President’s report
by Margaret Trudgeon AE
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and got a bit of a break. I must confess I worked through most of it, but finally got a proper break at the end of January down at Aireys Inlet. I caught up on lots of beach reading, including the books I was lucky enough to win at the Graeme Simsion talk in December. My pack contained books by some First Nations authors, and included Bruce Pascoe’s Black duck: a year at Yumburra, where he reflects on managing a farming business based around growing traditional foods; Always was, always will be by Thomas Mayo – a great explanatory book about what follows the failed Voice to Parliament referendum; and two poetry books by Jazz Money – How to make a basket, and Mark the dawn. Thanks to Cecile Shanahan for donating the books! And congratulations to the other two winners Philip Bryan (contemporary fiction pack) and Brenton Thomas (crime fiction pack), as well as Bridget Blair, who won a signed copy of Graeme’s latest book, The glass house. It was a fabulous night and Graeme gave a terrific speech about his experiences of the publishing industry.
Since then, things have been pretty quiet for Editors Victoria as this is the time of year when we all have a bit of a break from our committee duties. However, Kylie Howard has been working on a presentation for February, so here are some details.
Well-known publishing professional and owner of Ginninderra Press, Debbie Lee will present an online talk on “The rise of self-publishing: how an editor can help” on 20 February. She’ll talk about how the editor can guide authors through the self-publishing process, explaining the key steps, how print-on-demand works and some information on working with author service providers. It promises to be an interesting evening!
Meanwhile, you can learn more about Kylie, our wonderful events officer, in our new feature, “Getting to know the Editors Victoria committee”, which follows.
I look forward to getting back into the swing of committee duties soon and will have more details of events and workshops as they come to hand. I hope everyone has a great year in 2025!
Welcome to out newest members
Student/Graduate
- Kristy-Lee Swift
- Quratulain Damani
- Tracey Morris
- Nathan Mifsud
Associate
- Louise Reynolds
- Heather Boyd
Getting to know Editors Victoria committee: Kylie Howard, Events Officer
Above: Kylie Howard, Events Officer. Image: Supplied.
I came to editing in 2023 after practising law for over 20 years. I didn’t necessarily set out to focus on legal editing and a part of me thought I might want to avoid it. But as it turns out, most of the editing work I do is legal or legal-related and I really enjoy it. You can take the girl out of the law, but not the law out of the girl! I also like to challenge myself in other areas – I’ve edited corporate material, a non-fiction scientific book and even an independent fashion magazine.
I stepped into the Editors Victoria events officer role earlier this year after 12 months on the Events subcommittee.
Editors Victoria has opened doors for me: further education, networking and friendships with a terrific bunch of people. I love being on the committee – it’s rewarding to be a part of a collegiate and supportive community and to play an active role in advancing the editing profession.
When not editing, I’m usually found reading, cooking, swimming or spending time with my husband and two teenage daughters. If I had to name my favourite thing to do, it would be sitting on the beach after a swim with a good book.