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Sunday 18th May

Press Release: Prizes and Awards
Shortlist Announced To Honour Outstanding Women In Publishing

Posted at 10:07PM Monday 14 Apr 2008

Clare Alexander, Agent, Aitken Alexander Associates

Eleo Gordon, Editorial Editor, Viking

Alison Kennedy, Production and Distribution Director, Egmont UK

Jessica Kingsley, Chairman and Managing Director, Jessica Kingsley Publishers

The winner, who will receive a cheque for £3,000, will be announced at a ceremony at St Anne's College, Oxford, on Thursday May 8.

The prize committee is Professor Dame Gillian Beer DBE, FBA, (King Edward VII Professor Emeritus at the University of Cambridge), Catherine Clarke (Literary Agent, Felicity Bryan Agency), Denise Johnstone-Burt (Publisher at Walker Books), Kate Jury (formerly Marketing Director at OUP), Hermione Lee CBE (Writer and Goldsmiths' Chair of English Literature at University of Oxford), Fiona Maddocks (Chief Arts Feature Editor, Evening Standard), Sarah O'Brien (former Production Director, OUP), and Francine Stock (Novelist and Broadcaster).

Kate Jury of the Committee comments:

"The candidates for the 2008 Kim Scott Walwyn Prize come from an impressive range of publishing backgrounds, and we are delighted that this year's shortlist reflects this, with outstanding candidates from editorial, production and literary agency. Each year the judges are so impressed by the achievements and qualities of the women who apply, which reflect so well the qualities which Kim admired, and which this prize in her name was founded to honour."

The Kim Scott Walwyn Prize was awarded in 2004 to Lynette Owen, Copyright Director of Pearson Education Ltd, in 2005 to Penelope Hoare, Deputy Publishing Director of Chatto and Windus and in 2007 to Annette Thomas, CEO Macmillan.

The prize is administered by Booktrust, the independent charity that encourages people of all ages and cultures to discover and enjoy reading.

Shortlist

Clare Alexander

Clare Alexander began her career in the Rights department of Hamish Hamilton in 1972 before progressing to Rights Director in 1981. When the company was bought by Penguin in 1985, Clare decided to pursue the editorial path that had initially encouraged her to enter publishing. From 1990 Claire worked as Publishing Director of Viking and in 1997 was appointed Editor in Chief of Macmillan. As an editor Clare worked on Pat Barker's prize-winning Regeneration Trilogy and published first fiction by Helen Dumore, Alex Garland and Donna Tarrt. Clare become a literary agent in 1998 where she was able to combine her love of editing and her early Rights work and hone her abilities to spot new writing talents. Clare represents a number of successful authors including Sarah Dunnant, Virginia Ironside, Clare Allan, short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award and the Orange New Writers Prize, Diana Evans, winner of the Orange Prize for New Writers and short listed for the Whitbread First Novel Award and Mark Haddon whose The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time won fifteen international awards.

Eleo Gordon

Eleo Gordon was only 19 years old when she arrived at the front door of Longmans Green Publishing House. Starting her career in the African Education Department in 1969, Eleo soon progressed in the publishing world, under the tutelage of the editor John Guest. With John, Eleo was able to work on books by such celebrated authors as Christopher Hibbert, Nina Bawden and David Storey. Longman General and with it, Eleo, was soon incorporated into Penguin where she has worked ever since. As Editorial Editor at Viking, one of the imprints of Penguin Books, Eleo works in both non-fiction and paperback. Her non-fiction successes include Christina Lamb's The Africa House, Kuki Gallmann's I Dreamed of Africa and the bestseller Stalingrad, for which she presented the idea to Antony Beevor, and persuaded him to do it when he feared it was too complex. Eleo is married with one daughter.

Alison Kennedy

Alison Kennedy is Production and Distribution Director of Egmont UK, the UK arm of the international media group of the same name. Her interest in publishing and manufacturing began at the age of eight when she made comic books to sell to her school friends. Since then, her thirty-year career, which began in Fleet Street, the original heartland of British printing, has spanned manufacturing (typesetting and print – screen and litho) and all areas of publishing (newspapers, magazines, stationery and books). Latterly, Alison has been instrumental in setting new industry standards in the UK for the production of children's books, covering safety, ethical trading and sustainable forestry, all of which has contributed to making Egmont one of the top three children's publishers in the UK.

Alison is currently studying part-time (alongside her full-time employment) for an MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice at Bath University, covering sustainability and social justice.

Jessica Kingsley

After completing her degree in Philosophy at University of Warwick, Jessica Kingsley joined Eurospan Group of Publishers as a marketing assistant in 1973. By the late 1970s she had progressed to the position of Marketing Director, responsible for the direct relationship with over 20 US publishers and the development of the Eurospan business. On 1 January 1987, Jessica founded Jessica Kingsley Publishers. The company is known as a world leader in autism spectrum disorders, and for pioneering ways of publishing, social work and the arts therapies by actively commissioning books that create social change. In 1991 she was promoted from Vice Chairman to Chairman of The Independent Publishers Guild. Rebecca has held membership of Publishers Advisory Board of the British Council and membership of the Publishers Association Council. In 2004 JKP opened its first office in Philadelphia and in 2006, Jessica Kingsley was appointed Chairman of the Society of Bookman. JKP was awarded both the van Tulleken Independent Publisher of the Year and Taylor Wessing Academic and Professional Publisher of the Year in 2007. 2008 saw the launch of their new imprint Singing Dragon which focuses on Tai Chi and Qigong books. To date, JKP publishes approximately 150 books a year, and employs 26 people in the UK and 3 in the USA and continues to focus on books that create social change.