Head Tale

I joined the board of Coteau Books in early 2012 but this photo of the board is from January 2016.

Coteau entered bankruptcy earlier this year so this is from happier times and what happy times they were.

During my many years on the Coteau board, I met such a wide range of great people – authors, editors, lawyers, accountants, teachers, journalists and yes, even a handful of librarians over the years.  Of particular note is the gentleman to my immediate right in the above photo – Bob Currie – was a founding member of Coteau Books, a well-known educator in Moose Jaw and one of Saskatchewan’s past Poet Laureates.

(As Coteau entered bankruptcy, all of us felt the loss in different ways but I can’t imagine what it was like for Bob who was a founding member forty-five years ago and sitting at the table when we decided that the press couldn’t go on.)

I was at Coteau today with our former Board President for what will likely be the last time as we’ve wrapped up most of the bankruptcy procedures, completed an auction of Coteau’s assets, and the office is now all but empty.

Although the ending was tragic and what no one expected or wanted to see, this final visit gave me a moment to think back on what an amazing opportunity it was to be part of the Coteau Board of Directors for nearly a decade.

I learned so much about such a huge range of topics and, in a dream come true, even got to play a direct role in helping to bring dozens of books into the world.  Coteau is gone but no one will ever take that from me.