Paterson to head new Allen & Unwin division Atlantic Books Australia

Cate Paterson is to head a new Australian division of Allen & Unwin, after 25 years at Pan Macmillan Australia.

She will join the company as publishing director of Atlantic Books Australia in March 2022. Under her leadership, the division will publish a range of commercial fiction and non-fiction.

Paterson began her publishing career in 1990 in London in the marketing department of HarperCollins. From there she went to Random House, working in the editorial department of Century/Arrow, and then moved to Headline to commission fiction before returning to Australia at the end of 1995.

She joined Pan Macmillan Australia in 1996 as the commissioning editor for fiction and children's books with one of her first acquisitions being Andy Griffiths' Just Annoying! Her fiction authors have included Matthew Reilly after spotting his self-published novel Contest, Liane Moriarty, Jane Harper, Liz Byrski, Sally Hepworth, Holly Wainwright, Joy Dettman, Frances Whiting, Suzanne Daniel, Beverly Harper, John Birmingham, Tony Park and Peter Watt among others. She participated in acquiring Markus Zusak and published Bridge of Clay in 2018, in addition to Hannah Kent's novel Devotion and Hayley Scrivenor's debut novel Dirt Town, which will be published in May 2022. Paterson became a director at Pan Macmillan in 2004 and has been publishing director since 2010, leading a fiction and non-fiction publishing team.

Paterson said: "I have loved my time at Pan Macmillan. It has been my work 'home' for 25 years and there have been a lot of laughs, hard work and fantastic publishing with amazing authors and terrific colleagues. I wasn't expecting to leave, but sometimes opportunities come along that are impossible to refuse. The challenge of starting something from scratch, but under the umbrella of Allen & Unwin – a company I have long-admired for their passionate publishing history – is incredibly exciting (and somewhat terrifying!).

"I'm attracted to good books regardless of labels, authors that grab you with their cut-through writing, stories that take you places you weren't expecting, writing that has a beating heart at  its centre. My ambition will be for Atlantic Books Australia to be a home for stories of quality, relatability and engagement that will make a positive contribution to Australia's rich reading culture."

Tom Gilliatt, Allen & Unwin’s publishing director, said: "I’ve known Cate for more than 30 years, and worked alongside her both in London and in Sydney. She’s an extraordinary editor and publisher, with an incredible instinct for what people want to read, as evidenced by a list of authors she’s published that includes Matthew Reilly, Andy Griffiths, Liane Moriarty, Jane Harper, Markus Zusak and Hannah Kent, to name just a few. I also know from having worked for her just what a focused, supportive and outstanding leader she is. To have her at the helm of Atlantic Books Australia is a hugely exciting development both for Allen & Unwin and for the industry as a whole."

Robert Gorman, Allen & Unwin’s c.e.o., added: "Allen & Unwin are delighted that Cate will head our new division. She is a wonderful publisher, whose fierce belief in Australian authors and their stories has enriched our industry. For the last 25 years at Pan Macmillan she has demonstrated her creativity, judgement and ability to discover brilliant new authors and help them turn their books into bestsellers in Australia and around the world. Atlantic Books Australia will be an exceptional force under her leadership."

Allen & Unwin is published in the UK through it's British publishing arm, Atlantic Books, a founding member of the Independent Alliance.