Dr Ed Wright has resigned as Publishing Director
“I have come to the difficult decision to resign my position as Publishing Director of Puncher and Wattmann. During my seven years as a co-owner and Publishing Director, I am proud to have taken the press from a small coterie-based poetry press to one with national and even international reach. top-selling titles, four Miles Franklin shortlisted novels and one longlisted, two Prime Ministers Awards shortlisted books (a verse novel and a short story collection), three books shortlisted for the VPLA and one for the CBCA Awards. It’s been an honour to work with so many great authors, editors and designers as well bookstores, agents, publicists, literary editors and critics, literary events organisers, the literature staff at Creative Australia, and our distributors, New South.
It has been exhausting to be working at a high level while having to overcome obstacles and with most of the work being unremunerated. But I love the feeling of picking an MS from the slush pile, seeing the value of the story, and working with the author to make it hum. The satisfaction of seeing a book emerge from a manuscript, get a cover and physical form, then go on to find readers in the world is incomparable and I have loved every minute of it.”
Wright’s resignation is effective from Thursday 1 May. He is looking forward to taking a break before exploring new opportunities in publishing.