Lex Hirst Joins Pantera Press

Lex Hirst has joined Pantera Press in the newly created role of Publisher.

Hirst, most recently Commissioning Editor at Penguin Random House, is also a committee member at the Sydney Arts Management Advisory Group and is a former co-director of the National Young Writers’ Festival.

“It’s no secret we have very ambitious plans to grow and we know we can continue our success with the right people in our business,” said Alison Green, CEO of Pantera Press.

“Lex is talented and has a true passion for her books and authors, something which we believe in wholeheartedly. Our aim is to have a significant impact on writing culture and we believe her experience, coupled with her fresh ideas and curiosity is the perfect addition to our team.”

Pantera Press continues to experience strong growth, dominating the YA bestseller list this year with Australian author Lynette Noni, and publishing the much anticipated I Had Such Friends by Meg Gatland-Veness next month.

“I’m thrilled to be joining the Pantera team to help grow their already excellent list of authors. As always, I’ll be looking for strong storytelling, great writing and exciting ideas across both fiction and nonfiction, and I can’t wait to hit the ground running,” said Hirst.

Hirst was also recently nominated for the 2018 ABIA Rising Stars Award.

Pantera Press have a social purpose business model which allows them to invest in new Australian authors and use their funds to support not-for-profits and charities that work to close the literacy gap in Australia. As part of this Good Books Doing Good Things^TM philosophy, last year Pantera Press announced their new foundational partnership with the Sydney Story Factory, helping SSF’s expansion into Western Sydney.

Pantera Press were shortlisted for the ABIA 2018 Small Publisher of the Year and named a 2017 Nielsen BookScan Heatseeker, one of the top independent publishers showing both significant short-term and long-term growth.