Alexandra Pringle
Areas of Interest
Alumni, MediaBiography
Today, as Group Editor-in-Chief of Bloomsbury Publishing, she heads up the company's Adult Editorial Department, secures the rights to literary gems from every conceivable genre and edits her own list of authors.
Alexandra attended Cambridge Tech during the 1970s and was later accepted onto a Council for National Academic Awards joint honours degree course in English and English History at Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology. The college was later to become Anglia Ruskin University.
Alexandra began her career in publishing at the magazine Art Monthly in 1976, where she was Editorial Assistant. Two years later she joined Virago Press where she edited the famous Virago Modern Classic Series. In 1984 she was made Editorial Director. In 1990, she joined Hamish Hamilton as Editorial Director and four years later became a literary agent. She joined Bloomsbury in 1999. Her list of authors include William Boyd, Margaret Atwood, Richard Ford, Barbara Trapido, George Saunders, Khaled Hosseini, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sue Miller, Kamila Shamsie, Esther Freud, Jhumpa Lahiri and Colum McCann.
Alexandra is now an ambassador for Anglia Ruskin University, helping to raise its profile as a publishing course provider. She is honoured for her outstanding success as an international publisher. In 2014 Alexandra was awarded an Honorary D Litt from the University of Warwick.
Citation
"Vice Chancellor, it is my pleasure to read the citation for Alexandra Pringle for the award of Honorary Doctor of Letters.
Alexandra Pringle is a big name in the world of books.
Today as Editor-in-Chief of Bloomsbury Publishing she heads up the company's Adult Editorial Department, secures the rights to literary gems from every conceivable genre and edits her own list of authors. Her 'grown up' life started when she attended Cambridge Tech during the 1970s. She failed to get an interview for university and so embarked on a secretarial course, as her mother had suggested that it might be useful for her to learn to type. Things took a turn for the better when she was accepted onto a Council for National Academic Awards joint honours degree course in English and English History at Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology which was later to become Anglia Ruskin University. It was at this time that she got involved with the first Cambridge Poetry Festival, an event which was to change her life.
She began her career in publishing at the magazine Art Monthly in 1976, where she was Editorial Assistant. Two years later she joined Virago Press where she edited the famous Virago Modern Classic Series. In 1984 she was made Editorial Director, later becoming part of the management team to steer Virago through their management buy-out from Cape, Chatto & Bodley Head.
In 1990 she joined Hamish Hamilton as Editorial Director and four years later became a literary agent. She joined Bloomsbury in 1999. Her list of authors includes Donna Tartt, Barbara Trapido, Michael Ondaatje, Sue Miller, Richard Ford, Esther Freud, William Boyd, Jhumpa Lahiri, Margaret Atwood and Ronan Bennett.
Alexandra is now an ambassador for Anglia Ruskin University, helping to raise its profile as a publishing course provider. She offered her support and that of Bloomsbury Publishing at the time of the launch of the newly-introduced MA in Publishing, speaking of her own personal experience of establishing her career.
She has also helped to highlight the opportunities available within Anglia Ruskin's creative writing and publishing programmes, to show some of the hugely diverse ways that people can get into publishing or be published. This has been keenly welcomed by Anglia Ruskin at a time when the prospects for graduates have been limited by the difficult economic conditions. With graduate placements being cut in many areas, more focus than ever is being put on higher education awards.
As Alexandra would agree, employers are looking for people who stand out from the crowd which is why postgraduate study is enjoying new found popularity. There are many students who would love to follow in Alexandra's own footsteps and her presence here, as our very own role model, can only help to make this hope a reality.
To mark your outstanding success as an international publisher, and to thank you for your collaborative efforts to make more people aware of the benefits of postgraduate study, we at Anglia Ruskin would like to present you with an honorary award. Vice Chancellor, it is my pleasure to present Alexandra Pringle for the award of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa."