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The University of Western Australia will embark on a ‘progressive close down’ of UWA Publishing’s activities from the end of November. Photograph: artpartner-images.com/Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy
The University of Western Australia will embark on a ‘progressive close down’ of UWA Publishing’s activities from the end of November. Photograph: artpartner-images.com/Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy

University of Western Australia's decision to close publishing house sparks outrage

This article is more than 4 years old

Decision to shut UWA Publishing, which published works by multiple Miles Franklin winners, came ‘out of the blue’

The University of Western Australia’s surprise decision to shut down its publishing house has prompted outrage and protest from the Australian literary community.

The fate of the 84-year-old publishing house, UWA Publishing, was communicated via a “proposal for change” circulated by the university’s senior management on Tuesday, blindsiding staff.

UWAP publishes literary fiction, including works by multiple Miles Franklin award winners, alongside non-fiction, poetry and scholarly works for an academic and general readership. It is known for the diversity of voices on its list.

But the proposal from UWA’s deputy vice-chancellor (global partnerships) said that as “only a small proportion of the authors and content published by UWA Publishing relate directly to the university and its work”, the university was planning to embark on a “progressive close down” of UWAP’s activities from the end of November this year.

The objective was to “align the output of this area” to the “strategic vision” of the university in providing “open and digitised access to information and knowledge in support of the University’s academic writing and research”, the proposal said.

The wording echoes University of Melbourne’s arguments regarding the controversial realignment earlier this year of its own publishing house, Melbourne University Publishing, to focus on scholarly works over commercial publishing. That decision prompted a mass resignation of the university publisher’s board and its chief executive, Louise Adler.

Five staff at UWAP will either have their contracts terminated or be made redundant as a consequence of the proposed shut down.

Publishing director Terri-Ann White said the decision came “completely out of the blue”.

“It was really surprising when we found out on Tuesday and we were delivered a document that outlined the next steps and intentions for the future,” she told Guardian Australia.

White said that UWAP had been “very open” to embarking on open-access and digital publishing alongside its print priorities, but that the university’s preference appeared to be to “close off one path and start another”.

White said she was very concerned about the lack of provision in the proposed shutdown for servicing the 350 authors on UWAP’s backlist, and for the future of the 35 books scheduled to be published in 2020.

One of UWAP’s most recent successes was Josephine Wilson’s novel, Extinctions, which won the 2017 Miles Franklin award. Wilson’s novel had also won UWAP’s Dorothy Hewett award for an unpublished manuscript two years earlier – an incentive the publishing house had put in place to excavate and elevate new Australian literature.

UWAP also publishes an array of Noongar language books by dual-Miles Franklin award-winner Kim Scott, as part of the Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project.

As a long-time fan of @terriannwhite and the work of others at @uwapublishing I am shocked and saddened to hear of this decision. Another blow to Australian literature at a time when it's already under attack on multiple fronts.

— Alice Grundy (@alicektg) November 7, 2019

News of the publishing house’s imminent closure began circulating publicly on Thursday night. By Friday morning, a petition had been established and was collecting signatures. Its creator, Melinda Smith, who won the prime minister’s prize for poetry in 2014, called the decision “short-sighted”.

“UWAP under current director Terri-Ann White is a national treasure and its cessation would leave an enormous hole in the Australian literary landscape,” Smith wrote.

At the time of publication, the petition had nearly 1,200 signatures.

Responses to the news on social media have centred around White, who has been at UWAP for 14 years, calling her “indefatigable”, full of “vision, energy, imagination and intellect”.

Very sad news for Australian readers, writers and thinkers, given the important work published by @uwapublishing and @terriannwhite. https://t.co/2PfK1tNhE7

— Tara Moss (@Tara_Moss) November 8, 2019

Academic and editor of Australian Literary Studies, Julianne Lamond, told Guardian Australia she was “appalled” by the news.

“UWAP is a small scholarly press that has had a huge impact on Australian literary culture and Australian culture more generally,” Lamond said.

Lamond said UWAP had been particularly important for nurturing scholarship on Australian writing, and especially writing from the west. “Terri-Ann White is a brilliant publisher who has done fantastic work both in the big scholarship on Australian literature and in Australian writing.”

White has a reputation as a committed supporter of Australian literature. When a number of small poetry presses folded after former arts minister George Brandis removed funds from the Australia Council for the Arts in 2015 to create the short-lived and controversial parallel funding body later named Catalyst, White and UWAP established a poetry series specifically to support those works that would have otherwise gone unpublished.

White told Guardian Australia that the response from the literary community had been “heartwarming”.

“I’m so delighted that our authors are coming out to support us but also that people we haven’t published are rallying to support us,” she said. “I’ve had messages from all of the funding bodies, agents, publishers and other people involved in the literary business.”

White said the UWAP community planned to fight back hard against the closure.

“We’ve been mobilising some key voices to write to the university and put the case, and we are very, very pleased about the petition which has only been up for a short time and is going like the clappers.”

This article was amended on 11 November to clarify a reference to Melbourne University Publishing’s board resigning

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