Booker Prize winner launches new uni press

Nobel Prize-winning author and 2009 Man Booker Prize candidate JM Coetzee will launch the new University of Adelaide Press.

Professor Coetzee, a visiting Professor of Humanities at the University of Adelaide, is expected to attract a large crowd of visiting dignitaries and academics to the launch on Friday 23 October.

While the University has been publishing books under various imprints since the 1920s - mainly via the Barr Smith Library - a new press will publish works by the University's academic community in two formats: an online 'e-book' for free download and a trade quality paperback edition printed to order.

The Barr Smith Press will now act as an imprint of the University of Adelaide Press, publishing works about the University specifically, including its history, activities and alumni.

New releases from the University of Adelaide Press include titles co-authored by Professor Kym Anderson (School of Economics), Professor Randy Stringer (School of Agriculture, Food and Wine) and Visiting Research Fellow Bernard O'Neil (School of History and Politics).

At the time of going to press, Professor Coetzee was shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize for his latest novel Summertime, focusing on his life as a 30-something struggling writer in Cape Town, South Africa, in the 1970s apartheid era.

Coetzee has twice won the Man Booker Prize for Disgrace (1999) and Life & Times of Michael K (1983). The 2009 winner will be announced on Tuesday 6 October in London.

Story by Candy Gibson