The origin of Chapel Street Editions (CSE) goes back to the late 1970s and our association with David Folster, a well-known New Brunswick journalist and founding President of the St. John River Society. We shared a mutual interest in advancing the natural and cultural heritage of our province. We worked on a plan for a regional publishing venture that did not come to fruition.

The emergence of digital technology has changed the picture. The kind of small-scale, professional publishing we had in mind is now possible. Chapel Street Editions was established in Woodstock in 2014 by Keith, Ellen, and Brendan Helmuth.

In 1997, David Folster published an essay, titled “I Am a St. John River Person,” in which he summed up his attachment to place. If David were still with us, he would be on board with CSE. In a real sense he is. CSE works with this same sense of place and under the influence of his love for the region where he lived.

A vibrant cultural life rests on a strong attachment to place. This means a strong attachment to the land and all its communities of life, to the built environment, and to the ecological, social, and livelihood relationships of the places where we live.

We recognize that we live and work in the unceded home territory of the Wolastoqey, Mi’kmaq, and Peskotomuhkati people and that Indigenous stories stand at the head of our region’s natural history and cultural life. We honour the caretaking ethic with which Indigenous people guard the land and we are grateful for their wisdom and guidance.

The great river along which we live has now regained its Indigenous name—Wolastoq. It begins in the wilderness country of northern Maine and makes its way through the broad watershed region of western and central New Brunswick to the Bay of Fundy. CSE is dedicated to a literature of place that advances an appreciation for not only our home region but for all New Brunswick’s natural regions and the cultural life of their human settlements.

A Note about Cultural Heritage: Chapel Street Editions works with cultural heritage in three ways:

• republishing books from the past that are worthy of keeping in print;
• publishing new books that focus on some aspect of New Brunswick’s history or portray significant features of its contemporary life and environment;
• publishing books that make a significant contribution to the ongoing literary heritage of the province.