Vale Stephen Matthews

Publisher Stephen Matthews has died, aged 78.

Matthews founded the independent publisher Ginninderra Press in 1996 in Canberra, later moving to Adelaide. He received an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for service to publishing in 2021 and a Centenary Medal for his ‘contribution to the writing community and ongoing support for local authors’ in 2003.

Ginninderra Press owner Debbie Lee writes:

I first met Stephen as a young publisher’s representative, when he was the manager of the ANU Co-op. It was the heyday of publishing, when hardbacks preceded paperbacks, literary fiction and nonfiction titles were piled high, launches de rigueur and sales abounding.

As a bookseller, Stephen was discerning and erudite and as well-read as they come. Perhaps not surprising given his Cambridge University education in the classics, moral science and philosophy. Stephen taught high school history both prior to emigrating to Australia and for some years upon his arrival. Subsequently, his joy in books radiated in the writing of reviews, author profiles and articles for the Canberra Times and the Australian Book Review, as well assessing manuscripts for large publishing houses, and judging literary competitions and awards.

As mainstream publishing began to contract, with acquisitions and mergers upsetting the status quo, Stephen somewhat counterintuitively saw an opportunity. In 1996, Ginninderra Press was born, with the express mission of publishing new and emerging authors, relative unknowns, writing in eclectic, not always fashionable genres, books that did not necessarily have a commercial orientation, but books that mattered, nonetheless. Traversing poetry, memoir, history, novella, anthology and nonfiction prose, the primary criteria—that these were titles in which Stephen believed.

Over the course of the next 28 years, taking in a move from Canberra to Port Adelaide in 2008, the milestones have been many. More than 3,000 titles have been published, and in excess of 300,000 books sold. Awards have rolled in and accolades ensued. In addition to publishing via traditional means, Stephen adopted print-on-demand, enabling global access for the Ginninderra Press list. He also lovingly compiled a series of chapbooks (20-page, stapled books of poetry) by hand, such was his dedication.

While many Ginninderra Press titles constitute meditations on the human condition, much of the list has been intentionally geared toward matters of social, cultural and political concern. In 2003, in response to the devastating Canberra fires, Stephen commissioned How Did the Fire Know We Lived Here?, raising over $73,000 for the cause. In March this year, Stephen’s swansong, Telling Australia’s Truth, comprised 120 poems by Ginninderra Press authors, expressing the shame, sadness and disbelief that was felt by many after the result of the Voice referendum.

In Rays of Light: Ginninderra Press—The First Twenty Years [edited by Joan Fenney], one contributing author referred to Ginninderra as ‘a small but significant publisher of small but significant books’. Stephen’s wife, Brenda—herself a prolific poet—talks about the sense of community and of giving back or ‘paying it forward’. In 2021, Stephen Matthews was officially recognised with an Order of Australia Medal for his service to publishing. His contribution to the writing community and support for local authors has indeed thrown ‘little rays of light’ across Australia. It is an honour and a privilege to be carrying Ginninderra Press forward and so his remarkable legacy may live on.

Category: Obituaries