UNSW Press has won a number of awards in its 50th anniversary year, as the company rises to the challenges of digital publishing.

The Press has embarked on innovative ways to cross-subsidise its publishing activities, says Chief Executive Kathy Bail.

“Print books and e-books are boosted by revenue earned in other parts of the business, such as retailing, a model that is unusual among most university presses.

“We’re investing in skilled staff, new technology and targeted sales channels to enable our publishing and bookselling divisions to compete and remain sustainable in the digital economy,” Bail says.

The company’s NewSouth Publishing list of scholarly books and general non-fiction continues to receive widespread media coverage and awards:

  • Two UNSW Press titles were joint winners of this year’s Australian Educational Publishing Award for best Tertiary (Wholly Australian) Scholarly Resource: Australia and the Antarctic Treaty System (edited by Marcus Haward and Tom Griffiths) and Australian Poetry Since 1788 (edited by Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray).
  • Sex, Genes & Rock n Roll by UNSW Professor Rob Brooks won the Science Award at the Queensland Literary Awards.
  • Set in Stone: A History of the Cell Block Theatre by Deborah Beck won The New South Wales Community and Regional History Prize at the Premier’s Literary Awards.
  • The Enemy at Home: German Internees in World War I Australia by Nadine Helmi and Gerhard Fischer won a NSW National Trust Heritage Award.
  • Moving Stories by Alistair Thomson won the 2012 Oral History Association Book Award for international themes, which was presented at the OHA annual conference in Cleveland, Ohio.
  • UNSW’s Dr Rob Brander and author of Dr Rip’s Essential Beach Book won the Australian Government Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Australian Science Research.
  • Darwin Spitfires by Anthony Cooper won the Chief Minister’s Northern Territory History Book Award.
  • Design manager Di Quick won the Best Designed General Illustrated Book award at the 60th Annual Book Design Awards for The Flight Attendant's ShoeMad Dog by Peter Corris was highly commended in the Best Designed Non-Fiction Book category.

Other highlights include the launch of the inaugural Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Best Science Writing and the UNSW Bookshop received the award for Campus Bookshop of the Year, which is decided by members of the Australian Publishers Association. The Bookshop was also the winner of two category awards: Best Bookshop Attributes and Best On-campus Promotions and Marketing Initiatives.