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Meechan to retire from Nielsen Book 

Thursday, 6 June 2013
Ka Meechan has announced that she will retire from her position as Asia Pacific managing director for Nielsen Book later this year. According to the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ), Meechan will...

Wilderness Society children’s book award winners announced 

Thursday, 6 June 2013
The winners of the Wilderness Society’s 2013 Environment Award for Children’s Literature were announced at Readings Carlton on World Environment Day on 5 June. The winners in each category are: Primary: Tanglewood (Margaret...

Homes wins 2013 Women’s Prize for Fiction

Thursday, 6 June 2013
American author A M Homes has won the 2013 Women’s Prize for Fiction for her novel May We Be Forgiven (Granta). Homes, the author of six novels, two collections of...

Scribe to publish first children’s book in November

Wednesday, 5 June 2013
Melbourne-based publisher Scribe will publish its first children’s picture book in November. Amazing Babes by Sydney writer Eliza Sarlos and Tokyo-based illustrator Grace Lee is described as ‘an inspirational picture...

Halford named Penguin Sales Rep of the Year 

Wednesday, 5 June 2013
Jenny Halford was named Penguin Sales Representative of the Year at this year’s Penguin sales conference, which was held in Lorne, Victoria, at the end of May. Halford has worked...

New literary festival for Tasmania 

Wednesday, 5 June 2013
A new Tasmanian literary festival, the Beaconsfield Festival of Golden Words, will be held for the first time in March 2014. The annual festival, which will be based in the northern Tasmanian...

Kibble and Dobbie Awards shortlists announced

Wednesday, 5 June 2013
The shortlists for this year’s Kibble and Dobbie Literary Awards have been announced. The shortlisted titles for the $30,000 Kibble Literary Award, which recognises the work of an established Australian...

Quote of the week 

Wednesday, 5 June 2013
‘If you categorise books as for boys or for girls, the message is that boys don’t need to be concerned about the female experience. And vice versa’—US author Libba Bray...

Attendance, box office up at EWF 2013 

Wednesday, 5 June 2013
The 2013 Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) attracted a larger audience and higher box office sales than last year’s festival, according to festival director Sam Twyford-Moore. The festival, which was the first...

NewSouth book wins at Heritage Awards 

Wednesday, 5 June 2013
Designer Suburbs: Architects and Affordable Homes in Australia by Judith O’Callaghan and Charles Pickett (NewSouth) has won the Education, Interpretation and Community Engagement category of this year’s New South Wales National Trust Heritage...

2013 BWF schools program announced 

Tuesday, 4 June 2013
The schools program for this year’s Brisbane Writers Festival (BWF) has been announced. The Word Play program, which runs from 4 to 6 September, offers places for 10,000 students from grades 4...

‘WBN’ published Thursday next week 

Tuesday, 4 June 2013
Please note that, due to the Queen’s Birthday public holiday on Monday (occuring in all states except Western Australia), the Weekly Book Newsletter will be published on Thursday 13 June.  The deadline for classifieds...

Rights round-up 

Tuesday, 4 June 2013
Sales Nonfiction—Rockpool Publishing has licensed Danish and Norwegian rights to Angel Whispers (Debbie Malone); Spanish rights to 7 Things Your Doctor Forgot to Tell You; US rights to Natural Remedies...

RiP Jill Kitson 

Tuesday, 4 June 2013
Radio presenter, producer, author and editor Jill Kitson has died. On the ABC’s Radio National, Kitson produced and presented book shows including First Edition and Book Talk, as well as Lingua Franca...

Inky Awards 2013 longlists announced

Monday, 3 June 2013
The longlists for the 2013 Inky Awards, presented by the Centre for Youth Literature at the State Library of Victoria, have been announced. The awards recognise local and international fiction,...

Inaugural ‘Seizure’ novella prize winner announced

Monday, 3 June 2013
Melbourne-based author Jane Jervis-Read has won the inaugural Viva La Novella prize offered by Seizure literary journal for her novella Midnight Blue and Endlessly Tall. Jervis-Read was announced as the...

Bestsellers this week 

Monday, 3 June 2013
Khaled Hosseini’s third novel And the Mountains Echoed (Bloomsbury) is at the top of the highest new entries chart this week and second on the bestseller charts. Hosseini tells a...

John Button Prize 2013 longlist announced

Friday, 31 May 2013
The longlist for the 2013 John Button Prize for writing on Australian politics and policy has been announced. The longlisted titles are: The New Leviathan: A National Disability Insurance Scheme...

EWF Monash Prize winners announced 

Friday, 31 May 2013
The winners of the Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) Monash University Undergraduate Prize for Creative Writing have been announced. The overall prize, worth $4000, was presented to Rebecca Slater from University...

Pearson to review New Zealand education operations 

Wednesday, 29 May 2013
Pearson has announced that it is reviewing its educational publishing business in New Zealand and may close its New Zealand office. The publisher said in a statement this week that...

SWF records second-highest box office and book sales 

Wednesday, 29 May 2013
The 2013 Sydney Writers’ Festival, the first under artistic director Jemma Birrell, has recorded the festival’s second-highest box office sales and the second-best year for the festival bookshop. Executive director...

Berentson wins NZ science book prize 

Wednesday, 29 May 2013
This year’s Royal Society of New Zealand Science Book Prize has been awarded to Quinn Berentson. Berentson received a cash prize of NZ$5000 (A$4203) for his book Moa: The Life...