The Kim Scott Walwyn prize winner announced plus the publication of Snapshots…

The event will take place at Adam Street Club from 6.30pm and entry to the event is available by signing up here.<http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bookmachine-london-with-kingston-university-the-blook-launch-tickets-11259267773?aff=eorg>

For more information  contact @BookMachine

SYP members also had the pleasure of attending the Kim Scott Walwyn prize giving at the Free Word Centre in Farringdon on the 13th May. The KSW prize was established in 2003 in memory of Kim Scott Walwyn, an inspirational editor at OUP. Each year it honours women in the first 7 years of their publishing careers who have already made a significant contribution to the industry. It encourages women to stand up and be proud of their achievements and reminds us of the need to make sure women can continue to achieve their potential in publishing.

Due to the number and the quality of nominations this year the prize opened up the shortlist to five talented women instead of four. These were:

Melissa Cox – Children’s New Titles Buyer, Waterstones

Lynsey Dalladay – Community Manager, Penguin Random House

Sarah Hesketh – Freelance Project Manager & Events and Publications Manager, The Poetry Translation Centre

Hellie Ogden – Literary Agent, Janklow & Nesbit

Anne Perry – Editor, Hodder & Stoughton and founder of The Kitschies Awards

We were proud to see last year’s SYP chair Lottie Chase on the judging panel and she gave short talk outlining the society’s role as co-sponsor of the prize along with Booktrust and the Publishing Training Centre.

Victoria Barnsley, former CEO of HarperCollins UK and international inspired the room of young publishers and industry professionals with a speech exploring the implications of the digital transition on publishing’s gender balance as well as the impact of increasing corporatisation on women getting the top roles. Her thoughts on whether young women have or should have the desire to reach the upper echelons of management like herself and her peers gave us plenty to think about as we embark on our careers.

Victoria Barnsley talks about gender in publishing

Each speaker emphasised that as publishing faced unprecedented challenges the need was greater than ever to make sure talented women entered the industry and were enabled to succeed. The 2014 prize winner Anne Perry combines being a brilliant and intuitive editor with innovation in digital genre publishing and community management with the Hodderscape blog. Her acceptance speech brought many of us close to tears as she described the progress that women had made since her mother was a teenager and reminded us of the passion and courage that young women must still display to get ahead in their field.

According to Catherine Clarke and Denise Johnstone-Burt, co-chairs of Prize Advisory Committee and the judging panel:

‘Anne Perry was the stand-out candidate from a superb shortlist. The judges marvelled at the speed, imagination and determination with which she has championed genre fiction in this country. Anne not only publishes excellent science fiction and fantasy, she also writes it brilliantly. She actively seeks out new readers and has set up The Kitschies Awards, already widely recognised for the quality that it rewards in her chosen field. She is the acme of today’s multi-talented and multi-tasking publisher – a fearless pathfinder who has set a standard to which we should all aspire.’

Anne Perry gives a moving acceptance speech

The winner of the KSW prize receives £1000 and a two day course of their choice at the Publishing Training Centre. We were delighted to see previous winners of the prize and SYP speakers such as Miriam Robinson and Rukhsana Yasmin again and are excited to announce that 2011 winner and Bodley Head editor Kay Peddle will be a panellist at our May event How to Make the Most of Your Internship.

Follow the prize on Twitter at #kswprize.