Staff snapshot: Alice Grundy

Alice Grundy is a Book Production Coordinator in the Writing and Society Research Centre, Giramondo Publishing. She is based on the Bankstown campus.

When did you start working at UWS and what was your first role?I started in my current role in July 2012, which is my first position with UWS.
 
Describe your current job/role in 100 words or less:My role encompasses all aspects of the book publishing process for Giramondo – from commissioning, editorial and production through to marketing and publicity – as well as working with the Writing and Society Research Centre on special projects, including the online critical journal, The Sydney Review of Books, and with the writers who make up the Writing and Society cohort.

What's the best thing about your job?Giramondo publishes some of Australia's best writers, and working with them is both a privilege and a challenge. Seeing a manuscript through from its genesis to a volume on a bookshop shelf is very rewarding.

What do you love most about working at UWS?Since I've started I've been to seminars on DH Lawrence and Primitivism, the intricacies of translating poetry and attended the filming of a Beckett play, amongst other things. The rich intellectual life on campus has really been a pleasure and I'm glad to work in an environment where these presentations and projects are regular occurrences.

What are you going to be working on in the next 12 months?2013 will be a big year for the Writing and Society Research Centre and for Giramondo. We're publishing The Swan Book by Miles Franklin Award winner Alexis Wright, poetry by Lisa Gorton and Corey Wakeling, stories from Zoe Norton Lodge and essays by Vanessa Berry. Some of our authors have been invited to literary festivals in Australia and overseas, and we will continue to publish poetry, fiction and non-fiction – with a particular focus on debut authors whom I also publish in the literary journal Seizure. One of the projects that excites me most is the Sydney Review of Books – an online review site initiated by the Centre to address the crisis in literary reviewing in Australia – due for launch this year.

More information on Giramondo and the Writing and Society Research Centre is available

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