At the recent Friends of Fryer event on Tuesday the 14th of August, an informative panel gathered to discuss histories of Women's Writing at the University of Queensland Press.

2012 Fryer Award winner D'Arcy Randall began the discussion by describing her experience as fiction editor at UQP in the 1980s and her recent research unearthing 'editorial stories' in the UQP archive. The University of Queensland Press archive is one of the richest resources Fryer holds for researchers, covering the entire history of the press since 1965 and totalling 596 boxes of material.

D'Arcy has spent her time as Fryer Library Award winner researching UQP history for a memoir and articles related to her career there. She recalled especially how she sought out new women writers to balance UQP's brilliant but male-dominated list in the early 80s. She also discussed the editorial work involved in getting Olga Masters' last novel The Rose Fancier (1988) published after her death in 1986.

Deborah Jordan, a UQ researcher in cultural history and the history of the book, currently working with Ivor Indyk and David Carter on the book Halcyon Days: Australian literary publishing 1965-1995, provided a historical overview of publishing at UQP, particularly the 1960s and the crucial period in the early 80s when new women's voices were published.

UQ academic and former reader for UQP, Bronwen Levy, shared her experiences of working with UQP and her excitement the first time she read the work of author Gillian Mears. Sue Abbey, UQP poetry editor from 1988 to 2002 and current director of the black&write! writing and editing project to train Indigenous editors, also shared her insights, focusing on the important impact of female poets such as Judith Rodriguez and Dorothy Porter.

The interesting presentations and discussion by all four speakers shed light on the 'editorial stories' of important writers at UQP, such as Rosa Cappiello, Olga Masters, and Kate Grenville. The event attracted many former and current employees of UQP and Fryer seized the opportunity to get them to pose for a group photo.

Left to right: Greg Bain, Bronwen Levy, Laurie Hergenhan, D'Arcy Randall, Alexandra Payne, Sue Abbey, Alison Cotes, Deb Jordan, Merril Thompson, Frank Thompson, Jena Wodehouse, and Rosie Chay.

The panel also spoke fondly of Rosie Fitzgibbon, another wonderfully talented editor who made a significant contribution to UQP's fiction list. Fryer staff were saddened to hear of her passing as we were preparing this post.