Breakwater Books celebrated its 50th anniversary as an independent publishing house last year. It was founded in 1973 to showcase the vibrant literary culture in Newfoundland and Labrador. Since then, we have continued our commitment to Newfoundland and Labrador writers while expanding our focus to feature emerging and well-known authors from across Canada and overseas. Breakwater publishes award-winning writing in all literary genres—fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, art, young adult, and children’s books, as well as cookbooks, guidebooks, and educational resources.

Since the early 1980s, our backlist shows a continued commitment to works by feminist writers, BIPOC writers, 2SLGBTQ+ writers, writers with disabilities, and other authors from marginalized communities. It also includes bilingual titles from and about the francophone population on the west coast of Newfoundland, and we have translated and published international writers and writers from French Canada that compliment our list and mandate.

Breakwater Books respectfully acknowledges the land on which we operate as the ancestral homelands of the Beothuk, and the island of Newfoundland as the ancestral homelands of the Mi’kmaq and Beothuk. We would also like to recognize the Inuit of Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut and the Innu of Nitassinan, and their ancestors, as the original people of Labrador.