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Helen Garner’s ‘This House of Grief’

Wednesday, 6 August 2014
On the evening of Father’s Day 2005, Robert Farquharson was driving his three children home to their mother—from whom he was separated—when his car left the road, travelled through a...

Quote of the week

Wednesday, 6 August 2014
‘This Saturday 9 August is National Bookshop Day, and while we can all agree that books are great, we can probably also agree that pugs are even better’—Avid Reader is...

LIANZA Children’s Book Awards 2014 winners announced

Tuesday, 5 August 2014
The Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) has announced the winners of its 2014 Children’s Book Awards.  The winners in each category are:LIANZA Junior Fiction Award—Esther Glen...

Ngaio Marsh Award 2014 shortlist announced

Tuesday, 5 August 2014
The shortlist for the 2014 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel has been announced. The shortlisted titles are: Joe Victim (Paul Cleave, Atria) Frederick’s Coat (Alan Duff, Random House...

Strout to step down as SWF executive director

Tuesday, 5 August 2014
The Sydney Writers’ Festival has announced that executive director Ben Strout will leave the role at the end of 2014. Strout joined the festival in 2009 and has ‘overseen growth...

Macmillan Education joins Copyright Agency’s LearningField

Monday, 4 August 2014
The Copyright Agency’s LearningField etextbook subscription service has expanded to include content from ‘all six of the major Australian educational publishers’ after Macmillan Education signed up to the service. The Copyright...

Bestsellers this week

Monday, 4 August 2014
The regular and film tie-in editions of The Fault in Our Stars (John Green, Penguin) are in first and second place, respectively, on this week’s bestsellers chart. They’re ahead of...

HarperCollins completes acquisition of Harlequin

Monday, 4 August 2014
HarperCollins’ parent company News Corp has completed its acquisition of Harlequin from Torstar Corporation for C$455 million (A$447 million), reports Publishers Weekly. As previously reported by Books+Publishing, the acquisition was...

PEN Literary Awards 2014 winners announced

Friday, 1 August 2014
PEN America has announced winners for the 2014 PEN Literary Awards. The unpublished novel ‘And West is West’ by Ron Childress has won the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction,...

Stories within worlds: Garth Nix on ‘Clariel’

Friday, 1 August 2014
‘The long-awaited prequel to Garth Nix’s “Old Kingdom” series (Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen) is going to make a lot of readers very, very happy,’ writes reviewer Holly Harper. She spoke to...

Macmillan US makes frontlist ebooks available to libraries

Thursday, 31 July 2014
Macmillan US is adding frontlist ebooks published in the previous 12 months to its public library elending project, reports DigitalBookWorld. The addition of frontlist titles increases the number of Macmillan...

Amazon outlines objectives in Hachette dispute

Thursday, 31 July 2014
Amazon has outlined its objectives in its dispute with Hachette US over sales terms in a post on its Kindle forum. A key objective is ‘lower ebook prices’, says the...

Ubud announces 2014 program

Thursday, 31 July 2014
The Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (UWRF) has announced the full program for its 11th festival, which will run from 1-5 October in Bali, Indonesia.Among the line-up are a number...

Ashton wins 2014 RITA Award

Wednesday, 30 July 2014
The Romance Writers of America (RWA) has announced the winners of the 2014 RITA Awards.   Among the winners was Australian author Leah Ashton, who picked up the award for Short Contemporary Romance...

Quote of the week

Wednesday, 30 July 2014
‘You might expect jealousy and conflict not unlike the plots and twists of the stories they write, but this group of authors believe forming a group to support each other...

MWF announces digital reporters, ‘geo-fiction’ app

Wednesday, 30 July 2014
The Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) has announced its digital reporters for 2014. With the support of the Emerging Writers’ Festival, each reporter will cover events at MWF and have access...

Apple acquires ‘Pandora for books’

Tuesday, 29 July 2014
Apple has acquired book analytics and recommendation company BookLamp, described as a ‘Pandora for books’, reports Techcrunch. The company, which was purchased for between US$10 and US$15 million, is best...

WA prem’s awards 2014 shortlists announced

Tuesday, 29 July 2014
The titles shortlisted for the 2014 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards were announced on 28 July by State Library of Western Australia CEO and state librarian Margaret Allen. The shortlisted...