Publishing & editing folio
Some publishing and related work
I created the independent book publishing imprint Brow Books in 2016, where I was responsible for overseeing acquisitions, contracts, editorial, production, marketing, sales, distribution, rights, and royalties. In a few short years, Brow Books had terrific success in sales, prize wins and nominations, and rights deals.
Worked on and published Maria Tumarkin’s Axiomatic, which became a Windham Campbell Prize 2020 winner and one of The New Yorker’s Top Ten Books of 2019, won the Melbourne Prize for Literature’s Best Writing Award, was shortlisted in the National Book Critics Circle NBCC Awards, and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize, the Prime Minister's Literary Awards, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards, and longlisted for the Australian Indie Book Awards.
I did a structural edit and then a copy edit on this memoir by Brandon Jack, working close with the author and the publisher.
I contributed pieces of fiction for the groundbreaking 'Silent History' mobile storytelling geofiction project, which combined serialisation, exploration, and collaboration.
The video of 'No Relation: The Impact, Imitators and Legacy of David Foster Wallace' panel discussion I hosted at The Wheeler Centre.
From 2012 to 2020 I was the publisher of quarterly literary magazine The Lifted Brow, including being editor for eleven editions of the publication from 2012 to 2015.
I worked with the charity Missing Persons Advocacy Network (MPAN) to transform their national public awareness campaign Too Short Stories into a beautiful hardcover book, and oversaw the book’s sale and distribution across the country.
Edited and published Shaun Prescott’s debut novel The Town in Australia, and then sold it to publishing houses around the world, including in the United Kingdom (Faber & Faber), North America (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), Germany (Aufbau/Blumenbar), France (Buchet/Chastel), Spain (Literatura Random House), Japan (Hayakawa), and The Netherlands (Koppernik).
The audio of 'Green Cleaver' panel discussion I hosted at The Wheeler Centre.
Travelled to Hamburg, Germany, to take part in the Indiecon Independent Magazine Festival, thanks to a UNESCO Melbourne City of Literature Office travel fund grant.
Thanks to the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, I travelled to Solo to participate in a panel event with local literary critic and essayist Bandung Mawardi, and then on to Yogyakarta for an event with veteran writer Iman Budi Santosa.
Took part in the 'Dear Everybody Project', where I was tasked to provide textual responses to the photography of Prue Stent.
In 2015 I helped create the Prize for Experimental Nonfiction, and oversaw its running for five years.
Acquired, edited and published Jamie Marina Lau’s debut novel Pink Mountain on Locust Island, which soon won the Melbourne Prize for Literature’s Readings Residency Award, and was shortlisted for the 2019 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards, the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, the Stella Prize, and the ALS Gold Medal, and was chosen as a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novel.
I worked with authors Mesfin Tadesse and Ianet Bastyan on this book, including editing the manuscript and guiding them through the publication process.
I undertook a lengthy residency with American publishing house McSweeny’s Publishing. From a variety of McSweeney’s staff I learned exactly how they make their books and magazines.
The audio of 'Adapt to Survive' panel discussion I participated in at The Wheeler Centre
For two years I put together the 'Reading the City of Literature' site (with designer Connor Tomas O'Brien) for the UNESCO Melbourne City of Literature Office. (Note: password is 'melbourne')