Independent Publishing Conference 2023

Mike Shatzkin has had a 60-year (so far) career in the book publishing business, starting on the sales floor of Brentano’s 5th Avenue bookstore in 1962. Starting in the early 1990s, he was one of the industry’s thought leaders on ‘digital change’, including the purchasing of books online (then in its infancy) and in digital (ebook) versions […]

Associate Professor Sandra Phillips will give the keynote address on Thursday’s Research Day,  on ‘Indigenous and community writing, reading and publishing’. Sandra is Wakka Wakka and was raised on the Country of her family’s ancestors, she is also proudly Gooreng Gooreng. These First Nations are in the jurisdiction now known as Queensland. Sandra does research […]

Dr Agata Mrva-Montoya is a lecturer and degree director of Master of Publishing at the University of Sydney. She is a publishing researcher, teacher and professional with more than 15 years of industry experience. Previously she worked at Sydney University Press, where she led the implementation of inclusive publishing practices. She is a member of […]

Airlie Lawson, PhD, is a literary sociologist with a particular interest in solving unacknowledged problems in the practice of contemporary book publishing. She was Postdoctoral Fellow on ‘Untapped: the Australian Literary Heritage Project’ at The University of Melbourne, Lead Investigator on ‘The Miles Franklin Rights Project’ working in conjunction with the University of Queensland-supported AustLit, […]

Alexandra Dane is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications. Her research focuses on the production and circulation of power in contemporary book culture. She is the author of Gender and Prestige in Literature: Contemporary Australian Book Culture and the co-editor of Post-Digital Book Cultures: Australian Perspectives.

Beth Driscoll is Associate Professor in Publishing and Communications at the University of Melbourne, where she researches reading cultures and the contemporary publishing industry. Her recent publications include The Frankfurt Kabuff Critical Edition (Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2023) with Claire Squires, and a report on diversity in the Australian publishing industry workforce co-authored with Susannah […]

Beth McLean is a tutor and lecturer in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. She is currently completing a monograph on Henry James’s parentheses. Her next project will examine non-fictional works written by women about domestic labour and maintenance during the 20th century through to the present. Her recent work […]

Fiannuala Morgan is a Librarian and Archivist at The National Library of Australia and a PhD student at The Australian National University where she studies the possibilities that artificial intelligence yields for the analysis of digital colonial archives.  Her recent publications include the Cambridge Element Aboriginal Writers and Popular Fiction: The Literature of Anita Heiss […]

Harsha Vytla is a PhD candidate in Publishing Studies, at the School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne. His research investigates how contemporary fiction written across India’s major languages is marketed by its English language-based publishers and literary prizes. It specifically examines how these literary institutions are producing a representation of ‘Indian Literature’ […]

Jodie Martire is a PhD candidate in the Centre for Communication and Social Change at The University of Queensland. Her doctoral research focuses on minority-language publishing in Australia and its role in communities’ defense of their linguistic human rights. Jodie is the Associate Editor of Publishing Research Quarterly and her professional experience in the book […]

Kate Cuthbert is the Editorial Director at Pantera Press. Previously, she held senior roles at Writers Victoria and launched the Escape Publishing brand at Harlequin Australia. A genre fiction advocate and enthusiast, she recently completed a PhD developing research methodologies for the examination of book covers and book titles. She is also a co-host on […]

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.

Millicent Weber is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics at the Australian National University. She is one-third of the Public Value of the Local Book team, together with Associate Professor Julienne van Loon (University of Melbourne) and Dr Bronwyn Coate (RMIT University). Millicent researches how people engage with books, with […]

Per Henningsgaard is a senior lecturer and the major coordinator for Professional Writing and Publishing at Curtin University. He is a Fulbright Scholar who received his PhD from The University of Western Australia and has held permanent teaching positions at Portland State University and University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point. Per has published more than 20 peer-reviewed […]

Renée Otmar has been a professional editor since 1989 and has worked extensively as an editor, public health researcher and ethicist. She is a consultant and practising editor in academic, creative nonfiction and fiction genres – in contemporary fiction, historical fiction, crime fiction and romance. She is a writer, ghostwriter and producer of life stories. […]

Sophie Serafim is in her final year of an undergraduate Bachelor of Communications (Creative Writing) and Bachelor of Languages and Cultures (Japanese). She has consciously chosen climate justice topics for the last few years of her double-degree and is interested in pursuing environmental and climate communications upon the completion of her studies. Her work, including […]

Dr Tresa LeClerc holds a PhD in Media and Communication from RMIT University. She is currently a lecturer at the University of Melbourne in Professional Writing. She has also worked at the University of California, San Diego in the Synthesis Writing Program at Seventh College. Her research interests include far right ideology in food discourse […]