyr Antique laid. The sheets are then folded, and sewn into signatures on a 1907 model Smyth National Book Sewing machine.
To take a virtual tour of the pressroom, visit us at YouTube for a discussion of offset printing in general, and the operation of a Heidelberg KORD in particular. Other videos include Four Colour Printing, Smyth Sewing and Wood Engraving. Photographs of production machinery used on these pages were taken by Sandra Traversy on site at the printing office of the Porcupine's Quill, December 2008.
The Porcupine's Quill would like to acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. The financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) is also gratefully acknowledged.
“When I first joined up with The Porcupine's Quill in the late 80's, I knew nothing about the publishing world and now, several publishers later, I probably know more than is good for my mental health. What I do know for sure is that Tim and Elke and John set the standard. Okay, maybe not for stellar advances, but for artistic practice and accomplishment. For passion and nerve and exactitude. For reliability, and high, unwavering hopes, and hard hard work. At times it's been a prickly old porcupine, but one warmly embraced nonetheless and hugely admired.” —Terry Griggs, author of The Lusty Man
