Anerca (Firm)

Anerca was a Canadian non-profit independent small-press poetry magazine edited and published by Kedrick James, Adeena Karasick and Wreford Miller. “Anerca” is the Inuit word for both breath and poetry. It was a "monthly" newsletter of poetry and poetics which subsisted primarily on a mailing list of 400 writers and institutions throughout North America and overseas. The first issue was published in May 1986 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Each issue was hand-bound, sewn, or stapled and sent out, often with a handwritten personalized note. In 1987-88, Kedrick James and Adeena Karasick moved to Montreal to spend a year as visiting students at McGill University. During that time, they published an issue of Anerca, which was professionally printed, saddle-stapled, neat and tidy. In the 1990s, the print became rarified. The name Anerca was changed to Anerca Com.p/ost to reflect this change for the final issue in 1990. The editors recognized that passing into a digital era would subsume them and break down the nutrient of poetic effulgence for new growth. The end of Anerca rang an inaudible bell, marking the end of the West Coast literary tradition. In 2016, Kedrick James sold all the Anerca archives to Simon Fraser University Library, Special Collections.