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Rix, Cormick win ACT Book of the Year

Monday, 27 October 2025
Darren Rix and Craig Cormick have won the ACT Book of the Year award for their title Warra Warra Wai (Scribner). Rix and Cormick will share the $10,000 prize. Judges praised Warra...

Booker Prize launches £50K children’s prize

Monday, 27 October 2025
The Booker Prize Foundation has launched the inaugural Children’s Booker Prize, an award “celebrating the best contemporary fiction for children aged 8 to 12 years old”. The prize will open...

Labor blocks AI industry moves to waive copyright

Monday, 27 October 2025
The federal government won’t change the law to allow tech companies to train artificial intelligence (AI) models using copyright material, Australian media outlets reported today. The decision is a rejection of...

Hachette acquires Wilkinson’s debut historical nonfiction

Monday, 27 October 2025
Hachette Australia has acquired The Titanic Story of Evelyn by journalist, broadcaster and author Lisa Wilkinson, via the Fordham Agency. The Titanic Story of Evelyn follows the life of South...

Hardie Grant acquires Joyce memoir

Monday, 27 October 2025
Hardie Grant Books has acquired world rights to former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce’s memoir, in a deal brokered by Robert Joske at Robert Joske Management. Joyce “will take a reflective...

Inaugural Spiers Prize shortlist

Monday, 27 October 2025
UWA Publishing (UWAP) has announced the shortlist for the inaugural Spiers Prize, as well as some changes to the award. The publisher announced that “due to the enthusiastic number of...

2026 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award candidates

Monday, 27 October 2025
The nominees for the 2026 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award have been announced. The Aotearoa New Zealand and Australian nominees are: Alison Lester Gavin Bishop (NZ) Oliver Jeffers Susanne Gervay Ursula...

Janson, van Loon, Vucic awarded Copyright Agency fellowships

Thursday, 23 October 2025
The Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund has announced the recipients of its 2025 Fellowships for established and emerging Australian writers. Julie Janson, a Burruberongal woman of the Darug Aboriginal Nation and...

Inaugural AusArt Day seeks to support creative work

Thursday, 23 October 2025
Creative Australia’s (CA) inaugural national giving to the arts day, AusArt Day, takes place today, 23 October. The new initiative is “designed to support artists and arts organisations to fundraise...

Fremantle Press announces new board members

Thursday, 23 October 2025
Fremantle Press has announced that Libby Jackson-Barrett and Ben Paganoni have joined the publishing house’s board of directors. Jackson-Barrett, a proud Whadjuk woman, is the associate dean (Academic) within Kurongkurl...

History Unbound festival launches program

Thursday, 23 October 2025
The Historical Novel Society Australasia have announced the full program for the History Unbound festival, which will take place from 1 to 2 November in Parramatta. The event marks a...

Melbourne Books scam; ARA Historical Novel Prize winners; ASA, APA, authors speak to Senate committee about copyright

Wednesday, 22 October 2025
Local news In local news this week, Melbourne Books has alerted writers to a vanity publisher with a similar name, Melbourne Book Publisher, which has been impersonating its business; Overland announced...

Simon reaches finals in BookLife prize

Wednesday, 22 October 2025
Australian author Luke Icarus Simon has been named a quarter finalist in the Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize – Fiction for his novel The Art in My Palm. In their report, the...

Flame Tree acquires new Bacon anthology

Wednesday, 22 October 2025
UK-based publisher Flame Tree Publishing has acquired world rights to Sauuti Terrors, two speculative fiction anthologies co-edited by Eugen Bacon, Stephen Embleton and Cheryl S Ntumy, in a deal brokered...

UQP announces mentorship prize for under-represented writers shortlist

Wednesday, 22 October 2025
The University of Queensland Press (UQP) has announced the shortlist for its inaugural mentorship prize for under-represented writers, which was initially announced in May. The shortlisted writers are: Carielyn Tunion...

Luna Roo announced as 2026 NSS story

Wednesday, 22 October 2025
The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) has announced Luna Roo the Kangaroo Baller (Adam Jackson & Adrian Lloyd, illus by Jake A Minton, Little Book Press) as the National...

Magabala wins Workplace Team Culture & Inclusivity Award

Wednesday, 22 October 2025
Magabala Books has been announced as the winner of the Workplace Team Culture & Inclusivity Award at the 2025 Broome Business Excellence Awards. The award comes after Magabala’s staff surveys...

MidnightSun acquires Ryan’s Big Brother Brody

Wednesday, 22 October 2025
MidnightSun has acquired world rights to Big Brother Brody, a YA novel by Benjamin John Ryan. The novel is set in a world coming to an end because of a...

Penguin’s Nonfiction Picks for Christmas

Tuesday, 21 October 2025

Farrells wins best LYBD display

Tuesday, 21 October 2025
Mornington Peninsula bookshop Farrells has won the Love Your Bookshop Day (LYBD) award for the best window display. According to BookPeople, the Australian booksellers association, “Their amazing window display captured...

NielsenIQ Brazil reports encouraging market growth, colouring book trend

Tuesday, 21 October 2025
Books+Publishing’s Andrew Wrathall attended last month’s International ISBN Agency annual general meeting (AGM) in São Paulo, Brazil, as an Australian ISBN Agency representative. Here he reports on NielsenIQ’s presentation of...