Whitireia Publishing is pleased to bring you the Autumn 2016 edition of our newsletter. This newsletter helps us keep in touch with graduates, our friends and supporters in the book trade, current and future students, and our colleagues at Whitireia. If you know anyone you think would enjoy receiving the newsletter, please forward this to them or get them to subscribe here.
I’m so pleased to join the Whitireia team this year as tutor for the Graduate Diploma in Publishing. I teach the ‘tech’ stuff – InDesign and Photoshop, Wordpress and HTML, online content and digital marketing. Even though I’ve mostly had jobs with ‘editor’ in the title, I am a bit of a generalist when it comes to publishing and often find myself working in digital or design spaces.
I completed the Diploma in Publishing in 2001. We only worked on a handful of real projects over the course of the year, and I think that’s the major difference between the course then and now. The opportunity to work on a bunch of projects, managing competing deadlines and workloads, and working in a different role on each is so valuable. It’s a great, hands-on introduction to the world of publishing. I came to the diploma having studied English literature, linguistics, and art history. I’d also been writing for publication, mostly about music. When I had a face-to-face interview with Daphne Brasell, the programme’s founder, in her book-lined office, I remember thinking this is for me.
Since 2001 I’ve taken my publishing skills all over the place! I’ve worked as an editor, proofreader and production editor in-house, and freelance for legal, education, travel, and trade publishers, in print and online. I’ve done editorial, design, and layout work for corporates and government in NZ and in Australia. I’ve worked at a record company and a clothing label and developed tender documents (not as romantic as they sound). In Melbourne I opened a records, comics, and coffee shop and started a backstage catering business. In every role I’ve used skills that I started learning on the publishing programme – I play drums and insist that my biggest influence is punctuation.
If I had to choose a favourite author it’d be Graham Greene, even though it’s been a while since I binged on his books. His phrasing and timing are so carefully aimed that his books should probably come with a public health warning. More recently, I cried on buses and late into the night, like everyone else, when I read Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life.
On Thursday 17 March, Whitireia students assembled at Te Rauparaha Arena. Decked in stoles, gowns, and trenchers, everyone looked terribly smart. The procession had been cancelled due to poor weather (I was somewhat relieved by this as I don’t own lovely, sensible footwear – only the beautiful, pain-inducing sort).
After being organised according to class and then alphabetically, we entered the main hall. I distinctly remember passing through the doors because suddenly we had all become part owl – people’s heads seemed to spin 360 degrees in search of their loved ones in the stands. I spotted my parents on the right of the stage, second row from the front, waving.
The ceremony opened with a beautiful karanga, and some inspiring speeches from Chief Executive Chris Gosling, Deputy Mayor of Porirua Ana Coffey, and student speaker Tane Williams Accra. I think the highlight was hearing the plethora of declarations and well wishes from family members as graduates walked across the stage to accept their certificate.
Graduations are important. They are more often than not long and tedious, but they’re an important milestone – if not for you, then certainly for the people who love and support you. When I finished my BA honours, I graduated in absentia and had no intention of completing further studies. I’m so happy that wasn’t the case. I loved my teachers, I loved this course, and I loved the people who completed it with me. Congratulations Diploma in Publishing Class of 2015.
Student Project: Stacey Kendall
After the great success of their children’s book, The Immigrants, published by Mallinson Rendel in 2002, author Alan Bagnall and illustrator Sarah Wilkins have joined forces once more to bring us The Sam and Lucy Fables, a collection of wonderful tales that will delight readers, both young and old.
Alan and Sarah share with us the adventures of two clever pigs, Sam and Lucy, who encounter many a troubled human friend with an unexpected predicament. From fixing a magic carpet, to teaching fish to read, Sam and Lucy solve each conundrum with some common sense and a lot of patience. Each fable reminds us to be kind, curious, and a little bit adventurous. Where would the world be without Sam and Lucy? You’ll have to read these fables to find out, but a little hint – we’d be very lost.
The Whitireia student publishing team and myself are very lucky to be working alongside Mākaro Press to help share these beautiful stories. The fun and magical twists within Alan’s fables are wonderfully captured in each of Sarah’s intricate and colourful illustrations, and we cannot wait until these fables are ready to be shared in a book collection. In the meantime, we’re very excited to share a small snippet that will feature in The Sam and Lucy Fables. This fable is one of Alan and Sarah’s favourites; we hope it becomes one of yours, too.
Until this year, Victoria University Press was, to me, midwife to the likes of Eleanor Catton, Elizabeth Knox, Geoff Cochrane . . . I could go on. Now I’m lucky enough to call it my workplace. I’ve never much liked babies, but if babies are books – sure, I’ll happily help birth them into the world.
To briefly set the scene: VUP is a near-impossible-to-find cottage tucked into the scrub behind the university’s Von Zedlitz building. There are four full-time staff (including myself) and two part-time, and everybody is a full-time great person. It’s the most staff VUP has ever had; this horsepower being the force behind the 2016 list, which tallies up at a huge thirty-five books (and counting) across poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. So, of course, there is always something to do.
Already this year, with the guidance and patience of Fergus and Ashleigh, I’ve created the 2016 catalogue; edited and overseen production for a book of short stories and a collection of personal essays; typeset fiction, non-fiction, and soon poetry; and managed images for an illustrated non-fiction title. Then there are the countless proofs and manuscript assessments to keep me entertained. I realise that to do this range of editorial tasks is to join, in New Zealand publishing at least, an endangered species. The variation is stimulating and exhilarating – I learn something new every day and would be absolutely lost if I hadn’t done the Whitireia publishing course.
As of tomorrow, VUP will be undergoing renovations. As I look around at the scattered piles of proofs and manuscripts I need to tidy up, I realise that maybe publishing books is as messy as actually giving birth. Thank God it’s much more fun.
Keep an eye out for our stellar line-up of 2016 VUP books. Upcoming favourites of mine include Mysterious Mysteries of the Aro Valley by Danyl McLaughlan, Hera Lindsay Bird by Hera Lindsay Bird, and Mansfield and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Sarah Laing.
Writers week: Tracey Wong
Before the start of term this year, our class was offered the opportunity to help out at Writers Week, one of the highly anticipated events of the New Zealand Festival. With the promise of stimulating discussions at several venues across the Wellington CBD and an awesome T-shirt for volunteers, we were all quick to sign up for the role.
I had only arrived in the city a few weeks prior, but I felt right at home at my first ever literary festival. It was an enlightening experience with plenty of highlights – catching glimpses into mastering the art of living, being engrossed in the intellectual frenzy of slam poetry, and handling the all-important task of eating leftover German pretzels. On top of all that, I somehow managed to find the courage to do an impromptu interview with the wonderful Charlotte Graham as part of Radio New Zealand's Writers Week blog, which you can read here.
At one point during an afternoon shift in the green room, Gregory O'Brien turned to me and posed the question of whether people – particularly younger generations – should attend live events rather than just watching on a screen or listening to an audio recording from home. Thinking back now (and in an attempt to redeem myself for failing to come up with something remotely close to an intelligent answer), I’ve realised that there's something unique about experiencing these sessions in person. Being in the presence of fellow creators who are passionate about their work, as well as those of others, is truly uplifting, and it is moments such as these that inspire me to imagine better – for myself and for the world around me.
A huge thank you to the team at Writers Week for letting us be a part of this celebration of storytelling, and for ensuring that the lives of books extend beyond their pages.
Praise for publishing students: Maggie Rainey-Smith blog
Last year, two students from the Whitireia Publishing course were lucky enough to work on the editing of Maggie Rainey-Smith's latest novel, Daughters of Messene. Emma Bryson and Megan Kelly made quite the impression on Maggie, who writes about their work in her recent blogpost, ‘In praise of editors’. Maggie writes:
'They became champions for my young character Artemis. They identified with her and took me to task when she wasn’t on track. They pushed me to make her stronger, to give her a backbone. It was thrilling. I revelled in the collaborative nature of this editing – lots of it was online and every new query became an opportunity to either stand up for my work or take up the challenge to improve it.'
Maggie’s post demonstrates the collaborative nature of the work we do here in class, and how often the work can be beneficial for our authors as well as for our students. Receiving such positive feedback from authors regarding past students’ work sets our hopes high for what we can all achieve this year.
Do you know about the following useful links and ways to stay in touch?
We're on social media! Check out our Facebook page for updates on what's happening in class, short videos of some of our current publishing students, job listings, and interesting links. Employers, please send us upcoming jobs if you'd like to reach this enthusiastic group of graduates, current, or prospective students.
We Tweet! Follow us @PublishingWhiti or use the hashtag #Twittireia to connect with us.
We have a Careers page on our website which includes profiles of people in a range of publishing roles and FAQs about working in publishing and the New Zealand publishing scene. Please link to this page from your own website if you find yourself fielding this kind of enquiry.
Graduates can join our Graduates Facebook group, where people can reconnect with others from their class and post job opportunities and other information of interest.
