Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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ABIAs 2016 date, venue announced

13 January 2016
The Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) will be held on 19 May at the Art Gallery of NSW this year. The awards will be hosted by comedian Kitty Flanagan and...

Curry, Ferguson appointed to Copyright Agency board

26 November 2015
Ventura Press publisher Jane Curry and journalist Adele Ferguson have been appointed to the Copyright Agency’s board. Curry and Ferguson replace Eleanor Curtain and Malcolm Knox as the board’s author-journalist and...

Adelaide Writers’ Week named Best Community Event

20 November 2015
Adelaide Writers’ Week (AWW) was named Best Community Event at the 2015 Australian Event Awards in Sydney on 17 November. The annual award is presented to the event that best ‘engages...

ABC Books acquires rights to Mitchell Johnson autobiography

18 November 2015
ABC Books has acquired the rights to Australian cricketer Mitchell Johnson’s as-yet-untitled autobiography, to be published in the second half of 2016. ABC Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Australia, announced...

Jackson wins Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship

12 November 2015
New Zealand poet Anna Jackson has won the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship for 2015.The fellowship provides the winner with a three-month residency in Menton, France, where Mansfield lived and wrote...

Heather Fisher wins 2015 Lady Cutler Award

19 October 2015
Librarian and teacher Heather Fisher has won this year’s Lady Cutler Award, presented by the New South Wales branch of the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) for distinguished service...

Overland Story Wine Prize 2015 winners announced

13 October 2015
The winners of Overland’s Story Wine Prize 2015 have been announced. Melissa Manning received the $4000 first prize for her story ‘Woodsmoke’, which will be published in the next issue of...

Momentum to take Twitter pitches from authors

23 September 2015
Pan Macmillan’s digital-only imprint Momentum will run its first Twitter-pitch session on 25 September. Australian and international authors are invited to tweet a pitch for their completed, unpublished novel up to...

University of Otago announces 2016 arts fellows

10 September 2015
The University of Otago in New Zealand has announced the recipients of its 2016 fellowships for literature and children’s writing. The Robert Burns Fellowship, which is ‘designed to encourage imaginative New...

‘The Women in Black’ to be adapted into a musical

10 September 2015
Madeline St John’s 1993 novel The Women in Black has been adapted into a stage musical Ladies in Black. The musical will premiere with the Brisbane Theatre Company in November, followed...

Co-op employee a finalist for Young Retailer of the Year

9 September 2015
The Co-op’s University of Queensland St Lucia store trainee manager Thomas Riek has been named a finalist in the National Retail Association’s (NRA) Young Retailer of the Year Award. Twenty-five-year-old...

Recipients of CLNZ/NZSA Research Grants announced

1 September 2015
Copyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ) and the New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) have announced the four recipients of the 2015 CLNZ/NZSA Research Grants, each worth NZ$5000 (A$4466). The winner...

Kay Craddock receives Melbourne Lord Mayor commendation

19 August 2015
Kay Craddock Antiquarian Booksellers has been included in this year’s Melbourne Lord Mayor’s Commendations program, which recognises the city’s iconic, long-running small businesses. Owner Kay Craddock will be awarded a...

New website for Fremantle Press

13 August 2015
Fremantle Press has launched a new website, which includes dedicated sections for schools and book clubs. The site, which is customised for mobile phones, emphasises reader engagement with authors through social...

Elizabeth Jolley Prize 2015 shortlist announced

12 August 2015
Australian Book Review has announced the shortlist for this year’s Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize, worth $8000. The shortlisted stories are: ‘Borges and I’ by Michelle Cahill (Aus); ‘Crest’ by...

Co-op wins online retail award

28 July 2015
The Co-op has won an award for Best Site Optimisation and Design at the 2015 Online Retail Industry Awards (ORIAS). The Co-op CEO Peter Knock said in the past year the...

ABA launches upgraded bookshop events page

21 July 2015
The Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) has launched an upgraded bookshop events page on its website. ABA members can now add event information direct to the site, while the page also includes...

NZ to hold its first national bookshop day

13 July 2015
Booksellers New Zealand will hold its first national bookshop day on Saturday 31 October 2015. NZ Bookshop Day, which aims to celebrate and publicise local bookstores, is based on similar...

Mudgee Readers’ Festival 2015 program announced

19 June 2015
The Mudgee Readers’ Festival (MRF) in regional NSW has announced the program for its 2015 festival, to be held on 15 and 16 August. The line-up includes authors Don Watson, Ramona...

Inaugural Mildura Indigenous Writers Award announced

12 June 2015
The Mildura Writers Festival and PEN Melbourne have launched the inaugural Mildura Indigenous Writers Award, with support from the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund. The Mildura Indigenous Writers Award, worth $700, will...

Louis de Bernières to give MWF 2015 opening address

1 June 2015
Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (Vintage) and Red Dog (Vintage), will deliver the opening night address at the 2015 Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF), to be held on...

Beveridge wins Peter Porter Poetry Prize

15 May 2015
Judith Beveridge has won the Australian Book Review (ABR) Peter Porter Poetry Prize for her poem ‘As Wasps Fly Upwards’. Beveridge’s poem was chosen for the $5000 prize from a...