Village People: Partridge Island Publishing
We’re well into season three on the waterfront, and everyone is gearing up for the busiest part (cruise ships start in just a couple of weeks!) We reached out to some of our partners in the Waterfront Container Village – affectionately known as‘Village People’ — to find out a little bit more about who they are and what they love about their businesses.
Partridge Island Publishing is a small press in Saint John, New Brunswick, run by Shannon Dykens and Amanda Evans, fueled by their love for reading and support for writers.
Q: What’s your favourite colour?
Shannon: Sparkles!
Amanda: I like blue.
Q: Where did you get the idea for your business?
Amanda: The idea came from a book club, where Shannon and I first met. We both wanted to write a book but found no publishers in Saint John. So, we saw an opportunity to create our own!
Q: How did you come up with the name of your business?
Shannon: We were at Market Square, tossing around names that felt very Saint John. We happened to look out the window and saw Partridge Island, and thought, “Why not call it Partridge Island Publishing?”
Q: Did you have a different job before you opened your business? What did you do?
Amanda: We did then, and we still do. I worked in a call center for around 13 years, and now I’m in customer service.
Shannon: I was a cake decorator, and now I’m a technical writer.
Q: Is your container village location your first brick-and-mortar retail shop?
Both: Yes!
Q: Why did you want to set up shop at AREA 506?
Shannon: We originally wanted one of those tents in the old vendor village because our first book, Houses in the Fog, seemed perfect for cruise ship passengers to take a piece of Saint John home. But then we incorporated in 2019, COVID happened, and the tent village disappeared. When the container village opened, we thought it looked really cool. The next year, when the opportunity came up for us to be a part of it, we felt it would be a great fit. And it really is!
Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Amanda: I still haven’t decided.
Shannon: Wonder Woman.
Q: Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently when you were first starting out?
Amanda: No. Anything we would’ve done differently would’ve given us a different team, and our team is amazing — we couldn’t ask for more.
Q: What do you consider your biggest success?
Shannon: I’d say it’s the community we’ve built — the writing community we’ve created.
Amanda: Besides the bookstore, we also run a writing group, so we’ve got this great community around us. When we first opened the container, we didn’t have enough books, so we reached out to writers in New Brunswick. Now we’ve got over 80 authors and 300 titles. It’s been great building this community, and we’re excited to keep growing it.
Q: What’s next?
Shannon: Stay tuned — big things are on the way, but we’re keeping it a surprise for now!
