Local news | Books+Publishing

Hazard to leave Hachette

Thursday, 11 April 2024
Hachette Australia and New Zealand has announced group publishing director Fiona Hazard is leaving the role ‘to pursue other opportunities’. Hazard joined Hodder Headline in 1999 as publishing manager before...

BookPeople Book of the Year longlists announced

Thursday, 11 April 2024
BookPeople has announced the longlists for its Book of the Year awards. The longlists for each category are: Adult fiction Lola in the Mirror (Trent Dalton, Fourth Estate) Green Dot...

PRH acquires Clark romantasy duology

Thursday, 11 April 2024
Penguin Random House (PRH) Australia has acquired rights to a romantasy duology from Tasmanian debut author Sophie Clark, as part of a global PRH co-publishing deal with Knopf in the...

Catton shortlisted for 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction

Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Eleanor Catton has been shortlisted for the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, worth US$150,000 (A$226,245). The full list of shortlisted titles includes: Birnam Wood (Eleanor Catton, Granta) Daughter (Claudia...

ARA Historical Novel Prize increases prize pool to $150,000

Wednesday, 10 April 2024
The ARA Historical Novel Prize this year will have a prize pool of $150,000, with the winner of the adult category to receive $100,000—making this 'the richest individual literary prize...

Ambrose joins HarperCollins

Wednesday, 10 April 2024
HarperCollins Australia has appointed Sophie Ambrose to the role of publisher, commissioning nonfiction for the ABC Books and HarperCollins imprints. Ambrose replaces Georgia Frances King, who will leave HarperCollins on...

Huia wins 2024 Bologna Prize, Oceania region

Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Huia Publishers, based in Aotearoa New Zealand, is the 2024 Oceania winner of the Bologna Prize (BOP) for the Best Children’s Publisher of the Year. The Māori-owned independent publisher has...

ILF wins Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2024

Wednesday, 10 April 2024
The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) has won the 2024 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA), worth five million Swedish kronor (A$710,000). The ILF was announced as the winner at a live...

Hachette acquires Farnham memoir

Tuesday, 9 April 2024
Hachette Australia has acquired world rights to The Voice Inside, a memoir by John Farnham. The book is written in partnership with Poppy Stockell, director of 2023 Farnham biopic Finding...

Aotearoa New Zealand publishers represented at Bologna

Tuesday, 9 April 2024
Eight publishers are exhibiting at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair as part of the Aotearoa New Zealand collective stand. The stand will be managed by Publishers Association of New Zealand...

NYWF called off for 2024

Monday, 8 April 2024
The National Young Writers’ Festival, held annually in Newcastle, NSW, will not go ahead this year. Organisers said they are pausing its annual programming to ‘plan, reassess and re-design the...

Affirm acquires rights to Welgemoed cookbook

Monday, 8 April 2024
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to Cooking with Fire by chef and founder of Adelaide restaurant Africola, Duncan Welgemoed. Welgemoed, who was born in South Africa, was head chef...

Keeperton to acquire print rights to works by ‘established digital-first authors’

Monday, 8 April 2024
Australian author T L Swan has announced the launch of new publishing venture Keeperton, to be distributed worldwide by Simon & Schuster. With staff based in the US, Australia and...

HarperCollins hopes to announce new date for Wilson memoir ‘in coming weeks’

Monday, 8 April 2024
Publication of Rebel Rising, a memoir by actor Rebel Wilson to be published by HarperCollins, has been delayed in Australia, where it was originally due to be published last week....

The ‘Australian’ announces new fiction prize as Vogel ends

Monday, 8 April 2024
The winner of this year’s Australian/Vogel’s Award, to be announced in June, will be the last, with the Australian’s literary editor Caroline Overington stating the newspaper will ‘honour [the Vogel’s]...

Stager, Godwin to be inducted into ABIA Hall of Fame; business, publisher shortlists announced

Thursday, 4 April 2024
Bookseller Fiona Stager and children’s author and publisher Jane Godwin will be inducted into the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Hall of Fame at the 2024 ABIAs ceremony on 9...

UWAP acquires On’s third poetry collection

Thursday, 4 April 2024
UWA Publishing (UWAP) has acquired world rights to Essence, Thuy On’s third collection of poetry. On said the collection is titled Essence ‘because essentially that’s what poetry is about, stripping...

Stella Prize 2024 shortlist announced

Thursday, 4 April 2024
The shortlist for the $60,000 Stella Prize for women and non-binary writers has been announced. The shortlisted books are: Praiseworthy (Alexis Wright, Giramondo) Feast (Emily O’Grady, A&U) Abandon Every Hope: Essays for...

Ultimo acquires Clement nonfiction ‘Desire Paths’

Wednesday, 3 April 2024
Ultimo Press has acquired ANZ rights to the nonfiction work Desire Paths by journalist Megan Clement, via Martin Shaw at Shaw Literary. The book is partly based on Clement’s essay...

S&S Aus launches Summit Books, appoints Palfreyman publishing director

Wednesday, 3 April 2024
Simon & Schuster (S&S) Australia has announced that it will introduce imprint Summit Books in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, following the announcement late last year that the imprint would...

Spotify extends audiobook streaming to Aotearoa New Zealand

Wednesday, 3 April 2024
Spotify has announced that its audiobook limited-streaming offer has been extended to Premium subscribers in Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as Canada and Ireland. As previously reported by Books+Publishing, the...

Creative Australia announces 2024 VIPs

Tuesday, 2 April 2024
Creative Australia has announced the ten international publishers, editors and agents participating in the 2024 Visiting International Publishers (VIPs) program. This year’s participants are: Tamar Brazis (vice president and publisher,...