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Walsh, Kozlowski to be inducted into ABIA Hall of Fame; Chapman wins 2019 Rising Star award

Publisher and author Richard Walsh and children’s book specialist Kathy Kozlowski will be inducted into the ABIA Hall of Fame at the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) on Thursday, 2 May.

Walsh will receive the 2019 Lloyd O’Neil Award for ‘outstanding service to the Australian book industry’.

Walsh became managing director of independent publisher Angus & Robertson in 1972, where, over fourteen years, he published authors including Frank Moorhouse, Christina Stead, Colleen McCullough, Laurie Oakes and Emily Rodda. Walsh was a founding member of the Literature Board of the Australia Council from 1973-76, and he has since served as president of the ABPA (now APA), director of the National Book Council and board member of the Copyright Agency, as well as various other board positions.

In 2001, Walsh was appointed consultant publisher with Allen & Unwin, where he has published authors including Jamie Durie, Wendy Harmer, Dick Smith, Michael Kirby, Sofie Laguna, Tony Jones and Holly Throsby, among others. Walsh is also the author of nine books. His most recent, Reboot: A Democracy Makeover to Empower Australia’s Voters, was published by MUP in 2017.

Kozlowski will receive the 2019 Pixie O’Harris Award, which recognises excellence and dedicated service to Australian children’s literature.

Kozlowski has spent over 50 years working with children’s books, both in Australia and in London. She has worked in libraries, bookshops and in children’s publishing, including at Walker Books and Penguin Books, where she worked on the Australian Puffin List. Having worked for Albert Ullin at The Little Bookroom for 17 years, she now works at Readings as a children’s book specialist. She recently received the Leila St John Award, presented by Victorian branch of the Children’s Book Council of Australia, for services to children’s literature in Victoria.

Readings Kids manager Angela Crocombe said the work Kozlowski does on the bookshop floor ‘is so valued by customers of varying ages and backgrounds’. ‘What she does is put into their hands books that she loves and thinks they will love,’ said Crocombe. ‘She’s wise but she’s not didactic. After all these years she’s still open to new ideas and approaches. She’s an absolute star and when she retires we don’t know what we’ll do without her.’

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, last year’s recipients were independent bookseller and Indigenous literacy advocate Suzy Wilson and Working Title Press publisher Jane Covernton.

ABIA also announced that Hachette head of marketing communications Ella Chapman has won this year’s ABIA Rising Star of the Year award, presented to an emerging talent in Australian publishing who has spent less than 10 years in the industry.

Chapman said she was ‘absolutely delighted’ to win the award. ‘To be recognised for my work in an industry that I’m so passionate about is the biggest compliment’ said Chapman. ‘The Australian publishing industry has a wealth of talented people working within it and I’m constantly impressed by the creative, forward-thinking and world-class books that are published here.’

To read Books+Publishing’s interview with Chapman, click here, and to read interviews with the other Rising Star nominees, click here.

 

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Category: Awards Local news