Bibi Ukonu was overjoyed when he found out that a book from his new publishing house had been nominated for an Alberta Literary Award.

“I was extremely excited,” Ukonu says. He was at his day job as a shelver at the Winnipeg Public Library when he saw the nominations were posted. “I checked my phone while I was working, and then after my shift was over, I called the author.”

Calgary author Uchechukwu Umezurike’s novel Double Wahala, Double Trouble, published by Griots Lounge Publishing Canada in fall 2021, was a finalist for the Short Story Collection Award in 2022. A few months later, Griots Lounge received more good news – Umezurike’s book was also nominated for the Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher at the 2022 Manitoba Book Awards.

At the time of the nominations, Griots Lounge had only been operating in Winnipeg since 2020, shortly after Ukonu and his family moved to Canada from Owerri, Nigeria. “We needed such good news to come at that time,” he recalls. Griots Lounge focuses on publishing fiction and poetry by African-Canadian authors (citizens or permanent residents), with the aim of creating opportunities for minority voices in Canada. 

Growing up in a family of writers, Ukonu also wrote, but he realized writers were looking for publishers – especially authors who were sidelined by a minority language or who were living in a second-tier city in Nigeria. Ukonu and a partner founded Griots Lounge Publishing in Nigeria in 2012; the Canadian business is separate. “We promoted the books and the authors in Nigeria, and we found support. That’s why I knew that if it works in Nigeria, it can work in Canada.” The Canadian publisher’s list is composed mostly of titles by Canadian authors, with African authors making up 25 per cent of the list.

Ukonu credits publishing associations like the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers and the Association of Canadian Publishers for their assistance. “I’m not sure we would be where we are now if they hadn’t reached out, especially as we started during the pandemic,” he says.

One challenge as a new publisher is finding the first authors to publish. “You have to convince the author to let you handle the manuscript. It requires great confidence from the authors, and they didn’t necessarily have that initially,” says Ukonu, who checked literary journals and sought recommendations from academics on talented up-and-comers, then involved editors Tayo Keyede and Kara Toews in the editorial process. “We have fantastic authors forthcoming on our list for this year and 2024,” Ukonu says. Griots Lounge, which does not yet receive government funding, plans to publish five titles in 2023, including novels Leave My Bones in Saskatoon by Micheal Afenfia and Sons of the East by Ifeoma Chinwuba.

Initially, Griots Lounge promoted books through social media, with sales through the main McNally Robinson bookstore in Winnipeg, and online with Amazon, and then Indigo (the book chain has made a 15 per cent commitment to support BIPOC authors and businesses). Canmore-based Alpine Book Peddlers took on distribution in 2021. As of February 2023, new deals will see University of Toronto Press handle distribution with Alpine Book Peddlers, while Ampersand will handle sales. “Now we can focus on getting the quality we desire in the books, and getting the stories out there,” says Ukonu.

It was a conversation with Ampersand that led to Griots Lounge’s decision to publish kids books, so the press put out a call for submissions last fall. “The books will be for the Canadian child whose parents are African immigrants to find their past, where their parents originally came from. And to tell the stories of children who are coming from Africa, in a way that they will understand being Canadian,” says Ukonu. He describes the editorial goal as a “synergy” between African and Canadian styles of writing that might also infuse other languages with Canadian English.

Ampersand will sell Griots Lounge’s books into the traditional book market as well as the gift trade. Adding Griots Lounge was part of a deliberate decision by the sales group to augment their BIPOC-owned publishers. The 2022 Canadian Book Publishing Diversity Baseline Survey found 4.6 per cent of heads of firms identified as Black. In the past year, Ampersand has taken on four small, independent publishers owned by people of colour: Big Dreamers, Saffron Press, Laberinto, and Griots Lounge. Ampersand President Saffron Beckwith notes that along with the financial challenge to new publishers of paying for costs upfront, it can be hard for a start-up to find a distributor and a sales team unless they know who to talk to. “They can’t get more sales unless they have a sales force and distribution force,” she says.

Ukonu feels African-Canadian voices are only “beginning to emerge” in Canada in comparison to the U.K., where there is growing awareness of African writers, or the U.S. “We want more such voices to emerge and play a major part in the Canadian book market,” says Ukonu, who believes Griots Lounge is the only publisher wholly focused on African-Canadian authors.

Ukonu’s immediate goal for the press is to have Griots Lounge’s sales catch up to the positive reviews, but his vision is grander. He would like to hold readings for Griots Lounge books, and host a salon or book club in a city like Winnipeg where people can physically gather to share literature, “to have a space where we can all come together and share stories, like a physical space, where people can talk about cultures and life,” he says.