Puncher & Wattmann
ORGANISATION BIO
Puncher & Wattmann was founded by David Musgrave (currently a Senior Lecturer in creative writing at the University of Newcastle) in 2005, as mainstream Australian publishers disbanded their poetry lists, and became less inclined to take risks when publishing literary fiction.
It is currently co-owned and operated by Musgrave, Newcastle-based author and editor, Dr Ed Wright, and poet and short story writer, Dr Andy Kissane.
Since 2005, we have published more than 200 titles across poetry, fiction, life writing, essays and criticism. Our fiction has been short-listed for the Miles Franklin and Prime Minister’s Awards and our poetry regularly features in the Prime Minister’s and various state literary awards.
We are also the leading publisher of poetry anthologies in Australia with titles including The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry, Contemporary Asian Australian Poets and Out of the Box: Contemporary Gay and Lesbian Poets.
Our biennial Puncher & Wattmann First Book of Poetry Prize is one of the major prizes for emerging Australian poets, while our Slow Loris chapbook series has a national reputation for publishing cutting-edge Australian poetry.
Through our involvement in the Editing and Publishing course at the University of Newcastle, we also have employed and/or mentored a number of students into publishing careers.