Véhicule Press began in 1973 on the premises of Véhicule Art Inc., one of Canada's first artist-run galleries. West was once the Café Montmarte--the renowned jazz club of the 1930s. (See Swinging in Paradise: The Story of Jazz in Montreal). Guy Lavoie (designer of the Véhicule Press logo), Annie Nayer, Marshalore, and Vivian Jemelka-White began using equipment inherited from Kenny Hertz's defunct
Ingluvin Publications and an idle, ancient ATF Chief 20 printing press originally purchased by artist Tom Dean to print Beaux-Arts magazine. In 1975 the press became Coopérative d'Imprimerie Véhicule--Quebec's only cooperatively-owned printing and publishing company. Véhicule Press was the publishing imprint of the coop. In late spring 1977, Véhicule Press moved to 1000 Clark Street in the heart of Chinatown, and in 1980 moved to an industrial space located on Ontario Street East. In spring 1981, the coop was dissolved and Simon Dardick (who had joined the press during the summer, 1973) and Nancy Marrelli continued Véhicule Press from Roy Street East, not far from The Main (just around the corner from where the poet Emile Nelligan lived) in the Plateau area of Montreal. Since 1973 Véhicule Press has published award-winning poetry, fiction, essays, translations, and social history. Simon Dardick and Nancy Marrelli are the publishers and general editors, Patrick Goddard is Administrative Assistant, Jennifer Varkonyi is Marketing & Promotions Manager. Michael Harris was the founding editor of the Signal Editions poetry series in 1981. Carmine Starnino became Signal Editions editor in January 2001. Since 1981, over a hundred titles have been published in the series; one third of them by first-time authors. In late summer 2003, Andrew Steinmetz became editor of Esplanade Books, Véhicule's new fiction series. Andrew is the author of Histories and Wardlife: The Apprenticeship of a Young Writer as a Hospital Clerk. He was succeeded by Dimitri Nasrallah, author of the novels Niko and The Bleeds, in 2013.
