Portfolio
I’ve been editing for over 30 years and I’m accredited by the Institute of Professional Editors. After an in-house career in educational and academic editing, I established Emend Editing. Here are some titles I’ve worked on.
Pamela Hewitt edited my memoir, combining a structural edit with a light copyedit. This has been such a happy process, especially her suggestions for segueing between scenes and chapters, managing transitions between past and present tense, and bringing scenes and characters to life through dialogue and enactment. I was able to tap into memories and insights my earlier rewrites had missed, and I was inspired in this final return to my story. I strongly recommend Pam as an insightful, sensitive and constructive editor who will work at your side to bring your story to its best incarnation.
Christina Houen
Prize-winning memoir
Winner of the Stella Prize, 2019
The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie, HarperCollins, 2019
Winners of the Finch Memoir Prize
Cold Vein by Anne Tonner, 2017
I Knew You’d Have Brown Eyes by Mary Tennant, 2016
Schools of Fish by Alan Sampson, 2015
Spinifex Baby by Karen Harrland, 2014
My Life in a Pea Soup by Lisa Nopps, 2012
Biography and memoir
Red Herrings for Breakfast by Annabet Ousback, Bad Apple Press, 2020 (nominated for Booktopia’s favourite non-fiction book of 2020)
Oppy: The life of Sir Hubert Opperman by Daniel Oakman, Melbourne Press, 2018
The Priests by James M Miller, Finch, 2016
The Bouncer by Heath Lander, Finch, 2013
A Gradual Grace by Christina Marigold Houen, Ginninderra Press, 2023
When the Bough Breaks by Joanne W Jones, Finch, 2011
My Best Shot, A Life Through the Lens by Les Seymour, TimeWorks Media, 2018
News Time by Glenn Daniel, TeeDee Communications, 2018
Pier Angeli: A Fragile Life by Jane Allen, McFarland & Co, 2002
Fiction
Poetic Licence by Kevin Price, Crotchet Quaver, 2022
Master of My Fate by Sienna Brown, Penguin, 2019
‘Being Sylvia’ by Bon-Wai Chou, Southerly, Vol 79 No 1, 2019
‘Die Hard’ by Bon-Wai Chou, Roots: Home is who we are, Hardie Grant, 2021
Kumakana by Kevin Price, Crotchet Quaver, 2016
Succession by Michael Beashel, 2016
All Mortal Flesh by John Bartlett, Heartsong, 2009
Corrugated Roads by Ginny Lowndes, Montpelier, 2010
Non-fiction
Acts of Cruelty by Aileen Crowe, Palaver, 2022
The Tao: Conversations on Chinese art in Australia by Tianli Zu, 2018
Tricky Teens by Andrew Fuller, Finch, 2014
Caring for Coco by Vicky Marquis, 2008
Booklovers Diary, Dymocks, 2001
English and the Aboriginal Child by Terry Eagleson, Susan Kaldor and Ian Malcolm, Curriculum Development Centre, 1982
Academic
Internationalising the Pacific by Tomoko Akami, Routledge, 2002
Reform and Recovery in East Asia edited by Peter Drysdale, Routledge, 2000
Asia Pacific Air Transport edited by Christopher Findlay, Chia Lin Sien & Karmjit Singh, ISEAS, 1997
Europe, East Asia and APEC edited by Peter Drysdale & David Vines, Cambridge University Press, 1998
Environment and Development in the Pacific edited by H Edward English & David Runnalls, Addison–Wesley, 1997
Education and history
Serving the Nation: 100 years of public service, Public Service and Merit Protection Commission, 2001
No Peacetime Cinderellas, War Widows Guild, 2007 (with Deborah Edward)
250 Chinese Characters for Everyday Use, vol 1 and 2, Tuttle, 2004
Report on 1994 Quality Reviews, vol 1 and 2, 1994, Department of Employment, Education and Training, 1994–95 (editing and production)
Community initiatives and editorial consultancy
Editing for Sensitivity, Diversity and Inclusion: A guide for professional editors, Renée Otmar, 2020 (comments on early draft)
Behind My Smile, Beryl Crosher-Segers, Kind Press, 2020 (manuscript assessment)
The Intervention: An anthology, Rosie Scott and Anita Heiss, eds Concerned Australians, 2015 (copy editing)
A Country Too Far, Thomas Keneally and Rosie Scott, eds, Penguin, 2013 (editorial advice)
The Beloved, Annah Faulkner, Picador, 2012, winner of Queensland Premier’s Literary Award, shortlisted for Miles Franklin Award (manuscript assessment)
Dealing with the Media, Chris Rau, UNSW Press, 2010 (editorial advice)
Professional activities
Editing is about teamwork, whether in person or online. Over the years, I’ve participated in the profession as colleague, judge, mentor, researcher, working group member, moderator and writer.
An IPEd-accredited editor since 2008 when the first exam was held, I’m a long-time supporter of accreditation and was a member of the national accreditation working group.
I was a judge for IPEd’s essay prize in 2018 and the Fellowship of Australian Writers’ Barbara Ramsden Editing Award in 2011. I was a member of IPEd’s Standing Committee on Awards and Prizes from 2019 to 2021.
With David Henley, publisher at Seizure, I selected editors to work on the prize-winning manuscripts in Viva la Novella 2015, and acted as a mentor during the production process for three novellas, including Marlee Jane Ward’s Orphancorp, edited by Zoya Patel, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for young adult fiction.
In 2001, I established the first national survey of editors, and conducted the first five surveys at national conferences.
My interviews with editors and writers have been published in editing journals and literary magazines (Muse, New England Review, The Fine Print, Blue Pencil, The Canberra Editor) and the collection, Editors in Conversation, Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2007.
I’ve been elected to management roles on the committees of editing societies in Canberra and NSW, participated in working groups for Council of Societies of Editors and Editors Canada as well as administrating international online editing groups under the banner of Editors’ Association of Earth – EAE.
My articles, reviews and conference papers have been published in national editing journals and other professional publications (Books + Publishing, Vocabula Review, Newswrite) on topics as diverse as cliché, academic language, mentoring, matters of style, competitive quoting, accreditation, marketing, ethics and teaching editing.