Staff and Board Members

The Literary Press Group has a small and dedicated staff, including:

Laura Rock Gaughan, Executive Director

Laura Rock Gaughan joined the Literary Press Group as Executive Director in 2019. Prior to that she was a senior associate at Laridae, a consulting firm specializing in non-profit management, where she advised clients on communications, strategic planning, community engagement, and governance. An experienced facilitator, she has led numerous workshops and taught college communications and creative writing.

Laura is a longtime volunteer and past board member of the Lakefield Literary Festival and previously volunteered as a member of refugee settlement support teams. A published writer, her fiction and essays have appeared in literary journals, newspapers, and anthologies. Her first book, a short story collection entitled Motherish, came out in 2018.

As a wide-ranging reader who regularly prescribes books to family and friends, she’s thrilled to be working to support literary publishers at the LPG.

Barb Phillips, Business Manager

Barb Phillips became the Business Manger for the Literary Press Group in 2011. Her job involves all things financial, but she keeps her fingers in all the LPG pots. She decided to do a career change shortly after moving to Toronto, and attended the inaugural year at Humber's Creative Book Publishing program. After that, Barb worked at McClelland & Stewart for four years.

When not at work, Barb enjoys reading all the beautiful books that come into her office daily, and looks forward to summers on the dock with a pile of LPG books at hand. She also belongs to a longstanding book club – 15 years and counting!

Mandy Bayrami, Marketing Manager

Mandy Bayrami is the marketing manager at the LPG. She previously worked at the Association of Canadian Publishers and Playwrights Canada Press, both of which solidified her enthusiasm for the literary community and the exciting books born from it.

In her spare time, Mandy can be found binge-watching Netflix shows and cooking mediocre dishes. She is smart to let others make dessert though because she is serious about pie. She probably drinks too much coffee, and buys more books than she has space for. One of these days she will need a bigger apartment.

Tan Light, Sales Manager

Tan Light joined the LPG as Sales Manager in early 2013 after 5 years with Random House of Canada. In this role, Tan manages all aspects of the LPG's Sales Force Project, which includes working closely with the Canadian Manda Group, who represent 38 of the LPG's member publishers, in order to develop seasonal catalogues and sales conference events. Additionally, Tan contributes content to the LPG's digital project, AllLitUp.ca.

When not at work, Tan sits on the board of advisors for Found Press and co-chairs the CanPBA Executive Committee, the peer-education & industry event gurus behind BookCampTO, The Mentor Mash and Poetry Karaoke.

Lauren Perruzza, Engagement Manager

Lauren Perruzza was once and is again the Engagement Manager at the LPG. After stints at a content marketing agency and doing publicity for Raincoast Book Distribution, she has happily returned to the literary press roost. Her decade in publishing also took her to Random House of Canada and Owlkids Books. She holds a Masters of Publishing from Simon Fraser University.

When she's not working with our members or dividing her time between book clubs, Lauren navigates her relationship with the family's ornery tabby cat, Finnegan, and prepares for the coziest kind of apocalypse by knitting, volunteer beekeeping, and attempting to garden.

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Providing oversight, guidance, and support is our volunteer Board of Directors, including:

Norm Nehmetallah, Invisible Publishing (Chair)

Norm Nehmetallah is the publisher of Invisible Publishing. He was born into a large Arab Canadian family and grew up in Windsor, Ontario. He has performed various roles in Canadian publishing—some more dignified than others—at Penguin Random House Canada, Coach House Books, and Biblioasis.

Aimée Dunn, Palimpsest Press (Vice-Chair)

Aimée Dunn (she/her) is the owner and publisher of Palimpsest Press, an award-winning independent literary press located in Windsor Ontario. Aimée has a honours degree in English Literature and Language from the University of Windsor and a graduate certificate in Publishing from Toronto Metropolitan University. She is the fiction editor at Palimpsest Press, with over 15 years of editing experience. She is currently serves on boards for the Literary Press Group of Canada, Literary Arts Windsor, and Franco-Sol Guarderie. She lives in Windsor with her husband and two children.

Rebecca Rose, Breakwater Books (Past Chair)

Rebecca Rose was born and raised in St. John’s and is the President/Publisher of Breakwater Books, Newfoundland’s oldest publishing house. Having grown up inside the publishing industry, she purchased Jesperson Press in 2002 and purchased Breakwater in 2009. Under her guidance, Breakwater has gradually rebranded to focus almost exclusively on the literary trade market.

In May of 2017, Breakwater acquired Creative Book Publishing to become the island’s foremost literary publisher. Rebecca has served as the President of the Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association, a board member of the Association of Canadian Publishers, a board member of LitDistCo, and is currently a board member of the Literary Press Group of Canada. In 2013, she co-founded Ochre Fest – a cultural festival celebrating the unique literature, music, art, and food of Newfoundland and Labrador - which takes place every June in a revitalized church in Ochre Pit Cove, NL.

Kelsey Attard, Freehand Books (Treasurer)

Kelsey Attard is the managing editor of Freehand Books, a literary publisher in Calgary. She has a master of publishing degree from Simon Fraser University, and she has worked for more than a decade in Alberta’s writing and publishing industry. She also sits on the board of the Book Publishers Association of Alberta.

Karen Green, Anvil Press (Member-at-Large)

Bio to come.

Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Kegedonce Press (Member-at-Large)

Bio to come.

Brenda Leifso, Brick Books (Member-at-Large)

Bio to come.