Tom Langshaw Wins Australian Publishing Industry's 2023 Rising Star Award

Tom Langshaw Wins Australian Publishing Industry’s 2023 Rising Star Award

Pantera Press

Pantera Press is proud to announce that Tom Langshaw, our Commissioning Editor, has been named the winner of the 2023 Rising Star Award. The prize, recognising emerging talent in the Australian publishing industry, was announced at this year’s BookUp Conference at the State Library of Victoria.

Tom joined Pantera as Commissioning Editor in 2021, with a focus on memoir, narrative non-fiction and personal development titles. In a short time, Tom has established himself as an incredibly valuable member of our publishing team, having worked on drag queen Courtney Act’s ABIA-nominated memoir Caught in the Act, and bestseller and ABIA winner The Dreaming Path by Dr Paul Callaghan. Among the exciting authors Tom has commissioned for the Pantera list are actor and musician Cameron Daddo, journalist Elfy Scott, writer James Colley and content creators Esmé Louise James and Chantel Mila. In 2022, Tom was selected to participate in the APA’s Residential Editorial Program.

The judges said, ‘It was stiff competition, but ultimately we were impressed with Tom’s commitment to improving his editorial methods and standards of care for authors. This was particularly evident with his interest and empathy in editing texts that contain the author’s personal trauma. Tom is an emerging thought leader in his pursuit for best practice publishing.’

Congratulations to Tom on this significant achievement. Congratulations also to Pantera’s Head of Marketing Kajal Narayan, who was shortlisted alongside Tom for this year’s award. We are delighted that both Tom and Kajal were recognised by a panel of industry experts as ‘emerging talents to watch in an industry where they’re already making a mark’.

The judges said of the shortlist and nominees: ‘we have an amazing group of innovators who are making real change in their areas of expertise, and will prove to be leaders in their fields in years to come.’