Tag: publishing (page 1 of 2)

16 July 2021 / 0 Comments

Considerations for Mission Leadership in UN Peace Operations

I’m really proud to have played a small part in helping the International Forum for the Challenges of Peace Operations put together the second edition of its groundbreaking study on leadership in UN peace operations, Considerations for Mission Leadership in UN Peace Operations.

My role in the project entailed editing and bringing together six chapters written and reviewed by multiple authors into a coherent whole, adapting an existing InDesign template to produce web- and print-ready versions, and then uploading and publishing the entire report on PressBooks.


It’s probably one of the most complex projects I’ve worked on as a freelancer, and it gave me a whole bunch of insights into the pros and cons of desktop publishing using standard tools versus more agile (yet in other aspects limited) single-source publishing software.

I’d like to write more about that soon but for now, thanks to Sharon Wiharta and the Challenges Forum team for taking me on, and I trust the report will prove useful to its target audiences in the peace operations community worldwide.

The Bridge of Sighs at the University of Oxford, with the Sheldonian Theatre in the background during twilight. Photo credit: Adobe Stock.
31 May 2021 / 0 Comments

Dag Hammarskjöld: ‘The International Civil Servant in Law and in Fact’

Here’s what’s been keeping me busy for the past three months: a reissue of Dag Hammarskjöld’s 1961 Oxford lecture, ‘The International Civil Servant in Law and in Fact’.

On 30 May 1961, Dag Hammarskjöld gave a lecture in Oxford about the international civil service. Now, 60 years later, the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation (DHF) has reissued the lecture with Hammarskjöld’s original footnotes, a new introduction and a note on the text.

I managed both the planning and delivery of the project, which involved extensive background research in the Kungliga biblioteket National Library of Sweden‘s Dag Hammarskjöld Collection and a complete reformatting of the text of the original Oxford University Press version.

The cover of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation’s reissue of Hammarskjöld’s Oxford lecture, which includes his original footnotes, a new introduction and a note on the text.

One of the many surprises of the archival research phase was receiving a package of information from Oxford University Press, including details of the process leading up to the publication of the original chapbook version.

I also produced blog post that barely hints at the wealth of information I uncovered about Hammarskjöld’s trip to England, and a two-and-a-half-minute video courtesy of Different Films, which you can watch below.

I’m not sure which of these activities has involved the most work, but if I had to pick the one that has proven the most rewarding I’d say the video has it all.

From conception to treatment, selection of media and sequencing, it’s probably the only video about a publication I’ve ever been involved in but I am certain it won’t be the last.

While the history of Dag Hammarskjöld’s Oxford lecture could fill a book, my blog post explores the untold stories behind three known versions of the text.

One day I will write that book.

13 December 2012 / 3 Comments

The Next Big Thang

Poet Ivy Alvarez, whose latest book is Mortal, invited me to participate in this self-interview blog meme called The Next Big Thing, where I get to share a little more about my next book.

Writers participating get to answer 8-10 questions (about their book/blog/their writing), and then tag 5 other writer friends to post their own “next big thing” the following Wednesday. Ivy’s instructions were for me to post by or before Wednesday, 19 December.

Rather daringly, I’ve followed Ivy’s re-arrangement of the original order of the questions.

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4 March 2011 / 8 Comments

Humility Publishing

so far i’m my only reader but i like what i see
writing becomes much easier when you can
focus on present company though it be poor

Prater, D., ‘Humility Publishing, Shampoo, 2002

When I began researching the field of self-publishing in Australian poetry in 2005, I envisaged a grand, sociological study in the style of Pierre Bourdieu’s Distinction (1984), punctuated with graphs and tables, statistical analysis and interview data, an extensive bibliography of self-published books by Australian poets, and more. In hindsight, it is easy to scorn my own youthful optimism that an entire ‘field’ of self-publishing could thus be summarised in one vast yet mature and restrained tract of epic academic vigour, which I might then go on to self-publish, or even to disguise the extent of my own involvement in.

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19 July 2005 / 0 Comments

covers: poems by nick whittock

covers: poems by nick whittock
(Cordite On Demand, 2004)

COD’s second book, by cricket tragic and librarian Nick Whittock, was a lot of fun to make. Nick wanted the book to be shaped like the old Footrot Flats comics. Once we got this in our minds, everything else flowed naturally and what you get for your buck is a strange, experimental and brave collection of poems about cricket and cricketers, including poem-title-of-the-century nominee, “Doosra Locomotion”.

However, as with Tom See’s book, the publishing experience was also full of ‘learnings’. Anyone who has published a book or launched something similar (eg a CD, an art exhibition etc) would know of the dreaded-worst-nightmare-situation when the thing to be launched does not show up on time. Unfortunately for Nick, this fate befell the first launch of his book, which was conducted sans product.

This was more than made up for, however, by a launch in Nick’s home town of Candelo in southern NSW, where we packed out the local cafe and had a great time.

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This is [d/dn], the home of David Prater, a writer and editor currently living in the third person.

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