Melena Cole-Manolis is a proud Luritja, Warumungu and Yawuru woman from Alice Springs. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from UWA and since graduating has worked in education and the creative sector, including Desart, the peak body for Aboriginal Art Centres in Central Australia.  Melena started working at Magabala Books, Australia’s leading Indigenous Publisher, as a Publishing Cadet in 2021 and since 2023 has worked as an Editor in the publishing team.

She has managed the publication of various titles written and illustrated by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creators in poetry, junior fiction, non-fiction and children’s picture books – including the award-winning title Our Flag, Our Story by Bernard Namok Jnr, Thomas May and Tori Jay Mordey. Melena was the recipient of the Kullarri NAIDOC Award for Contribution to Arts in 2024. In 2025 she was appointed to the Children’s Picture Book Committee of the Australian Publishers Association. Recently returned from the Bologna Book Fair, Melena is proud to be representing First Nations creators in the international rights market.

Learn more about Melena in this interview with Books+Publishing.

 

After school, Rachel Cramp completed a BA with honours at the University of Wollongong, which included a semester at the University of Lancaster in England. At Wollongong, she was selected as a Golden Key Society member, an award given to the top 15 per cent in each area of study. Rachel worked in retailing after university, initially for Cotton On and then, from 2015, at the Miranda QBD bookshop, where, in January 2017, she was made Store Manager. 

 

Rachel joined HarperCollins in September 2017 as a National Accounts Assistant in the Sales department and in January 2019 was promoted to Senior National Accounts Assistant. In August of that year she took on the role of Publishing Coordinator in the Children’s Books department, before being promoted to Assistant Editor in July of that year. When a maternity leave position as Editor opened up in Adult Books in 2022, Rachel seized the opportunity to broaden her skills. She impressed so much in this role that when a permanent job became available she was offered the post. Since then she has shown herself to be an outstanding addition to the Adult Books editorial team.

Learn more about Rachel in this interview with Books+Publishing.

Raised in Sydney’s northern suburbs, Ali Hampton was always more drawn to books than beaches. Her first mentor was her primary school librarian, and being named Head Library Monitor remains one of her proudest achievements.

At UNSW, she studied Communications and briefly considered Law—until a tutor encouraged her to pursue journalism. She interned at The Urban List and the now-defunct Yen Magazine, while working behind a bar, where she learned valuable lessons in teamwork and handling tough situations.

 

When Ali landed the position of publicity assistant at Penguin Books in 2015, she realised she had stumbled upon her dream job combining her two great loves of books and media. Within six months she had been promoted to Publicist and Senior Publicist two years later. 

 

Ali has a wide skill base and can turn her hand to all manner of tasks. In 2019 she moved to London where she joined the Arts and Culture team at Four Communications, where she managed agency campaigns for The Booker Prize, The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, English PEN, International Prize for Arabic Fiction, and The Arts & Humanities Research Council. In 2021 she returned to Australia to take up the position of Publicity Manager at Allen & Unwin. 

It's here that Ali truly hit her stride. Soon promoted to Senior Publicity Manager she has conducted high-profile campaigns, made innovations that hugely benefit her team and is showing the way for publicists everywhere seeking to balance the demands of personal life and career. 

Learn more about Ali in this interview with Books+Publishing.

 

Jen Topham started her publishing career in Aotearoa NZ working in Production roles in both trade (working on the taskforce to introduce Biblio to PRH) and reference publishing before crossing the ditch in 2018 to take up a Production Controller role at Hachette. 

Regularly promoted since, she was appointed head of the Australian Production team at the beginning of this year. While these promotions have been a reflection of her exceptional technical skills, they are also an acknowledgement of her willingness to take on new responsibilities and execute them with seemingly effortless ability.

 

Her new role as Deputy Production Manager at Hachette has seen her formally take on management of two team members which she has done with great care. Alongside her managerial growth, she has taken on management of their audio list which is new to her, as well as embarking on an ambitious, collaborative project with both in-house teams and overseas colleagues to improve our local processes and systems. She is a founding member of the Surprise and Delight (yes – ironically SAD) social committee and is – without question - the company’s best baker. 

Learn more about Jen in this interview with Books+Publishing.

 

Sarah Valle is a passionate and dedicated publishing professional with almost nine years' experience across sales and publicity. She is currently Senior Publicist at University of Queensland Press where she has helped establish the career of one of 2024's most talked about authors, Jordan Prosser (Big Time), and driven campaigns for high-profile writers and thinkers such as Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts, Nova Weetman and Dr Tracy Westerman. She is also on UQP’s Sustainability Committee.

Learn more about Sarah in this interview with Books+Publishing.