Meet UQP rights and contracts manager Kate McCormack
Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Kate McCormack has been the rights and contracts manager for Brisbane-based independent UQP for the past four years, joining the publisher after 10 years at Penguin Random House Australia and...
Christmas buyers’ picks: Ruth Ellis at WHSmith
Wednesday, 30 September 2020
In the lead-up to Christmas 2020, Books+Publishing is asking book buyers across the country to share what titles they're investing in for the busiest time of year on the bookselling calendar. In...
Fend for yourselves: Katrina Nannestad on ‘We Are Wolves’
Wednesday, 23 September 2020
Katrina Nannestad's new middle-grade novel is based on the real-life Wolfskinder, East Prussian children who were left to survive on their own in the aftermath of World War II. We Are...
Caravan of dreams: Kerry Ridley on My Little Bookshop
Wednesday, 23 September 2020
Kerry Ridley is the owner of My Little Bookshop, a mobile bookseller that travels around Perth and regional Western Australia. Here she shares her bookseller's diary. The idea of starting...
Everyday heroes: Jamila Rizvi on ‘I’m a Hero Too’
Wednesday, 16 September 2020
Jamila Rizvi's picture book I'm a Hero Too (illus by Peter Cheong, Puffin, November) 'provides gentle positive reinforcement for children who feel helpless and scared' in the face of changes...
Good Books: a new bookshop for Wellington
Wednesday, 16 September 2020
Writers Catherine Robertson and Jane Arthur will open their new bookshop Good Books in Wellington in early October. Books+Publishing spoke to the pair about venturing into retail post–New Zealand lockdown....
Light bulb moment: why stories of women in STEM are important
Wednesday, 9 September 2020
Books+Publishing's Junior columnist Adele Walsh reflects how far we've come and how far we still need to go when it comes to the representation of women in STEM in books...
Outsider art: Sofie Laguna on ‘Infinite Splendours’
Wednesday, 2 September 2020
Infinite Splendours (A&U, November), Sofie Laguna's fourth novel for adults, charts the life of eccentric, artistic outsider Lawrence Loman. Conveyed through poetic prose that 'creates a tangible sense of beauty,...
Nathan Hollier on the Malaysian book market
Wednesday, 2 September 2020
Over the past two years, Melbourne University Publishing CEO Nathan Hollier attended book fairs in Indonesia, India and Malaysia and researched the book markets in each country as part of...
Adventure time: Shivaun Plozza on ‘The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars’
Wednesday, 26 August 2020
Shivaun Plozza's middle-grade debut The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars (Puffin, 20 October) is a fantasy adventure about a boy who is tasked with returning the stars to the sky....
Nathan Hollier on the Indian book market
Monday, 24 August 2020
Over the past two years, Melbourne University Publishing CEO Nathan Hollier attended book fairs in Indonesia, India and Malaysia and researched the book markets in each country as part of...
Hope in chaos: Asphyxia on ‘Future Girl’
Wednesday, 19 August 2020
Writer and artist Asphyxia's illustrated YA novel Future Girl (A&U, October) is set in an 'eerily plausible' dystopian Melbourne, and follows a Deaf teen Piper as she learns to embrace her...
Nathan Hollier on the Indonesian book market
Wednesday, 19 August 2020
Over the past two years, Melbourne University Publishing CEO Nathan Hollier attended book fairs in Indonesia, India and Malaysia and researched the book markets in each country as part of...
Meet the ABDA Emerging Designers of the Year: Vanessa Masci
Wednesday, 12 August 2020
In the lead-up to the 2020 Australian Book Designers Association (ABDA) awards, Books+Publishing spoke to the two shortlisted nominees for Emerging Designer of the Year. In this second and final instalment we talk...
Glowing up: Claire Christian on ‘It’s Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake’
Wednesday, 5 August 2020
Claire Christian's second novel It's Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake (Text, October) is a queer romantic comedy that follows the eponymous Noni, who decides to overhaul her life after the end...
Meet the ABDA Emerging Designers of the Year: Akiko Chan
Wednesday, 5 August 2020
In the lead-up to the 2020 Australian Book Designers Association (ABDA) awards, Books+Publishing spoke to the two shortlisted nominees for Emerging Designer of the Year. In this first instalment we...
The unequal impact of Covid-19 on publishers
Wednesday, 29 July 2020
Although the major publishers appear to be holding up well in spite of the chaos wrought by Covid-19, it's a different story for many smaller publishers. Books+Publishing investigates the impact...
The golden age of middle-grade
Wednesday, 29 July 2020
In the four years since Danielle Binks wrote about the under-representation of middle-grade literature, the genre has exploded. Now a middle-grade author herself, Binks follows up with a look at...
Magic man: Nicholas J Johnson on ‘Tricky Nick’
Wednesday, 22 July 2020
Magician Nicholas J Johnson's debut book for children, Tricky Nick (Pan, September), won reviewer Annie Waters over in its first 20 pages. She spoke to the author about this embellished...
Sales down but community spirit up: Melbourne booksellers enter second lockdown
Wednesday, 22 July 2020
As Melbourne enters its second week of renewed lockdown, booksellers across the city are feeling disappointed yet buoyed by community support. On Thursday, 9 July Melbourne re-entered stage three restrictions...
Green dream: Ketan Joshi on ‘Windfall’
Wednesday, 15 July 2020
Windfall: Unlocking a fossil-free future (NewSouth, September) is renewable energy industry insider Ketan Joshi's account of two decades’ worth of climate wars in Australia. 'The minutiae of climate science can...
Sensitive subjects: The value of sensitivity reading
Wednesday, 8 July 2020
Australian authors are increasingly employing sensitivity readers to ensure their representations of diverse characters are respectful and authentic. But who is regulating the practice, and what are the risks when...
Observational humour: Remy Lai on ‘Fly on the Wall’
Wednesday, 8 July 2020
Remy Lai's middle-grade graphic novel Fly on the Wall (Walker, September) follows 12-year-old Henry Khoo, who goes on a solo international flight to Singapore without the knowledge of his overprotective family....
Bookselling during the ‘new normal’
Wednesday, 1 July 2020
The financial effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on Australian booksellers are varied, but the sense that bookselling is about more than simply selling books has been highlighted, with booksellers finding...
Witnessing the future: Kate Mildenhall on ‘The Mother Fault’
Wednesday, 1 July 2020
The Mother Fault (S&S, September), Kate Mildenhall's genre-bending follow-up to her 2016 debut Skylarking (Black Inc.), portrays a 'spine-tingling vision of a future Australia—eerie in its potential realism' as seen...
Community cup: Rawah Arja on ‘The F Team’
Wednesday, 24 June 2020
Rawah Arja is a writer and teacher from Punchbowl, Sydney. In her debut YA novel The F Team (Giramondo, September), which is set in her home suburb, Arja explores family,...
Career Path: Middle Grade Mavens
Wednesday, 24 June 2020
Pamela Ueckerman and Julie Grasso are two self-described ‘author mums’ and the hosts of the podcast Middle Grade Mavens. They review children’s books, interview industry experts and discuss all things...
Every unhappy family: S L Lim on ‘Revenge’
Wednesday, 17 June 2020
S L Lim's second novel Revenge: Murder in Three Parts (Transit Lounge, September) follows teenage Yannie, who is bound by familial obligations to care for her parents instead of going...
Illustrating the truth: Charmaine Ledden-Lewis on ‘Found’
Thursday, 11 June 2020
Bundjalung artist Charmaine Ledden-Lewis was the recipient of the 2019 Kestin Indigenous Illustrator Award, which offered a mentorship and the opportunity to illustrate Bruce Pascoe's first picture book. The result...
The Wheeler Centre’s Next Chapter
Thursday, 11 June 2020
Two years after the Wheeler Centre established its The Next Chapter writers scheme, books by two of its inaugural fellows—Adam Thompson and Evelyn Araluen—have been acquired by the University of Queensland Press. As applications...
