From the President Christine Atkinson: Committee report
Hi all,
Congratulations to Editors Queensland (EdsQ) Vice-president (and immediate past President) Ruth Davies on her appointment as IPEd Chair. I met Ruth when she was the Convenor of the 2017 IPEd national conference and President of EdsQ. She’s the epitome of the saying: ‘If you want something done, ask a busy woman!’. The organisation is in excellent hands (as it was under the stewardship of Kerry Davies).
Life in Queensland is returning to a semblance of normal (this past weekend I went into the supermarket for the first time in three months which was even more overwhelming than a pre-COVID shop). I’m very aware that we are fortunate in Australia and that colleagues elsewhere in the world are still facing the daily stress and fear of the pandemic. Let’s not rush back to ‘normal’ so soon that we forget our social distancing and new handwashing routines.
Our Zoom member meetings are going strong. In June we increased attendance again and were even joined by a Canadian editor, Christa, and her cat. As the EdsQ committee will tell you, I’ve been banging the drum for years about how we can better engage with regional members — I didn’t even dream we’d be linking up with interstate and international audiences! Our speaker was graphic designer Tricia Head who shared her tips on how designers and editors can work well together. Tricia’s presentation will be available for sale online for those who were unable to attend.
We’ll be holding our Annual Branch Meeting (ABM) in August via Zoom too. This is an opportunity for non-Brisbane members to attend and even (fingers crossed) nominate for committee positions! Details of the ABM will be out in July, but anyone interested in finding out more about the committee roles is very welcome to send me an email at edqld.president@iped-editors.org. Joining the committee is an excellent way to get to know other members and contribute to the organisation. I joined in 2017 as the Events Officer and soon put my hand up to do the conference communications as well. I have yet to regret it. I am particularly interested to hear from anyone who might want to take on the training officer role (especially good for early-career editors as you get to attend our professional development workshops for free throughout the year).
In membership news, EdsQ currently has 234 active financial members. We have recently welcomed professional member Laura Black, associate member Karen Standen, and student member Alisha Tonsbeek. Last month I put a call out for good news from EdsQ members. I was thrilled to receive this juicy tidbit from Christina Houen:
‘Every writer who aspires to publication needs an editor, I believe. I’ve been working on my second memoir for many years; it’s had many versions, and I felt this year I was close to finishing. Then, after feedback from an agent, I decided to hire a structural editor. I found one whose one memoir I admire greatly, who has a reputation as being “good but brutal”. She loves my writing, but is taking my story apart and showing me how to structure it, not by time, but by conflict. Every good story has to be structured on conflict and its resolution. I’ve rewritten the first two chapters and she’s delighted with the changes. So, I’m trusting and carrying on. Hard to find time for it with my editing jobs, but I’m taking a week’s writer in residence at the Rosie Scott studio in the Blue Mountains, at the end of July.’
New member profile
EdsQ’s newest student member Alisha Tonsbeek joined IPEd in April to boost her writing and editing skills.
After completing a degree in writing and philosophy, Alisha is now halfway through the Masters of Writing, Editing and Publishing (WEP) at the University of Queensland.
In addition to studying at one university, Alisha spends days working at another. Her administration role in a research higher-degree unit at QUT has given Alisha an interest in both academic writing and editing. She’s particularly interested in the research component of her current study.
Alisha joined IPEd after learning about it at work. It seemed like the perfect way to make connections and learn new skills.
As well as studying and working, Alisha enjoys creative writing in her spare time. Her interest in editing originally stemmed from a desire to learn skills that would improve her writing. While she’s very new to editing, Alisha is keen to take up a mentorship through IPEd and would eventually like to become an accredited editor.
Got some good news to share? Send me an email!
See you on Zoom!
Christine Atkinson
President, EdsQ
July member meeting, (by Zoom)
The image and text relationship in graphic novels
Screen technology has made many readers more accustomed to a fragmented and disjointed reading strategy in the consumption of digitised media. Consequently, the combination of text and image in a graphic novel is part of its appeal for an increasing number of readers. Graphic novels require a number of multimodal reading skills, involving: interpretation of the image, textual literacy, combination of text and image and comprehension of the sequence. This is of relevance to editors who need to understand the non-linear relationship between text and image, as opposed to more traditional reading of continuous text. In this illustrated presentation, presenter Cath Appleton will talk about the important considerations for editors of multi-modal texts, using examples from the pages of her own graphic narratives, particularly Broken Glass.
Cath is a visual storyteller, designer, researcher and academic; she gained her doctorate in the Faculty of Education at Queensland University of Technology. Her research centred on the representational issues in retelling a historic traumatic event as a graphic memoir. Her own graphic memoir Broken Glass is soon to be published. Past research has focused on visual communication problem-solving and the language conventions used in graphic communication in multicultural contexts.
Cath Appleton
Lee Ellwood, Events Officer | Ian Mathieson, Events Support edqld.events@iped-editors.org