Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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Shankari Chandran recommends

Cover of Dirt Poor Islanders 13 March 2024
Winnie Dunn’s debut, Dirt Poor Islanders (Hachette). She explores Australian Tongan life with defiance and audacious honesty. It’s something we’ve never seen in Australian literature before. It was ferocious and...

Shankari Chandran on ‘Safe Haven’ 

12 March 2024
Australian Tamil lawyer and author Shankari Chandran, who won the 2023 Miles Franklin Award for her novel Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens (Ultimo), returns with her fourth novel, Safe Haven (Ultimo,...

Bri Lee recommends

28 February 2024
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood! She’s the G.O.A.T. Huge fan. How she does so much in so few pages always astounds me. A master at work, for sure. 

Bri Lee on ‘The Work’ 

27 February 2024
Bri Lee is a celebrated author, academic and activist known for nonfiction titles Eggshell Skull (2018), Beauty (2019) and Who Gets to Be Smart (2021). Her debut fiction novel, The...

Stuart Kells recommends 

The cover image of The Alert Grey Twinkling Eyes of C J DeGaris 14 February 2024
I’ve recently returned to a lot of Australian writing that I love, such as Kate Jennings’s books and Barry Hill’s Broken Song (Vintage). Another book that stands out is The...

Stuart Kells on ‘Alice™’ 

13 February 2024
Stuart Kells (co-author of Sold Down the River, author of Penguin and the Lane Brothers: The untold story of a publishing revolution) is an adjunct professor at La Trobe University’s...

How international markets performed in 2023 

7 February 2024
In the US, a fall of 'only' 2.6% in unit sales was a relief, while many European markets achieved modest growth despite falling volume sales, thanks to price increases. In...

Anton Clifford-Motopi recommends 

10 January 2024
I recently finished reading What About Thao? by Oliver Phommavanh. I loved the portrayal of everyday life in a small country town and the likeable and relatable cast of characters....

Explainer: What is accessible publishing? 

10 January 2024
Accessibility and inclusivity are broad terms that can have different meanings in different contexts. In the book industry, these terms have surfaced at many conferences and events as people come...

Anton Clifford-Motopi on ‘To and Fro’ 

9 January 2024
Anton Clifford-Motopi is a Brisbane-based author who likes to write stories that make children laugh. Books+Publishing reviewer Emma Pei Yin described his debut novel, To and Fro (A&U Children, March),...

The facts on 2024’s nonfiction releases 

6 December 2023
From big names and literary subjects, to politics, the environment and history, from personal development to crochet, sex guides to cookbooks, publishers pick their top nonfiction titles for 2024. Familiar...

Reading into the year ahead: 2024 fiction and poetry preview 

29 November 2023
Debuts, historical fiction, crime and thrillers, contemporary fiction, romance and fantasy, literary fiction and shorter works—Australian publishers share their top picks in fiction and poetry for 2024, from intergenerational family...

Sharlene Allsopp recommends

29 November 2023
Burn by Melanie Saward. My favourite writers grip my heart with the reality of grief and loss, but leave me with hope and beauty at the same time. When I...

Sharlene Allsopp on ‘The Great Undoing’ 

28 November 2023
Sharlene Allsopp's debut novel, The Great Undoing (Ultimo, February 2024), 'is a remarkable book that reaches back into the early 20th century and forwards into the future to examine discontinuities...

Victoria Carless recommends

22 November 2023
I read and loved Limberlost by Robbie Arnott earlier this year. It is a quiet novel, ostensibly about a boy called Ned, who hunts rabbits for their pelts to buy a boat...

AI: The next, best editorial tool? 

22 November 2023
Editors Rose Michael, Sharon Mullins, Renée Otmar and Katherine Day ask how AI tools might work, or be made to work, for editorial. Back when Rose was editor of the...