News | Books+Publishing

Kuhmo City Library: People are drawn to stories

Thursday, 25 September 2025
With libraries, their work, and free access to information under increasing threat around the world, B+P and the Melbourne UNESCO City of Literature Office reached out to libraries in other designated...

Authors among Creative Australia Fellowship recipients

Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Authors Isobelle Carmody, Jennifer Mills and Fiona Murphy are among the 2025 recipients of the $80,000 Creative Australia Fellowships. The fellowships, which last two years, involve the provision of financial...

Smith Street Books launches Little Smith imprint

Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Smith Street Books has announced the launch of children’s book imprint Little Smith, ‘dedicated to creating colourful, bold and joyful books that spark imagination’. With its first titles due next...

Pink Shorts Press acquires Mills, Dovey and Dubosarsky anthology

Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Pink Shorts Press has acquired world rights to A Concise Compendium of Wonder, a collection of ‘radical reimagined eco-fairytales’ by Jennifer Mills, Ceridwen Dovey and Ursula Dubosarsky, with illustrations by...

Stella Day Out Perth program released

Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Literary organisation Stella has announced the program for an edition of its Stella Day Out event in Perth, to take place on 26 October at the State Library of Western...

HarperCollins acquires de Sousa cookbooks

Wednesday, 24 September 2025
HarperCollins Australia has acquired world rights to two cookbooks by Steph de Sousa. The deal was brokered by HarperCollins fiction and nonfiction publisher Roberta Ivers and TalentINK Group’s Brooke Taylor...

Booker Prize 2025 shortlist announced

Wednesday, 24 September 2025
The shortlist for the 2025 Booker Prize has been announced. Shortlisted for the £50,000 (A$102,449) prize are six titles: Flashlight (Susan Choi, Jonathan Cape) The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny (Kiran...

No newsletter on Friday

Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Books+Publishing will not publish a newsletter on Friday, 26 September due to a public holiday in Victoria. The next newsletter will be published on Monday, 29 September.

ARA Historical Novel Prize shortlists announced

Wednesday, 24 September 2025
The Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA) has announced the shortlists for the 2025 ARA Historical Novel Prize. Chosen from longlists announced earlier this month, the shortlisted books in each category...

Julia Busuttil Nishimura recommends

Tuesday, 23 September 2025
The Japanese Art of Pickling and Fermenting by Yoko Nakazawa. I recently picked this book up and have read it cover to cover. I love the book design, the gorgeous...

Julia Busuttil Nishimura on ‘Sundays Under the Lemon Tree’

Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Melbourne-based food writer and cookbook author Julia Busuttil Nishimura made her publishing debut with Ostro (Plum, 2017). Her first picture book, Sundays Under the Lemon Tree (Scribble, November), is ‘a...

Stella Day Out to host Hobart events

Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Literary organisation Stella has announced the program for its second Hobart event, running 26 September at the University of Tasmania. Michelle de Kretser, the 2025 Stella Prize winner, will discuss...

UQP acquires O’Keeffe’s third novel

Tuesday, 23 September 2025
The University of Queensland Press (UQP) has acquired world rights to Angela O’Keeffe’s third novel, Phanton Days, via Martin Shaw Literary. In this forthcoming novel, the story is narrated from...

Pink Shorts Press acquires Crisp’s first nonfiction title

Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Pink Shorts Press has acquired Pearls, a collection of essays by Tracy Crisp. According to the publisher, Pearls is a collection of ‘coming-of-middle-age’ memoir essays, ‘drawn from a series of...

Hilary Mantel Prize launched

Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Literary agency AM Heath has launched a biennial prize for novel writers in the UK and Ireland, in honour of late author Hilary Mantel. ‘Hilary was a staunch supporter of...

Baker’s ‘Sight Lines’ wins best book at PANZ Book Design Awards

Monday, 22 September 2025
The winners of the 2025 New Zealand Te Rau o Tākupu Publishers Association (PANZ) Book Design Awards have been announced. Chosen from finalists announced in July, the winners are: Gerard...

Hachette acquires Carmody’s dystopian romantasy

Monday, 22 September 2025
Hachette Australia has acquired The Shadows that Listen, a debut dystopian romantasy by Louisa Carmody, in a deal brokered between Hachette head of fiction Rebecca Saunders and C&W Agency, after...

Pink Shorts Press acquires ‘Scared Angry Laughing’ by Merrilees

Monday, 22 September 2025
Pink Shorts Press has acquired Scared Angry Laughing, a nonfiction title by Margaret Merrilees. Scared Angry Laughing is a creative memoir essay collection, said the publisher. ‘These pieces speak to...

PW revives Freedom to Read issue

Monday, 22 September 2025
In the wake of ongoing threats to access to books in the US, Publishers Weekly (PW) has revived its ‘Freedom to Read’ issue. In a letter introducing the issue, PW...

DARTS and MDA announced the Luminas honours program

Monday, 22 September 2025
Diversity Arts Australia (DARTS) and Media Diversity Australia (MDA) have announced the Luminas, a national honours program recognising and celebrating ‘the trailblazers transforming Australia’s cultural and media landscapes’. The Luminas categories, to...