Local news | Books+Publishing

Canberra Writers Festival 2022 dates announced

Friday, 1 April 2022
Canberra Writers Festival (CWF) has announced that the 2022 festival will be staged from 10–14 August, ‘with a welcome return to a full program of live events’. CWF was cancelled...

HarperCollins acquires debut novel after ‘heated’ auction

Friday, 1 April 2022
HarperCollins Publishers Australia has acquired ANZ rights to the novel The Heart is a Star by Megan Rogers after a 'heated' auction, in a deal brokered by Benython Oldfield of...

Pung’s ‘Laurinda’ optioned for TV

Thursday, 31 March 2022
Development and production rights to Alice Pung’s YA novel Laurinda have been acquired by production company EQ Media, in a deal negotiated by Sophy Williams at Black Inc. EQ Media...

Hardie Grant acquires Firebrace’s ‘Come Together’

Thursday, 31 March 2022
Hardie Grant has acquired world print and ebook rights to children’s picture book Come Together: Things every Aussie kid should know about the First Peoples by musician and Yorta Yorta,...

Stella Prize 2022 shortlist announced

Thursday, 31 March 2022
The shortlist for the 2022 Stella Prize, worth $50,000, has been announced. The six shortlisted books are: TAKE CARE (Eunice Andrada, Giramondo) Dropbear (Evelyn Araluen, UQP) No Document (Anwen Crawford, Giramondo)...

Government announces additional ‘phase-down’ RISE funding

Thursday, 31 March 2022
The federal government has included $20 million to ‘phase-down’ the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund in its 2022–23 budget, announced on Wednesday 30 March. First announced as...

LBF sees some Australian publishers returning in person

Wednesday, 30 March 2022
After more than two years attending rights fairs virtually, several Australian publishers will be attending London Book Fair (LBF) in person when it runs in the UK next week from...

Staff changes at Hardie Grant

Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Hardie Grant has announced several staffing changes. From next month, current managing director of Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing (HGCP) Troy Lewis will become the company's first people and culture director,...

A&U acquires Yong debut YA novel

Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Allen & Unwin has acquired ANZ rights to Sydney author Leanne Yong’s debut young adult novel Two Can Play that Game, in a deal brokered by Andrea Cascardi of Transatlantic...

CBCA 2022 Book of the Year shortlists announced

Wednesday, 30 March 2022
The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has announced its 2022 Book of the Year shortlists. The shortlisted books in each category are: Older readers The Boy from the Mish (Gary...

Morison awarded 2022 Boundless Mentorship

Tuesday, 29 March 2022
Gamilaroi writer Judi Morison has won the 2022 Boundless Indigenous Writer's Mentorship for her family saga ‘When Grandmothers Speak’. Set in Queensland and northern New South Wales in the 1950s,...

AWW 2022: ‘energising and uplifting’

Tuesday, 29 March 2022
The 2022 Adelaide Writers’ Week (AWW), which ran from 5–10 March in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden, hosted 180 authors and 41 chairs across 108 sessions of open-air readings, panel...

New Westwords/Ultimo Prize announced

Monday, 28 March 2022
WestWords and Ultimo Press have partnered to offer a new prize for emerging writers with ‘a connection to Western Sydney’. Free to enter, the Westwords/Ultimo Prize offers the winner $5000...

BookUp 2022 keynotes announced

Monday, 28 March 2022
The Australian Publisher’s Association (APA) has announced the first guests for its second BookUp conference, which will take place at the ICC Sydney on Thursday, 9 June. The APA said...

SWF 2022 program announced

Friday, 25 March 2022
The program for the 2022 Sydney Writers’ Festival (SWF), which runs Monday 16 – Sunday 22 May, has been announced. Themed ‘Change My Mind’, the 25th SWF features 234 events...

Collins awarded 2021 Leila St John Award

Friday, 25 March 2022
Ford Street Publishing founder Paul Collins has received the annual Leila St John Award, presented by the Victorian branch of the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA). Collins is commended...

#LoveOzYA becomes registered charity

Thursday, 24 March 2022
The Australian Young Adult Literature Alliance, a grassroots organisation established in 2015 to promote Australian youth literature and more popularly known by the hashtag #LoveOzYA, has become a registered charity...

Inoon wins 2022 ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize

Thursday, 24 March 2022
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) and HQ, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, have announced Ayesha Inoon as the winner of the 2022 ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize for an unpublished...

Puncher & Wattmann acquires ‘Grimmish’

Thursday, 24 March 2022
Puncher & Wattmann has acquired world rights to Michael Winkler's previously self-published book Grimmish in a deal brokered by Martin Shaw at Shaw Literary. Described by Shaw as a 'cult...

ABIA 2022 longlists announced

Wednesday, 23 March 2022
The longlists for the 2022 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) have been announced. The titles longlisted in each category are: General fiction book of the year After Story (Larissa Behrendt,...

PANZ launches New Zealand Books website

Wednesday, 23 March 2022
The Publishers Association of New Zealand Te Rau o Tākupu (PANZ) has launched a new website, NewZealandBooks.com, to ‘overcome the tyranny of distance and the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19...

Beatnik named Bologna publisher of the year, Oceania

Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Aotearoa New Zealand publisher Beatnik Publishing is the winner of the Oceania category of the 2022 Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publisher of the Year. The Bologna Children’s Book...

Scribble, Think+DO Tank Foundation announce Mirror Mentorship program details

Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Scribe children's imprint Scribble and Sydney-based Think+DO Tank Foundation, which runs multilingual bookshop Lost in Books, have released details of their Mirror Mentorship program, supported by Australia Council funding. The...