“EXILE is outstanding among North American journals!” —Joyce Carol Oates tweeted after receiving her recent issue.
EXILE began as a quarterly publication in 1972, with a simple editorial dedication that remains as our cornerstone to this day: We partner with Canadian writers of fiction, poetry, drama, and non-fiction – and with visual artists engaged in painting, photography, illustration, and related disciplines – so that we might provide our exemplary, industry-respected, compassionate, editorial and mentoring instruction.
Our History (brief):
EXILE was founded by one of Canada’s especial persons of letters, Barry Callaghan. In 2022/2023 we celebrated 50 years, marked by the publication of four celebratory issues!
Over these 50 years, every work appearing in our pages is the product of a discerning editorial culture that is intent on discovery and diversity, because our members aspire to:
- Support and promote creators who reflect Canada’s diverse make up.
- Publish distinctively Canadian literary, speculative, and exploratory content that contributes to the flow and exchange of cultural expression.
- Discover new and emerging talent, and offer a mentoring program that pairs established and emerging writers so we may provide knowledgeable insights and direction through editorial discussion.
- Publish Canadian authors working in translation, not just from French, but from many languages.
- Provide content that engages local, regional, national, and international readers of all ages and backgrounds.
- Work in partnership with industry-related businesses and individuals so we develop new opportunities that foster an environment of discovery and expression.
We have published over 3,000 works by the very best of Canada’s emerging, mid-career, and established writers and artists – alongside many of the same whose roots are international – with no advertising in our pages, just cover-to-cover literary and visual enjoyment.
Our Vision:
We are a proudly independent small Canadian press dedicated to publishing works of singular quality. We of course do not hold an emerging writer to the same standards as senior, proven talents, but we do expect that all works we publish will be more than accomplished, that they will have real aesthetic merit. We like to assume, as a basic proposition, that all of the creative people we work with intend greatness.
Our Mission:
The publication and distribution of EXILE supports, enhances, and empowers a vital and diverse Canadian literary and visual arts ecology. Within the pages of EXILE, our readers can find a genuine opportunity to expand their sense of self and how they relate to the world around them.
Funding:
Between 1978 and 2015 we worked in synchronicity with the Canada and Ontario Arts Councils through their Core Publishing programs. That is, we shared a vision: to publish the best innovative and exploratory works being produced by Canadians!
But then, in the mid 2010s, things changed in the Canadian publishing world: Along came the career apparatchik Simon Brault at the Canada Council (and his contemporary, Jack Illingsworth at the Ontario Arts Council) and that’s when what we call “The Simon Brault Effect” took hold (see an essay by Barry Callaghan to be available in February of 2024).
The immediate result: A chill fell over Canadian publishing. A chill that ramped up every year during Brault’s tenure at the CCA as he insisted that all of us must, without compromise, agree to participation in fulfilling HIS “Strategic Plan.” A plan that, in its perversity, either crippled, or finally eliminated small publishers from Canada’s once-vibrant small-press-rich landscape (the cultural irony: his tactics resulted in nothing less than what we now commonly acknowledge as being “cancelled”).
Was there an alternative to what Brault was championing? Only one: acquiescence, and agree to be bullied into an acceptance of this new mandate that focused on a range of poorly propositioned catch phrases and abstract concepts which the general public can not be expected to comprehend, let alone those who run our country’s publishing houses! His route to be followed, if we were to participate in the CCA’s “success of Canadian culture,” was to be active in a social, and therefore political, engagement rooted in the theory of “cultural engineering” (see article we call: Bafflegab Masquerades as Cultural Salvation!).
This was Brault’s way of doing things, with a guileless arrogance as he embraced HIS new and overarching “cultural engineering” strategy. While at EXILE, we relied on our “authentic and real-time” sense of Canada’s publishing history that comes from having a deep understanding of the industry – foremost based on our direct and daily interaction with it – and we very soon appreciated that HIS strategy flew in the face of everything the Canada Council had stood for since its 1957 inception (see video by author Anne Michaels: an essay on the history of Canadian publishing – to be available in February of 2024).
Between 2019 and 2022, it became increasingly evident we were “doomed” as a CCA (and OAC) core funding participant. They refused to acknowledge that we had very successfully navigated our way through the Covid years. They refused to acknowledge that during the Covid years the CCA had required we make funding applications that no other Canadian publisher was required to make. During the Covid years they were relentless in their attacks and abuses. The CCA position had, simply, become one of a silo-minded series of punitive attacks, blow after punishing blow by way of a bureaucractic aggressiveness against our integrity that we could not counter to their satisfaction. And thus, successfully applying for funding from the Canada or Ontario Arts Councils’ core publishing programs came to an end… because we had no option when it meant we must give up on everything we’ve always stood for!
We were forced out of those funding programs. But! With our integrity intact, and a current business model that looks to the public-at-large for financial support, we now operate independently while pursuing our goals and aspirations without the pressure (threat, actually!) of being required to conform to the radicalized social ideologies of the councils. (In 2018 we became a charitable organization, after acting on advice from Margaret Atwood when she proposed this would be the alternative to free us from the councils).
Your Support:
We are a reader-supported organization, and simply ask those new to our publishing experience to purchase an initial two-year subscription which, come year three, will continue FREE for as long as you would like to receive the magazine. After that, our only request is for you to consider making a donation to our community project, in any amount you are comfortable with, whenever and/or as often as you feel you would like to.
To start your subscription, please click on: Enjoy!
Make a Charitable Donation (with tax receipt):
Donations are what support EXILE’s authors and artists, editorial handlers, magazine and website designers, as well as contributing to our educational programs, like Artists in Schools that engages junior school children live and in-person with art activities and instruction.
• In the 2023 we have received over $60,000 in donations.
Donations can be made in two way:
1) by e-transfer to admin@exilequarterly.com (Auto deposit enabled – include the note “Supporting Exile” when completing the transfer)
2) make your donation with Canada Helps (Canada Helps is a registered charity that provides a donation service for other Canadian charities.)
EXILE is published by The Excelsis Group, which is a CRA registered charitable organization, business no: 777897521 RR0001. Have a question? email: admin@exilequarterly.com
Current Financial Support:
Our 2022-23 publishing year was supported in part by a generous contribution from the Canadian Periodical Fund. (We currently await a final determination on support toward our 2023-24 year.)
Publication Details:
• Contributions: On average 15 to 20 contributors appear per issue (for payment details: Fees).
• Print Edition: 8×10 inch perfect bound magazine; 96 pages (special issues up to 120 pages); feature sections; individual and collaborative works; colour throughout.Retail Price: $25 per issue.
2024 Subscription Prices (retail price per issue is $25 print; digital included in subscription):
• Individual (Canada): see: Subscribe Once and Enjoy
• Individual (US ) two years: $85 (Canada/U.S.).
Library Subscription rate for one year, includes 2 print issues:
• Canadian: $65.00
• U.S.: $89.00 (payable in US$)
• Foreign: $119.00 (payable in US$)
Details on how to access the digital edition will become available in May of 2024.
Retail Distribution: Magazines Canada
Catching Up After COVID-19:
During 2023 we have undertaken a significant restructuring for our publication/business operations.
Part of our new procedure is that we adjusted our publication schedule for 2023 to be only 2 print issues for the publication year (those being Vol 46, No.s 1 & 2).
In general, we are essentially a year behind (as we have been the past 30 months: a Covid residual), and so the first of those issues is just going to press, the second in about a month from now, to be released at the end of January 2024/early February.
For the 2024 publication we will introduce 2 digital editions to complement 2 print editions (the print costs have simply become too much for us to absorb, so no longer will we do 4 print issues – at least for the foreseeable future).
The 2024 schedule will be a digital issue in March, print in June, digital in September, print in December.
Fundraising events:
EXILE undertakes a variety of public and private events each year, with a cumulative goal being to secure the funding that will support the publication of EXILE, as well as our various educational/cultural initiatives and programs.
If you would like to be included on our events/promotions lists, please email us (with “Add Me To Your List” in the Subject Line) at: admin@exilequarterly.com
