The Australian Publishers Association is holding a series of five International Market Insights webinars from July to December 2024, with support from Creative Australia. The series is aimed at publishers, editors, rights professionals and agents – anyone interested in learning about the latest international market trends.
Hear publishing and rights professionals from around the world discuss key export markets and categories, alongside smaller roundtables with networking opportunities. The series will conclude with a broader discussion of the role of publishers as global ambassadors.
The webinars will be hosted by rights expert Nerrilee Weir, director of Bold Type Agency.
Events overview
Poetry roundtable
Wednesday 24 July – 17:00 AEST
Format: Online roundtable discussion
Poetry, in all its diverse forms and voices, is finding new audiences globally. Join us for a roundtable webinar tailored for publishers, editors and rights managers, as we delve into the resurgence of poetry in today’s literary landscape. This roundtable will explore the unique challenges and opportunities inherent in publishing poetry and licensing rights for poetic works.
Sharing their insights on the evolving role of poetry in publishing today will be representatives from Giramondo, Auckland University Press and UK’s Bloodaxe Books, Carcanet Press, and the Poetry Book Society.
Moderated by Nerilee Weir, director of Bold Type Agency, this online roundtable discussion will also provide networking opportunities with rights professionals and agents, plus the chance to develop new international contacts.
Speakers:
Louise Brice, Rights Agent, Faber, UK
Louise Brice joined the Faber Rights team in 2021. She handles translation markets - Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Portugal and Brazil) and Czech Rights on behalf of Faber authors and Estates. Previously Louise helped to run a book festival in her home town in the Cotswolds, and before that she was Head of Rights at Blake Friedmann Agency Literary Agency.
Suzanne Fairless-Aitken, RIghts Manager, Bloodaxe, UK
Dr Suzanne Fairless-Aitken has been Rights Manager at Bloodaxe since 2004. She handles Bloodaxe’s rights and permissions work as well as running her own freelance rights clearance and editing, Swift Permissions. Since 2021 she is Hexham Town and Northumberland County Councillor for the Liberal Democrats. Suzanne has also been a tutor in English Literature at Newcastle University and Open University.
Michael Schmidt, Editorial and Managing Director, Carcanet Press, UK
Michael Schmidt is the Editorial and Managing Director of Carcanet Press, which he helped to found in 1969, and the General Editor of PN Review, which he started in 1972. Carcanet has published several Australian poets, among them Les Murray, A D Hope, Judith Wright, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Sarah Broom and Gwen Harwood. PN Review has introduced the work of many Australian writers to its Anglophone readership worldwide. Michael is a literary historian, poet and anthologist of Anglophone poetry.
Alice Kate Mullen, Manager, Poetry Book Society, UK
Alice Kate Mullen is Manager of the Poetry Book Society. She’s worked in poetry publishing since 2010, including at Carcanet Press and PN Review. Prior to that she worked in bookselling and events at Waterstones, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, on a Chicago Poetry Foundation mentorship and as a Sydney Writers’ Festival Bibliotherapist. She co-founded the Northern Poetry Symposium, co-programmes Newcastle Poetry Festival and sits on the Poetry Translation Centre advisory board. She was recently selected as an India 2022-23 British Council International Publishing Fellow.
Beatrice Masini, Editor-in-Chief, Bompiani, Italy
Beatrice Masini is Editor-in-Chief at Bompiani (Giunti editore) and a former editor-in-chief at Rizzoli (RCS Libri) and newspaper journalist. Beatrice is also a writer and a translator from English (J K Rowling, P G Wodehouse, L M Alcott, Emily Dickinson, Charles Dickens and Jane Austen). Some years ago she launched the Bompiani poetry collection (only in translation, with parallel text), called Capoversi.
Nick Tapper, Associate Publisher, Garamond Publishing, Australia
Nick Tapper is the Associate Publisher at Giramondo Publishing, where he works across fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Nick has participated in fellowship programs in Beijing, New York, Guadalajara and Frankfurt, and sits on the Independent Publishers Committee of the Australian Publishers Association.
Alexandra Christie, Rights Director, Giramondo Publishing, Australia
Alexandra Christie is Rights Director at Giramondo Publishing, and the editor of HEAT, Australia’s international literary magazine. She is also an adjunct fellow at Western Sydney University, and has presented at the University of New South Wales, the Faber Academy, Sarah Lawrence College, Columbia University and the University of Florida. Prior to working at Giramondo, she was a literary agent at The Wylie Agency in New York.
Giramondo Publishing is an independent Australian publisher of award-winning poetry, fiction and non-fiction, and the literary magazine HEAT. Giramondo’s recent poetry rights sales include Hasib Hourani’s rock flight to New Directions (US) and Protoype (UK), Zheng Xiaoqiong’s In the Roar of the Machine to New York Review Books (US), Song Lin’s The Gleaner Song to Deep Vellum (US) and Ali Cobby Eckermann’s Inside My Mother to Interno Poesia (Italy).
Madonna Duffy, Publishing Director, University of Queensland Press (UQP), Australia
Madonna Duffy is the Publishing Director at the University of Queensland Press (UQP), one of Australia’s oldest and most respected publishing houses. She worked in publishing in London and Sydney before joining UQP. She has published books by award-winning authors such as Melissa Lucashenko, Larissa Behrendt and Tony Birch. Madonna stewarded UQP’s poetry list for fifteen years with the assistance of experienced poetry advisors and has published poets such as Sarah Holland-Batt, David Malouf and Omar Sakr.
Sam Elworthy, Director, Auckland University Press, New Zealand
Sam Elworthy is director of Auckland University Press. He worked for 10 years at Princeton University Press, publishing science books and serving as editor-in-chief. Back in New Zealand for the last 15 years, Sam has been president of the Publishers Association of New Zealand and a member of the executive committee of the International Publishers Association.
Auckland University Press publishes about 20 books a year with 4-8 new poetry collections and anthologies. Recent rights deals, buying and selling, include Alice te Punga Somerville, Always Italicise: How to Write While Colonised (University of Hawaii Press), Alice Miller, Nowhere Nearer (Pavilion), Michele Leggott, Mezzaluna (Wesleyan University Press), Elizabeth Smither, My American Chair (Madhat) and C K Stead, Say I Do This (Arc).
Australian crime fiction in the US
September (date and time TBC)
Format: Online panel discussion and Q&A
A panel of US and Australian editors of Australian crime fiction authors published in the US discuss editorial, cover design, marketing, and the appeal of Australian crime fiction.
First Nations roundtable
November (date and time TBC)
Online roundtable discussion
A focus on international rights sales for First Nations titles, with participants from Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Publishers as global ambassadors
December (date and time TBC)
Format: Online presentation and Q&A
Richard Charkin, former president of the International Publishers Association and the UK Publishers Association, discusses the drift towards the globalisation of information, and the importance of Australian publishers acting as global ambassadors for their authors’ intellectual property.
Bookings and pricing
Members: Free for members, and staff of APA member companies.
Non-members: $50 per webinar for non-members or $200 to attend all five webinars (prices exclude GST)
Event booking
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This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.