Media Release - 16 March 2010

1st new release - Killing Richard Dawson by Robin Baker

From the kitchen table to a partnership with a major book distributor, exciting new Australian publisher Pantera Press releases its first fiction title Killing Richard Dawson by hot young Australian author Robin Baker on 3 May 2010. It’s “Dexter meets Catcher in the Rye” and “Bret Easton Ellis meets Nick Earls.” 

Scouring the country for Australia’s next Tim Wintons, Kate Grenvilles or Maggie Aldersons, Pantera Press, a new voice in Australian publishing, fosters the best of Australia’s new literary talent with its launch in May/June 2010 of four new titles, two fiction and two non-fiction, in May/June 2010 and more later in the year. Read more

Pantera Press is “destined to become a major independent publishing force in Australia and New Zealand,” according to Simon & Schuster Australia, its distribution partner.

Pantera Press’s core aim is to become ‘a great home for the next generation of Australia’s best-loved authors’.

With its mantra of good books doing good things^™ Pantera Press has developed innovative financial and philanthropic models. These mean authors have more support than ever for their writing (a 50% profit share instead of royalties), and philanthropic programs, such as The Smith Family’s Lets Read initiative, will receive a financial boost to help combat illiteracy at the earliest stages.  Since 2008, Pantera Press has also sponsored the coveted Walkley Awards for excellence in newspaper feature writing.

Pantera Press is a family business, teaming passion and love for literature with solid business expertise, the backing of major distributor Simon & Schuster and support from a growing stable of some of Australia’s finest publishing industry talents.

“After two years of intensive research, in Australia and overseas, we concluded the Australian publishing industry had space for a new publisher focused on fostering new talent, and new writers who create well-written, riveting reads with strong narrative and engaging characters,” says Alison Green, co-founder, Pantera Press.

“Our first fiction title, Killing Richard Dawson, a debut novel written by young Perth-based funeral director Robin Baker, is a perfect fit… a gripping and poignant black comedy, with wide appeal.”

“Though it’s a book centred on issues facing Gen Y and their casual dissatisfaction with modern life, it appeals to everyone who’s experienced life’s vicissitudes - love, friendship, booze, morality, death,” she adds.

 Killing Richard Dawson (in bookstores from 3 May) is a brilliant fast-paced story with a surprising twist. It cleverly traverses the inner and outer worlds of its contemporary university student protagonist with wit and humour as he navigates his way through the relational landscapes of loss, mateship and unrequited love. Death is the only constant in his life, yet it is dealt with an irreverence echoing Evelyn Waugh’s satire on death.

Robin Baker is a young ex-English teacher, turned funeral director who knows the terrain of death well.

“I’m fascinated by the darker places of life and its undercurrents. While I was writing Killing Richard Dawson, the mass media was saturated with sanitised Gen Y narratives and I wanted to write something more accurate and representative of their experience,” says author Robin Baker.

“I created a protagonist who’s a social misfit, someone self-centred, who doesn’t care about anything or anyone, a combination of light and dark forces. The tricky part was to get the reader to sympathise with an essentially unlikeable character and that’s where the book’s tension lies.”

Pantera Press’s second fiction release (in bookstores from 1 June ) will be Sulari Gentill’s A Few Right Thinking Men, a rich, cinematic historical crime novel based on a fascinating and under-reported time in Australia’s history – the rise of both Fascism and Communism in the 1930’s, where the nation experienced a direct, tangible threat of war and great social divide. A character-driven novel, the three main protagonists eloquently symbolise the irreconcilable positions taken by a young nation beset by fear and economic and political crisis.

As for its upcoming non-fiction titles, Pantera Press is launching its unique series of debate-books, Why vs Why^™, each book on one contentious issue written by two rival expert advocates, and with no editorial or other publisher bias.

This series presents all the information on a complex topic in an easy-to-read, 2-books-in-1 format and in one place. It is part of Pantera Press’s wish to foster debate in this rapidly changing and confusing world, covering environmental, community, social, political and other issues. Topics which have no easy answers and leave the general public debating. The first two books are on Nuclear Power and Gay Marriage (and will be in bookstores from 3 May). 

“Our unique Why vs Why^™ series distils hot topics into digestible chunks. While written by dueling experts, they’re easy-to-read and accessible to a wide audience, without being dumb-downed. They’re suitable for anyone from senior high school students to grey nomads, and everyone in between,” says John Green, co-founder, Pantera Press.

“Our hope is that our Why vs Why^™series gets people talking more about the issues that matter.”