HUGE congrats to JdM author Marion Taffe — Celebrating graduate Marion Taffe: The incredible publishing journey of a journalist-turned-novelist proclaimed by RMIT University, who have also awarded Marion ‘Student of the Year for the College of Vocational Education’s Creative Industries cluster.’

“Looking for a change after a 20-year career as a press journalist, RMIT graduate Marion is now having the ANZ rights to her historical novel Freida acquired by major international publishing house HarperCollins.”

Further to the RMIT extract;

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Marion especially loved the great organic community around the course, as well as the immensely supportive teaching staff.

“The teachers foster connection and workshopping. There’re a lot of successful alumni and they would come and talk to us,” explained Marion.

“It felt right. I think I did a half-hearted effort at Googling other options but there really wasn’t any other course that suited me so well.”

Marion’s publishing contract is also a direct result of her incredible work while studying at RMIT – she had workshopped fragments of her novel in class, and she had met her publisher through the Towards Publication unit managed by literary agent Danielle Binks.

“When I met my publisher Catherine Milne, the Head of Fiction at HarperCollins, and she fell in love with my story, it didn’t seem real. She can really see into the heart of a story and it’s such a privilege to work with her,” said Marion. “I absolutely wouldn’t be here now without PWE.”

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We are so proud of Marion and can’t wait for everyone to read Freida – set in the kingdom of Mercia in the early 10th century. It follows a young girl, Freida, who is taken in by the church after her sister is killed and her father goes missing. Marion and her publisher Catherine Milne are currently working on the manuscript, and make a formidable creative team!

Jacinta di Mase is Marion’s official agent, but Danielle Binks as her former RMIT teacher and lecturer is uniquely proud indeed.