Adam Sharp announced as 2026 Hedberg Writer-in-Residence
Monday, 29 June 2026
Nonfiction author, journalist and academic Adam Sharp has been named the 2026 Hedberg Writer-in-Residence at the University of Tasmania. Sharp receives a $32,500 stipend to cover three months of accommodation...
Upswell acquires Declan Fry’s “Fantasy Ransom”
Monday, 29 June 2026
Upswell Publishing has acquired world rights to Fantasy Ransom, the debut novel by Declan Fry, via Jenny Darling at Jenny Darling & Associates. Set against a backdrop of political unrest...
Blak & Bright announces first speakers for 2026 festival
Monday, 29 June 2026
Blak & Bright Writers Festival will run in Naarm/Melbourne from 3 to 6 September 2026. Guests so far announced for the festival include TV presenter and former AFL player Tony...
Upswell acquires Emily Ballou’s “Wait Here”
Thursday, 25 June 2026
Upswell Publishing has acquired world rights to Wait Here, a new volume of poems by Emily Ballou. A writer of poetry, fiction and screenplays, Ballou is the author of the...
Ultimo Press acquires SK Lynch crime novel
Thursday, 25 June 2026
Ultimo Press has acquired ANZ rights to SK Lynch’s novel Something He Did, via Alex Christie of Curtis Brown. Something He Did follows the story of Detective Claudia Russo, who...
Melbourne Kids Book Fest coming to Southgate Precinct
Thursday, 25 June 2026
Mary Martin Bookshop and The Little Bookroom have partnered to host the Melbourne Kids Book Fest on 2 and 3 October 2026 at the Southgate Precinct. The bookshops announced that...
Pink Shorts Press acquires Arantza Garcia Ferrand’s “Cotton-filled”
Thursday, 25 June 2026
Pink Shorts Press has acquired world rights to Cotton-filled, a memoir by Arantza Garcia Ferrand. The publisher describes the work as “an intimate coming-of-age memoir in images and words, inverting the colonial...
Allen & Unwin acquires Gyton Grantley’s “Il Dolce Fiasco”
Thursday, 25 June 2026
Allen & Unwin has acquired world rights to Il Dolce Fiasco by Gyton Grantley from Henrie Stride Management. La Dolce Fiasco tells “the inspiring and very funny story” of Grantley’s...
Wilson tops the charts at Words on the Waves
Thursday, 25 June 2026
Words on the Waves Writers Festival, held on the New South Wales Central Coast from 27 May to 1 June, has reported a 40% increase “in core ticket sales” for...
ANZL responds to “Guardian” top 100 novels with Southern Hemisphere Fiction 100 list
Thursday, 25 June 2026
The Academy of New Zealand Literature Te Whare Mātātuhi o Aotearoa (ANZL), a writer-led initiative developed to support and promote contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand writers, has released a list of...
Fino Books opens in Melbourne
Thursday, 25 June 2026
New bookshop Fino Books opened on 20 June in Melbourne’s Fitzroy North. With a brief of “finding inspiration new and old”, the store is stocking a mix of new and...
Text Publishing to move into PRH offices
Wednesday, 24 June 2026
Text Publishing will move into the Penguin Random House (PRH) offices from next week. As previously reported, the then independent Melbourne publisher became part of PRH in 2025, but the...
Pink Shorts Press acquires Lara Day’s “Abakada”
Wednesday, 24 June 2026
Pink Shorts Press has acquired ANZ rights to Abakada, a memoir by Adelaide author Lara Day. The publisher describes Abakada as “an alphabetical memoir of country hopping and linguistic longing”....
IPEd releases second edition of “Books Without Barriers”
Wednesday, 24 June 2026
The Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd) has released the second edition of accessible publishing guide Books Without Barriers, co-published with the Australian Publishers Association. The free guide provides advice about...
Sophie Higgins joins ILF board
Wednesday, 24 June 2026
The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) has announced the appointment of Sophie Higgins to its board of directors. Recently promoted to head of sales and operations at Booktopia, Higgins has worked...
Miles Franklin Literary Award 2026 shortlist announced
Wednesday, 24 June 2026
The shortlist for the 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award has been announced. Chosen from a longlist of 10, the shortlisted titles are: Discipline (Randa Abdel-Fattah, University of Queensland Press) First...
QWC Varuna 2026 fellowships announced
Tuesday, 23 June 2026
Varuna has announced the 2026 recipients and shortlisted writers for the Queensland Writers Centre (QWC) fellowships. The recipient of the 2026 QWC Established Writers Fellowship is Ashley Hay, author and Meanjin...
McGraw Hill sales flat, income up
Tuesday, 23 June 2026
US educational publisher McGraw Hill, which operates a subsidiary in Australia among more than 100 countries outside of the US, has released its first full year of financial results since...
PANZ Publishing Market Size Report shows revenue up in 2025
Tuesday, 23 June 2026
Publishing revenue in Aotearoa New Zealand increased by 1.8% to NZ$287.4 million in 2025, while total unit sales grew by 2.4% to 18.6 million books, according to the New Zealand...
Ozlit festival to celebrate Australian writing in London
Tuesday, 23 June 2026
A new festival celebrating Australian literature will be held in London in October, reports the Bookseller. The OzLit festival will be produced on behalf of the Foundation for Australian and...
Summit Books acquires Jonathan Biggins’s “Ocean’s 55+”
Tuesday, 23 June 2026
Simon & Schuster imprint Summit Books Australia has acquired world rights to Ocean’s 55+, a cosy crime novel by actor, writer and comedian Jonathan Biggins. Described by the publisher as...
QBD opens Mirrabooka store
Tuesday, 23 June 2026
QBD has opened a new store in the Perth suburb of Mirrabooka, Western Australia. The store, which opened on Saturday 20 June, is located in Square Mirrabooka. With the addition...
Writers Victoria plans GoFundMe, philanthropy strategy after petition tabled
Monday, 22 June 2026
A petition to restore funding for Writers Victoria has been tabled in the Victorian parliament, with Minister for Creative Industries Vicki Ward required to provide a written response. Writers Victoria chair...
Hachette launches educators’ hub
Monday, 22 June 2026
Hachette Australia has announced the launch of the Hachette Australia Educators’ Hub, intended as an online resource to help Australian teachers and librarians discover, access and download educational resources from...
New Voices of Aotearoa 2026 announced
Monday, 22 June 2026
The 8 authors selected as the 2026 New Voices of Aotearoa (NVA) have been announced. The authors, selected by a judging panel and administered by the Coalition for Books, are:...
Jenny Lu wins inaugural translation prize
Monday, 22 June 2026
Brisbane-based translator Jenny Lu has won the inaugural Voices of Today Literary Translation Prize, worth £1,500. Created and administered by the UK‑ and China‑based cultural communications agency Singing Grass, the...
Marten Bequest 2026 recipients announced
Monday, 22 June 2026
Poets Eunice Andrada and Sanja Grozdanic are among the 7 recipients of the 2026 Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarships, each worth $50,000. The scholarships, administered by Creative Australia, enable artists “to...
Holden Sheppard’s “Yeah the Boys” to be adapted for TV
Monday, 22 June 2026
Deadset Pictures has acquired the screen rights to Holden Sheppard’s novel Yeah the Boys in a deal brokered by Gaby Naher at the Naher Agency. The novel is a sequel to...
Upswell Publishing acquires Meera Atkinson poetry collection
Monday, 22 June 2026
Upswell Publishing has acquired world rights to the poetry collection Some Letters Take a Lifetime by Sydney-based writer Meera Atkinson. Meera Atkinson is the author of Map of Skin (Pink...
Melbourne Books acquires Takako Tamura’s “Sauces: Eats and Beats”
Monday, 22 June 2026
Melbourne Books has acquired world rights to Sauces: Eats and Beats by Takako Tamura. The “combination of cookbook and culture” draws on Tamura’s Japanese heritage and shares the recipes for...
