News | Books+Publishing

New $10.2m Arts Recovery Fund for SA

Monday, 28 September 2020
South Australian premier Steven Marshall has announced a new $10.2 million funding package for the state’s arts and culture sector. The Arts Recovery Fund, which is focused on creating employment...

Davitt Awards 2020 winners announced

Monday, 28 September 2020
Sisters in Crime Australia has announced the winners of the 2020 Davitt Awards for the best crime books by Australian women. The winning titles in each category are: Adult crime...

Children’s nonfiction sales boom in UK

Friday, 25 September 2020
In the UK, Nielsen data shows sales of children’s books have boomed during 2020 due to nonfiction sales, reports the Bookseller. According to Nielsen media manager Philip Stone, children’s nonfiction...

Vic Prem’s History Award 2020 shortlist announced

Friday, 25 September 2020
The shortlist for the 2020 Victorian Premier’s History Award and Community History Awards has been announced. A total of 48 projects and publications have been shortlisted for prizes ranging from...

WestWords, Booktopia launch ‘Booktober’ fundraiser

Friday, 25 September 2020
In partnership with Booktopia, WestWords has launched Booktober, a new annual event ‘to encourage people in reading more books’ and raise funds for WestWords’ work providing books and literacy programs...

Hachette announces $2.5m investment in ADS capacity

Thursday, 24 September 2020
Hachette Australia has announced it is making a 'major infrastructure investment' of $2.5 million in its distribution business Alliance Distribution Services (ADS), based in Tuggerah, New South Wales. ADS director...

QBD, Dymocks petition Vic premier to reopen Melbourne stores

Thursday, 24 September 2020
Bookselling chains QBD and Dymocks have each written to Victorian premier Daniel Andrews asking that bookstores be allowed to open in Melbourne, which has been under stage four lockdown since...

NewSouth acquires Gunaydin’s nonfiction debut

Thursday, 24 September 2020
NewSouth Publishing has acquired world rights to Sydney writer Eda Gunaydin’s debut nonfiction collection. Provisionally titled Root and Branch, the collection explores race, class, gender and violence and Turkish diaspora. The publisher...

Fend for yourselves: Katrina Nannestad on ‘We Are Wolves’

Wednesday, 23 September 2020
Katrina Nannestad's new middle-grade novel is based on the real-life Wolfskinder, East Prussian children who were left to survive on their own in the aftermath of World War II. We Are...

Caravan of dreams: Kerry Ridley on My Little Bookshop

Wednesday, 23 September 2020
Kerry Ridley is the owner of My Little Bookshop, a mobile bookseller that travels around Perth and regional Western Australia. Here she shares her bookseller's diary. The idea of starting...

Varuna Writing NSW 2020 fellowships announced

Wednesday, 23 September 2020
The recipients of the annual Varuna Writing NSW fellowships have been announced. Kylie Boltin was awarded the general fellowship for her novel Snake Bite. Writing NSW said, ‘With striking prose...

Affirm acquires middle-grade fantasy series

Wednesday, 23 September 2020
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to a four-book middle-grade fantasy series by Samantha-Ellen Bound, via Danielle Binks and Jacinta di Mase of Jacinta di Mase Management. The publisher describes...

Police procedural ‘Flood Debris’ wins 2020 Banjo Prize

Wednesday, 23 September 2020
HarperCollins Australia has named Dinuka McKenzie the winner of the 2020 Banjo Prize for her 'gripping, pacy police procedural' Flood Debris. McKenzie's manuscript was chosen from a shortlist of four announced...

Dalton, Pape, Bluey dominate Australian bestsellers YTD

Tuesday, 22 September 2020
Trent Dalton’s debut novel Boy Swallows Universe tops Nielsen BookScan’s Australian fiction chart for the year to date, having sold more than 80,000 copies in 2020 and more than 500,000...

Crispin awarded 2020 Blake Poetry Prize

Tuesday, 22 September 2020
The Blake Poetry Prize 2020 has been awarded to Judith Nangala Crispin for the poem 'On Finding Charlotte in the Anthropological Record'. Crispin, a poet and visual artist of Bpangerang...

‘The White Girl’ optioned for film

Tuesday, 22 September 2020
Tony Birch’s novel The White Girl (UQP) has been optioned for feature film by Typecast Entertainment. Birch's Miles Franklin-shortlisted novel follows Odette Brown, who is raising her granddaughter on her own and...

ABA to host Love Your Bookshop Day Facebook Live event

Tuesday, 22 September 2020
The Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) will host a Facebook Live event for this year's Love Your Bookshop Day (LYBD) on Saturday, 3 October. Starting at 11am AEST, the KidLit Club...

Page wins 2020 ACU Prize for Poetry

Tuesday, 22 September 2020
Geoff Page has won the $10,000 ACU Prize for Poetry for his poem ‘Jericho’. Fiona Lynch received the $5000 second prize for ‘Footprints’ and Damen O’Brien received the $3000 third...

HarperCollins, S&S add diversity-focused directors

Monday, 21 September 2020
In the US, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster (S&S) have both announced new diversity-focused directorial positions, reports Publishing Perspectives. HarperCollins has appointed Gisselda Nuñez to the role of vice-president for diversity,...