Fiction.
Non-fiction.
Book publicity. Marketing. Editing. Graphic design.
Yasmine turns words into meaning. Connects stories, authors and ideas with readers across the country.
Publishing.
Yasmine is proud to share that her writing has been published in this year’s UTS Writers’ Anthology, Soak.
”My creative non-fiction short story ‘Alphard’ provides an exploration of my Australian/Palestinian heritage and what it means to belong to a place. This is a story I wrote long these before current conflicts. I never could have predicted that it would be published at time of so much pain and suffering in this part of the world.”
You can pick your copy of Soak via Booktopia or read a review by Writing NSW below:
https://lnkd.in/gWvXERn7
Yasmine is currently employed as a Publicity Assistant at DMCPR Media, a boutique communications agency specialising in the publishing and arts sectors.
From liaising with Australian media across print, broadcast, online and television, to confirming interviews with authors, crafting press releases, social media content, writing proposals and planning events - Yasmine’s work is diverse and all-encompassing.
Read about her work and contribution to the team here.
Yasmine Alwakal joined the Australian Publishers Association as an intern to learn more about the industry, and here she shares her background, love of books and hopes for the future:
“I truly adore the experience of reading texts which transform you to another world and challenging myself to articulate the so-often unspeakable experiences of life through creative and investigative writing. This passion has influenced my tertiary studies and second major in Writing and Publishing at UTS. Surrounded by like minded literary lovers at APA, I am quickly discovering the more I learn about this industry, the more eager I become to pursue this as a career.”
Yasmine was shortlisted for the prestigious and highly competitive Open Book Publishing Internship (2023), as promoted on their website:
Yasmine Alwakal is currently studying a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) with a second major in Writing and Publishing at UTS. An avid reader, her writing spans across the non-fiction, fiction and journalistic genres. She has experience working as a Communications and Marketing Intern at the Zoo and Aquarium Association of Australasia, as a Publications Assistant and her work is featured in Central News. This year, her short story; ‘Alphard’ will be published in the UTS Writers Anthology and she looks forward to contributing further to the industry.
Yasmine was responsible for producing, designing and editing the collaborative UTS student literary journal; Pulse.
What makes this anthology, is it’s incredibly distinct stories from emerging young authors with an incredible wealth of talent and imagination. Find friends in reflections and mysterious bars. Receive a relationship-altering message. Drink a martini with a horrifying twist. Join therapy sessions with a skeleton. Confront questions of identity and heritage. And even more memories.
Hard to beat and even harder to forget. Pulse. will give you goosebumps and leave you aching for more.
Yasmine assisted in the successfulness and execution of the Australian Book Industry Awards. Her role included same-day visual merchandising and event setup, leading ABIA winners from the stage to photographers and the media room and networking with industry professionals.
Yasmine helped bring the BookUp 2023 conference to life. She was integral to all Communications strategies, including writing Communication and Marketing website, email and social media copy.
She crafted all graphic design and visual imagery used for the campaign and constructed back-end website, event and ticketing pages via iMIS and HigherLogic platforms.
Yasmine communicated with educational publishers across Australia via the APA website, email, social media and campaign strategies.
Her diverse work included Marketing and Communications strategies, website design, graphic design and event organisation.
For the world’s largest trade book fair, Yasmine assisted in the creation of Marketing and Communications copy for the Books from Australia in-person and virtual stands.
This was essential for increasing the general public’s and member knowledge of the event and Australian international rights.
Yasmine helped collate the VOLUME Reading Symposium’s public relations contact lists. This included the creation of general media contact lists, specialised industry professionals and contacts across education, arts, health and mental health sectors.
She also used her graphic design skills to create visual assets to be distributed on social media and the website. During the future of this campaign, this work will be integral to ensuring ongoing successfulness.
From the impact and opportunities of Artificial Intelligence and Design Thinking, through to the practicalities of metadata, and publishing First Nations voices, the BookUp 2023 conference challenged attendees' perspectives on a broad range of topics.
‘BookUp was such a huge success. The program was topical and relevant with great speakers, industry experts, panel discussions and presentations.’ said Louise Stark; CEO, Hachette Australia.
Over the course of a long career, when it comes to what she's selling Louise O’Leary’s philosophy is, 'as the French say "plus ca change"'! From Penguin classics, Peter Rabbit and Jamie Oliver through to newer releases like Bluey, Louise’s has seen and sold it all, and her devotion to her craft and unparalleled work ethic remains strong.
From planning dictionary projects with multilingual teams in Paris, visiting natural history authors in California, writing children’s non-fiction books and teaching at Macquarie University, through to working closely with bestselling and debut Australian authors, these are just some of the moments which have distinguished an impressive publishing career for Scott Forbes over 35 years.
A fountain of knowledge', 'Fabulous to work with', 'A unique blend of talent, knowledge and calm efficiency' – 2023 George Robertson Award recipient Jane Kembrey has booksellers, publishers and authors from around the globe singing her praises, and seeking her advice.
For over 46 years Jane has put books into the hands of millions of readers, and made an invaluable contribution to the publishing industry as Sales & Marketing Manager at UNSW Press and NewSouth Books.
For Sean Cotcher, Head of Key Accounts at HarperCollins Publishers, no two days are the same. From working on some of the biggest brands in the world, J.R.R. Tolkein to J.K. Rowling, reading Robert Jordan’s first manuscript The Eye of the World to selling Jordan's final book 23 years later – 'there is always something different to discuss, a new story to sell'.
He looks back recent at the changes in technology and how stories have helped him retain a passion for publishing over thirty years.
From Enid Blyton to Roald Dahl and Beverly Cleary, Jo-Ann Milne was a voracious reader as a child and in her teen years was introduced to the world of romance by her aunt, and admits that since then her heart has not stood a chance!
Many years later, Jo-Ann continues to wear her heart on her sleeve and bring that very same love of literature to work with her each day.
The introduction of 13 digit ISBNs, computerisation, audio books and print on demand aren’t the only changes Kate Hoy has experienced over her 30 year publishing career. Working her way from a bookseller at the National Gallery Bookshop in Canberra to product and DK director at Penguin Random House, Kate has been instrumental in the publishing of phenomenal bestsellers including The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James.
Shortlisted for the Australian publishing industry’s Rising Star award in 2023, meet Tom Langshaw, commissioning editor at Pantera Press.
Whether it be memoir, non-fiction or personal development titles, Tom is always on the look for compelling new Australian voices and stories which ask big questions of their readers. Tom says there is nothing like working ‘with a talented person who is on the same page’ as he gives us insights into his career to date, and hopes for the future of the industry.
Shortlisted for the Australian publishing industry’s Rising Star award in 2023, meet Kajal Narayan, head of marketing at Pantera Press.
A natural creative, Kajal has led Pantera's most successful marketing campaign to date achieving unprecedented online engagement. Always keen to learn more Kajal says she is particularly looking forward to the upcoming BookUp conference 'It's so fantastic to see sessions at the conference this year on metadata and responsibly publishing books from First Nations authors'.
Shortlisted for the 2023 Australian publishing industry’s Rising Star award, HarperCollins and HQ Books digital marketing manager Eloise Plant is always working creatively and looking for new solutions to embrace change.
With the rise of artificial intelligence Eloise says ‘it would be great to see the industry grapple with this new technology’ (which is just what will happen at this year's BookUp conference), as she shares insights into her career to date, and hopes for the future of the industry.
Creative Writing.
Low tide at the marsh was all muddied feet, the sulphurous rotten-egg stench of peat that lingered even after a wash and a mess of soggy cigarette butts and fishing wire and other utilitarian waste briefly uncovered by the shallows. It was angry fin fish darting around ankles, a few eels or sand white out wonder if you were lucky. Few were these days. The outsiders, tourists with their wide brimmed hats and dollar-store sunglasses exclaimed it was the kind of serenity plastered on a tacky postcard. Albeit slightly blurry at the edges.
When my mother was just a girl, she was gifted three precious chicken eggs by the old village storekeeper. They all, miraculously, died.
“I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to keep them in the sun,” she said.
“The damned things. They didn’t crack or break, I was careful and propped them in a small basket along the kitchen window ledge; but still they spoiled and festered. Thus is the nature of love.
This is a philistine desert.
Palm trees and freeways and California dreaming. It’s the tidying, the entertaining, the full belly laughs and sunshine and smoking by the patio. Dinner parties like these last right through Sunday to Monday.
I stand. My feet ache. I wander to the back studio to the futon by the lime-green geometric wallpaper bathed in mid-afternoon warmth and plan to take a nap. And life changes in an instant.
The husband liked his cherry crostatas on Thursday evenings. So, the wife started baking at midday.
In the red oak kitchen filled with bottles of jam, pickled radish and sugo prepared in January from when the days were warmer – she donned a twee floral apron and switched on Rai Radio to muffle the breathing of the child in the other room. Her swollen, sun-blotched hands worked floured ingredients into a yellow pastry, buttery and dense.
Research and Creative Projects.
The Bottled Up. candle range reimagines, bottles up the essence of Paul Kelly’s iconic Australiana representations and characters for a whole new market. Our sense of smell is so closely intertwined to the emotional and memory centres of our brain. It envelopes, consumes and transports us back in time to a moment that can only ever be resurfaced by a figment of our imagination.
Working to do good for the environment, appeal to an underdeveloped male market and destigmatise mental health conversations; Bottled Up. is unique in its scope and design.
Alongside his Italian immigrant family, Matteo Donnagemma fights for his twin sister with a rare chromosome disability to stay in the only home she has ever known – Australia.
But when the Department of Immigration discovers that their father, Vanni lost his job as a geologist during COVID-19, Benedetta is “red flagged” as a “burden on the healthcare system” and faces deportation to Italy for her disability. Embarking on a story of hope and resilience, Matteo proves how, with a little bit of luck, the dice can roll in your favour.
Like a “Moth to a Flame”, our neoliberal society is inescapably allured to the ambivalent “Other” – a powerful and exclusionary theory which continues to reproduce inherently Eurocentric and heteronormative narratives throughout contemporary media.
The four-part psychological drama: Bad Behaviour, adapted from Starford’s 2015 memoir and directed by Corrie Chen, provides a postfeminist reimagining of the Goldingesque rhetoric; to bully or be bullied.
The Australian media’s problematic and inimical coverage of Operation Protective Edge has undermined the salience of conflict on public agenda – simultaneously legitimising pro-Israeli discourse and denying Palestinians permission to narrate.
Regarded as one of the most complex and long-lasting warfare’s in modern history, Israeli-Palestinian tensions along the Gaza strip in 2014 destroyed 18,000 homes; rendering 100,000 civilians homeless and killed 2,202 Palestinians.
The continued “ethical failure” of mainstream media to scrutinise grossly over-represented First Nation deaths in custody and report with “impartiality and diversity of perspective” – has relegated “Aboriginal people to the fringes of society”.
Contextually considering Indigenous Australians are the most incarcerated people on earth, with 493 deaths under state protection occurring since the 1991 RCIADIC; journalists are ethically responsible to “keep the issue in the public sphere”.
Older peoples’ civic participation in Australia is simultaneously characterised by a tumultuous democratic climate of socially exclusionary and ageist political policy – while non-governmental organisations promote a new paradigm in gerontology.
Considering active citizenship is “an exercise that is sustained by action” Australia must maintain meaningful and ongoing conferral elderly rights, beyond political participation.
Katherine Mansfield’s Modern narrative tradition developed from the conjunction of outward experience and inner necessity – distinguishing her radical characterisation and phenomenological aesthetics. Reactionary to tumultuous cultural forces including industrialisation, urbanisation and the Great War, Ezra Pound’s imperative “Make it new” (1934, as cited in Stanton, 2022) attempted to challenge the successes prophesised for Modernity in the late-Victorian era.
First, I thought of my Father. Just a boy in that Palestinian refugee camp, building a guitar from “garbage dump” timber and scraps of bicycle wire; learning the music by heart and hearing. Perhaps it is self-centred “as listener or reader, [to] organise, interpret and evaluate” Tara June Winch’s non-fiction story through “a speak/listen trade”.
But, as a hybrid Palestinian slash white Australian, I too learnt “early on that I…didn’t belong everywhere”.