By Justine Dixon Cooper with Elizabeth Beach AE, Julie Ganner AE and Eris Jane Harrison AE
Editors NSW was deeply saddened to learn about the death of Kaaren Sutcliffe AE in August 2024.
Kaaren was an active member of both IPEd and the Canberra Society of Editors (CSE) – and an enthusiastic champion of editors everywhere. She set up Just So Words, her freelance fiction editing business, in 2009 and gained accreditation in 2012. She was also an accomplished fantasy writer and completed her trilogy The mage and the bird caller in 2023. One more book is being prepared for publication by friends.
At IPEd, Kaaren was known for her unwavering commitment to supporting other editors. One way she did this was through her fiction editing training, which included an in-person workshop on manuscript assessment for Editors NSW in 2019.
But Kaaren’s reach was perhaps greatest through her involvement in the IPEd Mentoring Program. She was a mentor for 10 years, one of the program’s longest standing volunteers. Elizabeth Beach AE, chair of the Mentoring Standing Committee, said Kaaren’s interactions with mentees were “considerate and generous” and she often mentored more than one at a time. In more recent years, she was also an active committee member, representing CSE. She regularly shared her experience and threw her full support behind Liz in the chairing role.
Between 2020 and 2022, Kaaren added another string to her IPEd bow. She served as the member liaison officer for Editors NSW and was the first point of contact for members joining our branch. Her warm and information-packed emails helped many editors kick off their own IPEd journeys – me included.
We are indebted to Kaaren for her many contributions to our profession over the years. She will be greatly missed.