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CBCA 2024 shortlists announced

19 March 2024
The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has announced its shortlist for the 2024 CBCA Book of the Year Awards. The shortlisted books in each category, selected from the 2024...

Skate appointed Writers Victoria CEO

19 March 2024
Writers Victoria has appointed Julie Skate as its new CEO. Skate takes over the role from Lucy Hamilton, who in February announced she would depart after three-and-a-half years with the...

Pantera acquires Wright fantasy debut 

19 March 2024
Pantera Press has acquired Skysong, a fantasy novel by debut author C A Wright. Skysong is a ‘beautiful, lyrical retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Nightingale’ that follows Oriane, a...

Auckland Writers Festival program announced

18 March 2024
The program for the Auckland Writers Festival, which will run 14–19 May 2024, has been announced. Fiction headliners include prize-winning novelist Ann Patchett; international bestselling author Celeste Ng; Pulitzer Prize–winning...

Yarros tops 2023 ebook charts 

18 March 2024
Rebecca Yarros’ romantasy titles Fourth Wing and Iron Flame (both Piatkus) have taken out the top two places in Nielsen BookScan’s 2023 ebook charts—and the second and third place overall...

Aurealis Awards shortlists announced

18 March 2024
The shortlists for the 2023 Aurealis Awards, presented for science fiction, fantasy and horror writing in Australia, have been announced. Among longer-form works shortlisted for this year’s awards are: Best...

‘The Bee Sting’ wins Nero Book Prize

Cover of The Bee Sting 18 March 2024
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (Hamish Hamilton) has won the overall Nero Book Prize, worth £30,000 (A$57,684). Murray’s novel was chosen unanimously as the winner by a judging panel chaired...

Local publishers nominated for Bologna Prize

14 March 2024
Australian publishers Affirm Press, Fremantle Press and Hardie Grant Children's Publishing and Aotearoa New Zealand publishers Scholastic New Zealand and Huia Publishers have been shortlisted for this year’s Bologna Prize...

Affirm Press signs Sweatshop mentees Nour and Barnette

14 March 2024
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to books by Egyptian-Australian writer and journalist Daniel Nour and African-American Australian writer Tyree Barnette. Nour and Barnette were recipients of the 2021 Affirm...

Carnegie Medal 2024 shortlists announced

14 March 2024
In the UK, the 2024 shortlists for the Carnegie Medal for Illustration (previously known as the Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration) and the Carnegie Medal for Writing have been announced....

Fullagar wins 2024 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship

An image of Kate Fullagar 14 March 2024
Social and cultural historian Kate Fullagar is the winner of the 2024 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship, worth $20,000. Fullagar was awarded the fellowship for her proposed biography, ‘The Secret Life...

S&S acquires three titles by Heiss 

Author photograph of Anita Heiss 14 March 2024
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired world rights to three new books by Anita Heiss, via Tara Wynne of Curtis Brown Australia. The first book, which has the working...

Global book report highlights growing book prices

13 March 2024
A new Nielsen BookData-GfK study of the global book market has found that publishing revenue and book prices grew in many countries in 2023, reports Publishing Perspectives. The Global Book...

Shankari Chandran recommends

Cover of Dirt Poor Islanders 13 March 2024
Winnie Dunn’s debut, Dirt Poor Islanders (Hachette). She explores Australian Tongan life with defiance and audacious honesty. It’s something we’ve never seen in Australian literature before. It was ferocious and...

Shankari Chandran on ‘Safe Haven’ 

12 March 2024
Australian Tamil lawyer and author Shankari Chandran, who won the 2023 Miles Franklin Award for her novel Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens (Ultimo), returns with her fourth novel, Safe Haven (Ultimo,...

Needham wins 2024 MUD Literary Prize

12 March 2024
Kylie Needham has been announced as the winner of the 2024 MUD Literary Prize, at an event at the Adelaide Festival, for her novel Girl in a Pink Dress (Hamish...

International Booker Prize 2024 longlist

12 March 2024
The longlist for the 2024 International Booker Prize, worth £50,000 (A$96,900), has been announced. The titles in the running for this year’s prize are: The Silver Bone (Andrey Kurkov, trans...

Zhan receives 2024 Kat Muscat Fellowship

An author photograph of Xiaole Zhan 12 March 2024
Express Media and the Kat Muscat Fellowship Committee have announced that Xiaole Zhan is the recipient of the 2024 Kat Muscat Fellowship. Selected from a shortlist of six announced last...

Garmus, Patchett, Connelly, Ng to headline SWF

Sydney Writers Festival branding tile with festival dates 8 March 2024
The program for this year’s Sydney Writers' Festival (SWF), which runs 20–26 May under the theme Take Me Away, has been announced. The program includes almost 300 guests and comprises...

No newsletter on Monday

8 March 2024
There will be no Books+Publishing newsletter on Monday, 11 March, due to the Labour Day public holiday in Victoria. The next Books+Publishing newsletter will be published Tuesday, 12 March. The...

Penguin Literary Prize 2024 shortlist announced

7 March 2024
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has announced the shortlist for the 2024 Penguin Literary Prize. The shortlisted manuscripts are: ‘What Is Left for Us’ by Sophie Stern (Sydney, NSW)—When Rebecca...