By Ann Philpott, Chair
From the Standing Committee on Awards and Prizes (SCAP)
The Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd) is proud to announce the winner of the prestigious Janet Mackenzie Medal for 2026 – Dr Linda Nix AE. This medal is awarded to an outstanding professional editor who has lifted the standard of the editing profession and/or given exemplary service to IPEd or a similar editing body.
Linda has demonstrated excellence in professional editing; her professional development activities and advocacy have helped to advance the editing profession; and her service to IPEd has been exemplary. In particular, she has made significant and strategic contributions to IPEd’s accreditation scheme.
Linda’s professional achievements as an editor span almost 30 years. They include roles in house and in her own freelance design and editing business, across genres including law, trade nonfiction, poetry and fiction. In 2021, Linda was 1 of 2 editors shortlisted for IPEd’s Rosanne Fitzgibbon Editorial Award (the Rosie).
Linda has advanced the editing profession by being a prolific presenter at seminars, conferences and workshops for IPEd and writers’ organisations.
Linda has been a member of IPEd (and its New South Wales predecessor) since 2010 and an active contributor to IPEd committees since 2017. She was an IPEd mentor, pioneered setting up Zoom for workshop delivery and chaired the Standing Committee on Professional Development in 2019–20. Linda also showed leadership in initiating the revision of the Australian standards for editing practice, and volunteered her time and skills to design and produce the updated Standards in a range of accessible formats.
It was her contribution as chair of the Accreditation Board (AB) from January 2019 to December 2023 that has been truly exceptional. She dedicated her outstanding skills and insights over many hours to overhauling technical and other aspects of the accreditation exam, making it accessible to different platforms and to remote candidates. Further, she identified and acted on the need to make the provision of exam preparation workshops a function of the AB. This has improved the ability for candidates to prepare and be confident in their preparation for the exam.
In addition, one referee described how Linda’s work on governance and financial protocols gave new AB members confidence in their ability to carry out their roles. She still provides ongoing support to the AB.
IPEd congratulates Linda on this well-deserved recognition of her achievements and thanks her for her significant contributions, which will benefit the editing profession well into the future.