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‘Catching Teller Crow’ sold to UK, US

Tuesday, 12 February 2019
UK and US rights to Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina's YA novel Catching Teller Crow (A&U) have been sold to Penguin Children's Books UK and Knopf respectively. The book will be published in...

Tan’s ‘Rubik’ optioned for film

Tuesday, 12 February 2019
Brio Books has sold the film option to Elizabeth Tan’s debut novel Rubik to Australian production company Photoplay. Photoplay develops projects in film, television, web and virtual reality, and is known for its...

Seizure announces 2019 Viva la Novella shortlist

Monday, 11 February 2019
Seizure has announced the shortlist for the 2019 Viva la Novella competition. This year’s shortlisted authors and their works are: Carly Cappielli for ‘Listurbia’ Grace Chan for ‘The Ship of...

Stella Prize 2019 longlist announced

Friday, 8 February 2019
The longlist for the 2019 Stella Prize, worth $50,000, has been announced. The longlisted titles are: Little Gods (Jenny Ackland, A&U) Man Out of Time (Stephanie Bishop, Hachette) Bluebottle (Belinda...

New Macquarie Uni research to examine Aus rights sales

Friday, 8 February 2019
The Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund and the Australia Council for the Arts will contribute $30,000 each to a new Macquarie University study examining the international rights sales and export of...

Redundancies announced at PRH Young Readers, Walker Books 

Thursday, 7 February 2019
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) and Walker Books Australia have both announced redundancies in their publishing divisions. At PRH, three roles in the Young Readers division—two editorial roles and one...

Young and McIlvanney awarded in 2019 Waitangi Day Honours

Thursday, 7 February 2019
Samoan/Maori writer Lani Wendt Young and Dunedin-based crime author Liam McIlvanney have been awarded in the New Zealand Society of Authors’ (NZSA) annual Waitangi Day Honours. Young, a columnist and...

Penguin Literary Prize shortlist 2019 announced

Thursday, 7 February 2019
Penguin Random House (PRH) has announced the shortlist for the 2019 Penguin Literary Prize, worth $20,000. The prize, now in its second year, aims to find and develop new Australian...

Quaedvlieg ends contract with MUP

Wednesday, 6 February 2019
Former Australian Border Force commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg is the first author to publicly terminate a book contract with Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) after the resignation of four board directors and CEO...

‘The Trauma Cleaner’ longlisted for Wellcome Book Prize

Wednesday, 6 February 2019
Sarah Krasnostein’s The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay and Disaster (Text) has been longlisted for the UK’s Wellcome Book Prize. The annual prize, worth £30,000 (A$53,720),...

Hager wins Margaret Mahy Medal

Wednesday, 6 February 2019
Wellington-based author Mandy Hager has won the 2019 Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal, presented annually for lifetime achievement and distinguished contribution to New Zealand children’s literature. Hager is the author of...

MWF to move to State Library Victoria

Tuesday, 5 February 2019
The Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) will move its headquarters this year to State Library Victoria (SLV), after 10 years of being based at Federation Square. The library’s ongoing Vision2020 redevelopment...

Wakefield launches dedicated YA list

Tuesday, 5 February 2019
Adelaide-based small publisher Wakefield Press will launch a dedicated YA list this year, under the direction of newly appointed publisher Margot Lloyd. Wakefield aims to publish three to four YA...

Moriarty’s ‘Bronte Mettlestone’ sold to UK

Tuesday, 5 February 2019
Jill Grinberg of Jill Grinberg Literary Management has sold UK and Commonwealth rights (ex ANZ) to The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone (Jaclyn Moriarty, A&U) to Guppy Books, a...

‘KYD’ announces Varuna fellowships

the logo for kill your darlings Monday, 4 February 2019
Kill Your Darlings (KYD) will partner with Varuna to offer a week-long fellowship for the writers shortlisted for KYD’s 2019 unpublished manuscript award. The fellowship will take place at Varuna, the National...

VPLAs 2019: Manus detainee Boochani wins $100k top prize

Friday, 1 February 2019
Writer, journalist and Iranian refugee Behrouz Boochani, currently detained on Manus Island, has won the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature for his book No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from...

UNSW Bookshop reopens with new cafe and event spaces

Thursday, 31 January 2019
The University of New South Wales (UNSW) has reopened the UNSW Bookshop after a major refurbishment, with a reading room, central room for events, and new Atomic Press cafe. The...

Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2019 longlists announced

Thursday, 31 January 2019
The longlists for the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards have been announced. The longlisted titles in each category are: Fiction The Man Who Would Not See (Rajorshi Chakraborti, Penguin) The...

‘Kindred’ anthology to tour, thanks to OzCo funding

Wednesday, 30 January 2019
A number of organisations and individuals were among the recipients of the Australia Council’s latest grants round, which awarded $6.6 million to almost 200 projects. Michael Earp, editor of short...

Booktopia counting down ‘Australia’s favourite author’

Booktopia logo Wednesday, 30 January 2019
Booktopia is running its annual promotion to find ‘Australia’s favourite author’ via a public vote. On 29 January Booktopia announced 75 finalists for Australia’s favourite author, chosen from nominations from...