VUP Publisher Fergus Barrowman Honoured in Queen’s Birthday Honours

PANZ News

Queen’s Birthday Awards 2014

Victoria University Press publisher, Fergus Barrowman has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to publishing in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List announced yesterday.

While Fergus’ current high profile is as the publisher of Booker Prize winning novel The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, he has had a distinguished career, and has championed many fledgling New Zealand authors who have gone on to receive international recognition.

“For a good many years, Fergus has been one of this country’s great literary explorers—hunting for new voices, new talents, new ideas and taking them to the world,” says Publishers Association of New Zealand president Sam Elworthy. “He and the Victoria University Press team have brought to readers a treasure trove of great New Zealand scholarship and literature. Fergus’s work is an outstanding example of the work that publishers do connecting authors to readers, New Zealanders to the world. The Publishers Association congratulates Fergus on his well-deserved recognition in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.”

Also made a recipient of the MNZM is children’s literature specialist, and author of the Little Yellow Digger series of children’s picture books, Betty Gilderdale.

Recently retired booksellers Beatrice Parsons and Julian Parsons of iconic Wellington bookstore Parsons Books and Music both received the Queen’s Service Medal for services to business and the arts.