Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Thesis - ECU Access Only
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
School
School of Arts and Humanities
First Supervisor
Donna Mazza
Second Supervisor
Marcella Polain
Abstract
This research explores the use of creative nonfiction in writing an account of two publishing houses established decades apart, and demonstrates how a hybrid approach that incorporates multiple voices can contribute to the field of biographies and memoirs on publishing. Using practice-led research as its primary methodology, ‘A tale of two publishing houses’ is a creative nonfiction work that focusses on the publishing experiences of Fremantle Arts Centre Press (now Fremantle Press) in its first decade of publishing from 1975, alongside present publishing experiences of Night Parrot Press in its formative years of publishing from 2019. The accompanying reflexive exegesis examines methods of writing the publishing experiences as creative nonfiction and considers the position and contribution of the creative work to the field of biography, memoir and other narrative accounts of publishing.
The work considers and incorporates different narrative methods including ethnography, autoethnography, biography and memoir to provide accounts of Fremantle Arts Centre Press (now Fremantle Press) and Night Parrot Press. Past key events and experiences from the formative years of Fremantle Arts Centre Press are compared to, and interwoven with, present experiences and events of Night Parrot Press. Using practice-led research, it demonstrates how a hybrid approach of narrative forms and styles can be used for presenting past and present histories, upheld by a narrative structure that allows fragments and chapters to be self-supporting at the same time as contributing to a larger narrative. The creative nonfiction work is driven by an observant narrator and draws on alternating stylistic methods for writing about the different timelines and voices, particularly in negotiating shifts from first person to third person. The research and writing of both presses negotiates factual, interpretational and aesthetic approaches. For the purpose of this study, the work is described as a ‘publishing house experience’
DOI
10.25958/w3sx-x094
Access Note
Access to this thesis is embargoed until 21st March 2030
Recommended Citation
Martin, L. (2025). A tale of two publishing houses. Edith Cowan University. https://doi.org/10.25958/w3sx-x094