In mid-1980 Jean Wilson returned to Toronto from Galiano Island after 4 years as a freelance editor. She had previously, from 1968 to 1976, been a full-time editor at University of Toronto Press.
On the west coast she’d met Judith Lawrence and Eve Zaremba who told her about Broadside. Joining the collective was one of the best things that she’s done. It was a great paper; she made many lifelong friends; had a chance to write and do interviews as well as to edit; was very much part of the women’s movement. But after another 4 years in Toronto she realized that she really was a coastal person, so she returned to Vancouver, where she spent another 4 years working mainly for UTP but also for other university and commercial publishers, including UBC Press. A job starting in 1988 as managing editor at UBCP sealed her fate for the next 20 years.
Jean took early retirement in 2008, having by then become Associate Director, Editorial – she had moved from being managing editor to being an acquisitions editor, at first for all areas in which the Press published, and then later specializing in western Canadian history, Native studies, women’s studies, and anything else not assigned to other editors; she was also acting director twice. Since 2008 she’s been freelancing again, for a wide variety of publishers and for various authors and institutions.
Photo of Jean Wilson (L) and Jane Hastings (R)