Meet Kate Lavut | Playwright, graphic novelist and publisher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kate Lavut and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kate, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I started my own business by accident. I was contributing bi-weekly comics to a local distro, who copied them and dropped them around the neighborhood. This was a free organization, and there’s nothing I love more then something that is free. Then they started selling them and told me that my kids comic “Animals Ate the Alphabet’ was their best seller, so I figured I would try to sell them myself, because free is great, but money is better. After a year or so, of publishing my own comics, I wanted to expand and publish other peoples work so began Paper Dog Press. The press has grown organically, and recently picked up a lot of traction when we published ‘Crowned in Curls’ by Aisha Boubacar, a 14 year old author. We were featured on Canadian radio and television and Aisha was on the cover of Owl Magazine. I am slowing down a bit now, to focus on my own writing while I wait for the next big book to publish.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
‘Chico’, is an autobiographical graphic novel about the time I jumped on a bus, went to Mexico and dressed as a boy. It was my first graphic novel, and just when it was getting noticed, I got diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. and had to put my career on hold. I am now transforming that negative experience into a positive one, and am at work on ‘Content Removed’, a story about the experience of surviving breast cancer. Writing and illustrating graphic novels is very challenging and time consuming. I find it hard to balance between being a publisher and being an artist/writer, but it is work I love to do! Telling a story through words and pictures is a type rope between showing and telling. I also recently wrote a play called ‘A Little Bit Pregnant’ which was recently premiered at the Montreal Fringe Festival. I completely fell in love with playwriting, and am working on a new one now ‘A Cuppa Tea’, which I hope to have completed by next year.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Montreal is a beautiful city. I recommend visiting in the summer, as the winters are brutally cold! In the summer there are many festivals, including the Fringe Festival where independent plays are performed. There is the Jazz Festival, where world renowned musicians grace us with their music and many other exciting events. The city comes alive after a long cold winter and literately dances in the streets.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shoutout to Aisha Boubacar, a grade 10 author who got in touch with me years after I had met her, and asked for my collaboration on a children’s book she wished to publish. Crowned in Curls, a story about a young black girl learning to love her curly hair, was published in 2021 and brought Paper Dog Press onto the lips of Canadians coast to coast.

Website: www.PaperDogPress.com

Instagram: @paperdogpress

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCItZnhNKLr2mB8IDoHMqioQ

Image Credits
Reegan Robin