Lindsay Wong (Shimon Karmel)

Vancouver’s Arsenal Pulp Press has announced a partnership with Lindsay Wong that will provide mentoring and publication for emerging BIPOC writers.

Wong, who teaches creative writing at the University of Winnipeg, had her first book published by Arsenal Pulp Press, the memoir The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family.

She will select, and then work with emerging writers to develop and edit manuscripts that will be published as part of the regular Arsenal Pulp Press list. The initial plan is to publish at least one book a year, starting in 2027.

Wong will consider literary fiction and nonfiction titles. “I love genre-blurring books that transcend what we think we know about a particular subject or form,” says Wong. “I love dark humour. Nothing in literature scares or shocks me.”

“Publishing BIPOC writers has always been part of our publishing DNA,” says Arsenal Pulp’s publisher Brian Lam. “Having Lindsay oversee this project will definitely bring a new energy and depth to our acquisitions.”

In 2017 Arsenal Pulp established the VS Books imprint with author Vivek Shraya to focus on publishing and supporting young writers of colour. The imprint’s first title, the highly successful Shut Up You’re Pretty by Tea Mutonji went on to win the Trillium Book Award and Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction and was runner-up in Canada Reads 2024. But when Shraya took on the position of senior editor at Random House Canada earlier this year, the imprint lapsed.

“Lindsay approached us a few months ago with this idea to revive a program for emerging BIPOC writers, with a few tweaks,” says Lam. “Î think with this new initiative, Lindsay hopes to ‘pay it forward’ and assist the careers of emerging BIPOC writers herself.” Prior to Arsenal Pulp, The Woo Woo had been turned down by a number of publishers. It would go on to be shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, and won the 2019 Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, and was a Canada Reads finalist in 2019. Wong has since published a book of short stories and a YA novel, and a novel is forthcoming in 2026.

“I am honestly ecstatic to collaborate with Arsenal again,” says Wong in a press release. “Arsenal has been monumental to my own career and for so many other BIPOC authors in Canada who would not otherwise have an opportunity to publish if Brian Lam and his incredible team did not take a chance on them,” Wong says. “In mainstream publishing, BIPOC authors are still told they are ‘too niche,’ ‘too weird,’ and ‘not reliable enough. … I am excited to see what racialized writers in Canada have been working on.”

The deadline for the initial call for submissions for the program, is Jan. 26, 2026. Writers of any age with no more than one published book and who are currently not enrolled in a post-secondary program are eligible. The full submission guidelines can be found on Arsenal Pulp’s website.