A well-respected figure in the publishing industry and an avid ally of small press publishing in particular, Blaise van Hecke died suddenly on 13 March 2022.
Her own enterprise, Busybird Publishing, was aptly named for its industrious outlook, for van Hecke was indeed a woman who loved to fly about and spread her passion and expertise when it came to the nurturing of words and their creators. With over 10 years as the director of the Busybird (a venture that offered mentoring and writing workshops for emerging authors as well as the traditional suite of editing, proofreading, design and marketing services) van Hecke brought her considerable experience to the Small Press Network (SPN). She was a long-standing SPN member as well as a board member.
