Denise O’Hagan is an editor and poet, born in Rome and based in Sydney. She has a background in commercial book publishing, working for Routledge, Heinemann and Collins and consulting for the State Library of NSW. She set up her own imprint, Black Quill Press, to publish her late mother’s historical novel Jerome & His Women (2015), shortlisted for the inaugural Institute of Professional Editors’ Rosanne Fitzgibbon Editorial Award. Her other publications include Messages from the Embers (2020), Mini Style Guide (2019), Chinese Whispers: In Search of Ivy (2018) and A Roman Death (2017).
Poetry editor (Australia/NZ) for Irish literary journal The Blue Nib until 2020, her own poetry has been widely published and awarded in competitions in Australia and overseas. Her second poetry collection Anamnesis (Recent Work Press, 2022) was a finalist in the Eric Hoffer Book Award (USA) and the Eyelands Book Award (Greece) and shortlisted in the Rubery Book Award (UK).