Dunn awarded 2024 Rising Star Award

Alliance Distribution Services (ADS) distribution director Riikka Dunn has been named the Australian Publishers Association (APA) 2024 Rising Star.

Dunn was selected from a shortlist that also included Rebecca Allen (deputy managing editor at Hachette), Tessa Feggans (associate publisher at Allen & Unwin), Katherine Rajwar (publicist at UNSW Press/NewSouth), Yasmin Smith (special projects editor at UQP) and Justin Wolfers (editorial manager at Murdoch Books).

The 2024 judging panel comprised Matt Hoy (Allen & Unwin), Foong Ling Kong (MUP), Claire Miller (Fremantle Press), Julie-Ann Nelson (Jacaranda) and Emma Rafferty (Hachette). In discussing their decision, judges noted that Dunn had ‘made significant impact … in a very short time’, having joined the book industry in May 2023, following a long stint at IKEA that ultimately involved running the company’s central fulfilment unit in Western Sydney.

‘We acknowledge she has come into a senior role and therefore has more agency to effect change, but she has not wasted a moment and already introduced significant advances to her new industry, which attests to her strong leadership skills,’ said the judges, who described Dunn as a ‘system game-changer’.

The winner announcement was made at a social function following the 2024 BookUp conference, held yesterday, 7 August, in Naarm/Melbourne.

Last year’s winner was Pantera commissioning editor Tom Langshaw.

Read a Books+Publishing interview with Dunn here.

Category: Awards Local news