Patricia Aldana

Patsy Aldana was born and brought up in Guatemala. She came to Canada in 1971, and is a dual citizen of Guatemala and Canada.

Aldana founded Groundwood Books in 1978. During her tenure from 1978 to 2012, the publisher won 20 Governor General's Awards.

Under Aldana’s leadership, Groundwood was committed to finding, developing, and publishing authors and illustrators from communities who had been mostly absent from publishing programs in the past, including Chinese, Black, Sikh, Japanese and Hispanic Canadian communities. Most of these creators' books are still in print, have been published internationally and won awards.

Aldana retired from Groundwood Books in 2012. From 2013 to 2018, she took on the task of acquiring and publishing a list of 8 to 10 picture books from around the world for the world-wide Chinese language market, published as The World Library by the China Children’s Press and Publication Group (CCPPG), China’s largest publishing company.

Aldana has been active throughout her career in Canadian organizations that involve publishing, promoting Canadian books, and policy. She was president of the Association of Canadian Publishers from 1978 to 1980, and on the founding board of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. She was the founding president of the Canadian Coalition for School Libraries and the Organization of Book Publishers of Ontario.