Overview

I have a background in trade publishing (as editor at André Deutsch and Simon & Schuster), and extensive experience as a communications strategist who specialises in cross-disciplinary working and partnership brokering.

Previously, I was the programme director of the MA Creativity: Innovation and Business Strategy. 

My research is practice-based and centres on writing culture and cultural value, contemporary book publishing and cultures of criticism and curation online.  I am co-director of The Literary Platform.

I am currently developing a co-mentoring network for senior women leaders in the cultural sector in the South West.

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Research

I passed my PhD by publication this year (2024) with no corrections:

Content: Exploring the theory and practice(s) of literary media in a changing publishing marketplace

In analysing creative writing and publishing case studies, my research illustrates how publishing models and writing platforms are responding to the digital marketplace, and points to a new direction in scholarship, including the role of literary media studies both in the academy and in relation to the literary as a cultural industry.

Selected books

Kiernan, A. 2021. Writing Cultures and Literary Media: Publishing and Reception in The Digital Age. London & New York: Palgrave.

Kiernan, A. 2014. Pick Me Up. Atlantic Press Books.

Kiernan, A (editor). 2007. Bit on the Side: Work, Sex, Love, Loss and Own Goals. Parthian Books.

Kiernan, A (editor). 2001. Voices for Peace: An Anthology. London: Scribner; New York: Simon & Schuster.

Selected chapters

Kiernan, A, 2023. ‘Small press publishing in a post-digital world: Creative campaigns and promotional opportunities.’ Thomas, Bronwen, Round, Julia and Ensslin, Astrid (editors).  In The Routledge Companion to Literary Media. (Routledge, under contract).

Kiernan, A. 2018.  ‘Futurebook Critics and Cultural Curators in a Socially Networked Age’ in The Digital Critic: Literary Culture Online, Robert Barry, Houman Barekat & David Winter (editors), New York: OR Books.

Kiernan, A. 2016. ‘Mad Girl's Love Song: Reflections on routes into reading, writing and mentoring’. Journal: Book 2.0, 6 (1 & 2), Intellect Books.

Kiernan, A. 2011. ‘The growth of reading groups as a feminine leisure pursuit: Cultural democracy or dumbing down?’, in From Salons to Cyberspace: Readings of Reading Communities, Denel Rehberg Sedo (editor), Palgrave.

Selected conferences and symposia (since 2010)

Kiernan, A. 2023. Independent Publishing in a Post-Digital World. Creative Campaigns and Promotional Opportunities. By the  Book, Hosted by the Oxford Brookes University, Porto .

Kiernan, A. 2019. Panel chair. How we write. With novelists Liz Flanagan, Sarah Franklin and Amy Lilwall. National Association of Writers in Education conference, York.

Kiernan, A. 2019. Entrepreneurship and The Literary Platform. Creative Entrepreneurship Forum, South Bank University. Hosted by Cultural Capital Exchange.

Kiernan, A. 2018. ‘Distributed authorship, literary critics and cultural curators in a socially networked age’ (In press). Publishing in a changing media environment, Sorbonne in Florence.  

Kiernan, A. 2018. ‘The habit of collaborating: Reflections on routes into reading, writing and mentoring in a digital age’ (Published). Great Writing International Creative Writing Conference. Imperial College, London.

Kiernan, A. and James, B. E. 2017. ‘And the memory fills all space: Reimagining book concepts for digital audiences’ (In press). Books, Publishing and Libraries Research Network. Imperial College, London.

Kiernan, A. and James, B. E. 2017.  ‘Reimagining book concepts for digital audiences: How Grief is The Thing With Feathers inspired a virtual reality story’ London Book Fair, Tech Theatre.

Kiernan, A. 2016. ‘The Killer and the Poet: Rethinking online writing’. National Association of Writers in Education conference, Stratford.

Kiernan, A. 2016. ‘Literary editors and peer-to-peer book reviewers: Rethinking the role of cultural intermediaries in a socially networked age’ (In press). Birkbeck College.

Kiernan, A. 2015. ‘Crowdsourcing and the social benefits of community publishing’. Beyond the Book conference, Sorbonne in Florence.

Kiernan, A. 2014. ‘Pick Me Up: Rethinking creative writing from a textural perspective’ (Published). Birkbeck College, Perversions of Paper.

Kiernan, A. 2014. Panel Chair, Haunted Landscapes conference, Falmouth University.

Kiernan, A. 2013. ‘A Voyage Round New Territory: Collaborative poetry of (and in) the Environment’.

Centre for Environmental Arts and Humanities symposium, Exeter University.

Kiernan, A. 2012. Researching Readers Online. Invited participant for the AHRC network symposium. Bournemouth University.

Kiernan, A. 2012 ‘Why has Arts Council funding for literature risen 9.9% amid the cuts?’ Book Cultures, Book Events, Stirling University.

Kiernan, A. 2010.  ‘Museum Lives at The Natural History Museum’ and preview of the film I directed.

MGHG Museums and Biographies conference, The National Gallery.

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External impact and engagement

Contribution to discipline

External appointments

2017  –  2020

Kingston University

External Examiner, MFA Creative Writing

2018

Advisory Board

Books, Publishing & Libraries Research Network

2018

Advisory Board

Humanities Research Network

2016

Westminster University

External Subject Specialist Adviser (postgraduate professional communication cluster)

2012 – 2017

Arts Council England

Artistic Assessor (literature and museums and galleries)

2014 – 2016

Cornwall Film Festival

Trustee

2012 – 2015

Arts Council Wales

National Adviser (funding and strategy)

Judge: Creative Wales Awards

2009 – 2012

One World Media

Steering group

2007 – 2010

Westminster University

External Examiner, Media Studies Board

2006 – 2009

Welsh Books Council

Panel member (funding advisor)

I am also a contributing editor to MAI: Feminism & Visual Culture, a peer reviewed international journal.

 

Media

I write and edit regularly for The Literary Platform and our work is often featured in the trade, regional and specialist press and on the BBC. In the past, I have contributed to The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement and The Bookseller, among other periodicals. 

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Teaching

I am committed to research-led, practice-based teaching, which draws on and reflects my experience of working in the communications and cultural industries for over 20 years. 

I am currently chief external examiner at Westminster University (PR & Communications). 

I have been awarded Staff Excellence Awards at Falmouth University and Kingston University and was recently awarded a Silver Award for Excellence at the University of Exeter. 

I am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA).

Modules taught

• DRAM142 - Creative Management
• DRAM143 - Cultures of Creativity
• DRAM145 - Dissertation
• EAS2089 - Creative Industries: Their Past, Our Future

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Biography

I was born and brought up in Wales and attended the local bilingual comprehensive school. I read English at Sussex University and then worked in publishing in London, and became a fiction editor at Simon & Schuster at 24. I then gained an MA in Arts Criticism from the School of Arts Policy and Management at City University while freelancing as a writer and editor.

My first academic job was at Kingston University, where I co-founded the MA in Publishing. I then worked at Falmouth University, variously as Course Leader of the BA in Journalism, Head of the Department of Writing and Senior Lecturer in Writing. 

Previously, I was Creative and Editorial Director at Stranger Collective, a creative content studio, and delivered consultancy and training at creative agency YCN, to clients such as The Guardian and The Department for Transport.

I now work as a publisher and communications consultant alongside my work as co-director of the MA Creativity: Innovation and Business Strategy at the University of Exeter. 

Over the last few years, I have also served as a National Advisor for the Arts Council of Wales, an artistic assessor for Arts Council England and a Trustee for the Cornwall Film Festival.

For more on my working life and approach, see also: 

https://www.thepublishingprofile.com/post/anna-kiernan

https://falwriting.com/new-blog/2017/9/18/portrait-of-the-academic-as-a-student-anna-kiernan

https://theliteraryplatform.com/stories/editors-letter-2/

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