Local news | Books+Publishing

Russell Prize for Humour Writing adds children’s category

Tuesday, 12 January 2021
The State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) has announced a new category in the 2021 Russell Prize for Humour Writing, aimed at a younger audience. The new $5000 Humour...

ABR announces Peter Porter Poetry Prize 2021 shortlist

Tuesday, 12 January 2021
The shortlist for the 2021 Australian Book Review (ABR) Peter Porter Poetry Prize has been announced. The shortlisted poems are: 'The Vernal Equinox Story' by Danielle Blau (USA) 'A Poetics of...

Magabala announces winner of inaugural fellowship

Tuesday, 12 January 2021
Magabala Books has announced Tristan Michael Savage as the recipient of the inaugural Magabala Fellowship for a mid-career author. Savage, a Brisbane-based, Kalkadoon man who grew up in Townsville, is...

Limprecht awarded 2020 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship

Monday, 11 January 2021
Eleanor Limprecht has been awarded the Australian Society of Authors' (ASA) 2020 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship, worth $20,000. The scholarship is offered annually to an Australian author to provide them with...

‘Forgotten Corners’ named SPN Book of the Year 2020

Monday, 11 January 2021
Tasmanian writer and activist Pete Hay has been awarded the inaugural Small Press Network (SPN) Book of the Year for his essay collection Forgotten Corners: Essays in search of an...

Scribe & Varuna Residency 2020 fellows announced

Tuesday, 15 December 2020
The recipients of the 2020 Scribe & Varuna Residency have been announced. The writers and their projects are: Lauren Fuge for 'Voyagers' Jessica White for 'From the Miniature to the...

Ultimo acquires debut novel in eight-house auction

Tuesday, 15 December 2020
Ultimo Press has acquired ANZ rights to Diana Reid's debut novel Love & Virtue in 'a hotly contested eight-publisher auction'. The novel, which explores virtue signalling and moral ambiguity in...

Hardie Grant acquires Tutt’s ‘The First Scientists’

Friday, 11 December 2020
Hardie Grant has acquired world rights to The First Scientists, an illustrated middle-grade book by 2020 NSW Young Australian of the Year recipient Corey Tutt. Tutt is a Kamilaroi man...

Spineless Wonders launches audio production stream

Friday, 11 December 2020
Spineless Wonders has launched its new audio production stream with the release of two audiobooks, My Name Is Revenge by Ashleigh Kalagian Blunt and Siarad by Caroline Reid. Siarad, named...

UQP acquires two new books from Riwoe

Friday, 11 December 2020
University of Queensland Press (UQP) has acquired world rights to two new works of fiction by Mirandi Riwoe: short story collection Somewhere Between and historical novel Sunbirds. Somewhere Between will include both...

PRH Australia acquires new Tumarkin essay collection, rights to backlist

Friday, 11 December 2020
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired a new collection of essays from Maria Tumarkin, as well as the rights to her backlist titles Traumascapes and Axiomatic, via Clare Forster...

UWA Publishing to become ‘hybrid’ press, management to be ‘re-aligned’

Friday, 11 December 2020
The University of Western Australia (UWA) has announced the university’s publishing arm will become a ‘hybrid’ publisher, and ‘internal management of UWA publishing will be re-aligned to the Library’. Of...

Black Inc. acquires Gergis book on climate change

Friday, 11 December 2020
Black Inc. has acquired world rights to climate scientist Joëlle Gergis’s Witnessing the Unthinkable: Notes from the front line of the climate crisis from Jane Novak Literary Agency in a...

Australia Council, Create NSW, WA arts funding latest rounds announced

Thursday, 10 December 2020
Writing NSW will receive $100,000 from the Australia Council to ‘assist writers to navigate the ongoing disruption caused by Covid-19 that will enable $200,000 in payments to around 300 writers’....

Centre for Stories receives funding for new journal

Thursday, 10 December 2020
Perth's Centre for Stories has received funding for a new online journal and two-year project to support and develop writers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The Centre received $42,465...

Ultimo acquires first novel from Bent

Thursday, 10 December 2020
Ultimo Press has pre-empted ANZ rights to Hannah Bent’s debut novel When Things Are Alive They Hum via Gaby Naher at Left Bank Literary. Set in Hong Kong, London and China...

Prime Minister’s Literary Awards 2020 winners announced

Thursday, 10 December 2020
The winners of the 2020 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards have been announced. The winning titles in each category are: Fiction The Yield (Tara June Winch, Hamish Hamilton) Nonfiction (joint winners) Songspirals:...

Wild, Riddle nominated for 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Awards

Thursday, 10 December 2020
Margaret Wild and Tohby Riddle have been nominated by IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) Australia as the Australian candidates for the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Awards. Wild...

Open Book publishing internship to launch in 2021

Wednesday, 9 December 2020
A new paid internship aimed at increasing cultural diversity in the Australian publishing workforce will launch in 2021 with funding support from the Australia Council and the Copyright Agency’s Cultural...

ALIA to run digital storytime pilot in 2021

Wednesday, 9 December 2020
Australian publishers can opt to have new or backlist titles included in an Online Storytime pilot being run by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) in 2021. The one-year...

Indie Book Awards 2021 longlists announced

Wednesday, 9 December 2020
Leading Edge Books has announced the longlists for the 2021 Indie Book Awards. The longlisted titles in each category are: Fiction The Tolstoy Estate (Steven Conte, Fourth Estate) All Our...

‘Fireflies’ establishes book publisher

Tuesday, 8 December 2020
Film magazine Fireflies has announced the creation of independent publishing house Fireflies Press, which aims to 'champion under-represented and stylistically diverse films and film writing'. The inaugural project for the publisher...