Independent Publishing Conference 2021

Professor Rebecca Giblin is an ARC Future Fellow at Melbourne Law School, leading interdisciplinary teams to build evidence about how intellectual property arrangements and other regulations actually work in practice. Her main research areas are copyright, creators’ rights, access to knowledge and the regulation of culture (particularly how the law impacts the creation and dissemination […]

Amra is a Melbourne-based author who has been successful with funding applications and was an Arts Victoria panel assessor. Her latest book is a memoir Things Nobody Knows But Me (Transit Lounge, 2019) that was shortlisted for the 2020 National Biography Award. She works as a high school teacher and is completing a PhD in […]

Ben is a proud Aboriginal man, a descendent of the Wiradjuri Nation with family links to the Gandangara, Dharrawal and Yuin Nations. He was born and raised on the Gadigal and Wangal lands of the Sydney basin.  Ben has worked nationally and internationally, collaborating with both Indigenous Communities and government to create opportunities in education, […]

 Claire (she/her) began working in the book world in 2006 at Borders, and has held various roles within the industry since then including Children’s Buyer for Dymocks George St and Book Category Buyer for Berkelouw/BOOKFACE. She joined the Nielsen BookDatateam in January 2020 as Senior Account Executive: Publishers and became an Account Manager in 2022. […]

Debbie Lee is Senior Manager, Content Acquisition and Business Development, Ingram Content Group. She works with publishers large and small across all market sectors, to assist with their print on demand, ebook and global distribution requirements. Debbie has experience as a trade sales rep, promoting literary fiction, non-fiction and children’s books, and as a publisher […]

Emily works for Nielsen BookData Australia as an Account Manager providing retailers, library suppliers, libraries and distributors access to bibliographic metadata to upload to their websites and internal management systems.

James Kellow has 30 years of publishing experience in Australia and the UK. Formerly HarperCollins ANZ CEO, he cut his teeth at Reed International in the early 1990s before landing the most creative role of his career as marketing director at Fourth Estate in London, then one of the UK’s leading independent publishing houses. James […]

Jen is a publisher and editor. She established Journeys to Words Publishing in 2018. This indie publishing imprint focuses on the work of mature-age writers. Jen assists writers via a suite of Master Class tutorials that deliver pre-publishing tools that make good manuscripts outstanding. Jen is in her final semester of a Master of Writing […]

Jodie is an editor, writer and translator who has completed a Master of Communication for Social Change at The University of Queensland. She is currently the BookSeeker for the international literacy organisation Library For All, and she has worked as a freelancer, in small and mainstream publishing houses, and with cartonera (cardboard) community presses in […]

Jose has been secretary General of the International Publishers Association, Geneva, since September 2015. He joined the IPA as Policy Director in 2013, and was in charge of policy development, organizing the Prix Voltaire (IPA’s Freedom to Publish Prize), and managing the IPA’s activities in the educational publishing sector, including the annual ‘What Works?’ conference […]

Kate is the author of two novels – Skylarking (2016) and The Mother Fault (2020). She co-hosts The First Time podcast, a podcast about the first time you publish a book. Kate lives in Hurstbridge on Wurundjeri lands, with her partner and two children. She is currently undertaking a PhD in creative practice and working […]

Krissy Kneen is the award-winning author of 8 full-length works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Amongst other awards, she has been shortlisted for the Stella Prize for An Uncertain Grace and won the Thomas Shapcott Award for Eating My Grandmother. Her latest book is The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen.

Laura is the author of The Animals in That Country (Scribe 2020) – winner of The Arthur C Clarke Award, The Victorian Prize for Literature, the ABIA Small Publishers Adult Book of the Year and co-winner of the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel 2021. The Animals in That Country has also been shortlisted […]

Natasha Solomun has worked in the publishing industry for more than 15 years. She established THE RIGHTS HIVE to provide comprehensive rights representation for independent publishers and literary agents. Natasha is passionate about Australian literature across all genres, from books for adults and those for younger readers. She loves to see Australian books published overseas […]

Nick Tapper is an associate publisher at Giramondo Publishing.

Penni Russon is the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of a number of books for children and teenagers, including Only Ever Always (Delacorte Press), The Endsister (Allen & Unwin) and the Undine trilogy (Greenwillow Books). She’s a senior lecturer in writing at Monash University.

Dr Anita Heiss is the award-winning author of non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial women’s fiction, children’s novels and poetry. She is a proud member of the Wiradjuri Nation, and a board member of University of Queensland Press, Circa Contemporary Circus and the National Justice Project.  Her adult fiction includes Not Meeting Mr Right, Avoiding Mr Right, Manhattan Dreaming, […]

Author of The Asking Game (2007) and The Art of Navigation (2017), Rose Michael lectures in writing and publishing at RMIT. She has published speculative fiction in Island, Griffith Review, Best Australian Stories, Meanjin, and speculative criticism in The Conversation, TEXT, Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, Sydney Review of Books, as well as […]

Sophie Cunningham’s most recent book is This Devastating Fever (Ultimo Press, 2022). She has held multiple roles in the publishing industry over the years and is currently the Chair of The Australian Society of Authors.

Born in Indonesia of French parents, who are themselves of mixed ethnicity: Basque, Spanish, Portuguese and French-Canadian as well as French, Dr Sophie Masson AM was brought up in France and Australia and now lives in regional NSW.  Sophie is the award-winning author of over 70 books, for children, young adults and adults, many of which have […]

Susannah (she/her) has worked in publishing in Australia and Europe and is currently an Industry Associate, Publishing Programme, University of Melbourne. She is the co-author of How to Market Books 6e 2018 and How to Get a Job in Publishing 2e (planned 2022).

Terri-ann White spent 25 years at The University of Western Australia as a professor and as founding director of Institute of Advanced Studies (1999–2011) and director of UWA Publishing (2006–2020). She is currently a Senior Honorary Fellow in the Vice-Chancellery at UWA.  Terri-ann White’s fiction and non-fiction writing has been published widely. Over the past […]

Wenona Byrne is the Arts Practice Director, Literature, at the Australia Council for the Arts. As an advocate for writers and literary organisations to develop projects that benefit the sector, Wenona’s experience working in publishing dates back 11 years, with nine years as a Rights Manager for Allen & Unwin.

Dr Sybil Nolan is a senior lecturer in publishing and communications at the University of Melbourne. With Dr Wonsun Shin, she leads the research project ‘Australian Children’s Mediascapes during the COVID-19 Pandemic’, in the Media and Communications program there. Sybil entered the publishing industry in 2003 as a commissioning editor at MUP and later worked […]

Dr Katherine Day is a lecturer in the publishing program at the University of Melbourne. She has over 15 years of editorial experience for some of Australia’s most regarded publishers. Her research explores the intersection between editorial practice and law.

Libby Cass is a Director, Curatorial and Collection Research at the National Library of Australia. Libby is passionate about legal deposit, contemporary collecting, metadata and connecting communities with the National Collection.

Zack Sandor-Kerr (pronouns: he/him) works as the Director of Audiobooks Growth at Rakuten Kobo. He supports teams across the company to help bring customers a best-in-class audiobook listening experience in support of Kobo’s mission of making reading lives better. Prior to joining Rakuten Kobo, Zack spent 10 years working in public relations and content marketing […]