Davitt Awards 2026 shortlists announced
Monday, 27 July 2026
Sisters in Crime has announced the shortlists for the 2026 Davitt Awards for the best crime books by Australian women. The shortlisted titles in each category are: Adult novels At...
Nile wins ORIA for international expansion
Monday, 27 July 2026
The Nile has won an Online Retailer Industry Award (ORIA) for its international expansion. The online bookseller won in the International Conqueror category, which recognises an Australian-based retailer “making inroads...
Aotearoa New Zealand Book Industry Awards 2026 winners announced
Monday, 27 July 2026
The winners of the 2026 Aotearoa New Zealand Book Industry Awards have been announced by Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand and the Publishers Association of New Zealand/Te Rau o Tākupu (PANZ)....
Leading Edge enters administration
Thursday, 23 July 2026
Leading Edge Group, which operates the Leading Edge Books buying group, has entered administration, reports ChannelNews. The Leading Edge group works with suppliers and retailers of computers and electronics, as...
National Biography Award 2026 shortlist announced
Thursday, 23 July 2026
The shortlist for the 2026 National Biography Award has been announced. The 6 titles shortlisted, chosen from 93 entries, are: Australian Gospel (Lech Blaine, Black Inc.) Chameleon (Robert Dessaix, Text...
What Are You Reading? app attracts 3,000 users
Thursday, 23 July 2026
The free What Are You Reading? app has gained more than 3,000 users since launch, according to its creators. Launched by the Better Reading team, the app allows users to...
Alisa Ahmed wins 2026 Rising Star award
Thursday, 23 July 2026
Alisa Ahmed has been named the Australian publishing industry’s 2026 Rising Star. Ahmed is the managing editor at Ultimo Press. She began her publishing career at a literary agency in...
Amazon Kindle research: Half of Australian gen Z readers feel reading “harder to sustain amid constant distractions”
Thursday, 23 July 2026
Amazon Kindle has released Australian research it says “suggests adults aren’t falling out of love with books, they’re being let down by reading experiences that haven’t evolved to fit the...
Varuna to launch new venue, public program
Thursday, 23 July 2026
Varuna, the National Writers’ House is launching a new public program and new workshop and event space. Originally the home of writers Eleanor Dark and Eric Dark, the house and...
Copyright Agency Publishing Fellowship recipients announced
Thursday, 23 July 2026
The Copyright Agency has announced the recipients of its latest Publishing Fellowships at the BookUp conference in Melbourne on Wednesday 22 July. The 3 successful applicants are: Alisa Ahmed, managing...
Allen & Unwin acquires “Bullyproof” by Matt Purcell
Thursday, 23 July 2026
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired world rights to Bullyproof by Matt Purcell. According to the publisher, Australia ranks as the second-worst country in the world for bullying, and Bullyproof...
Bakers Lane Books acquires “Alice Comes Home” by Helen M Jones
Thursday, 23 July 2026
Bakers Lane Books has acquired world rights to the novel Alice Comes Home by Helen M Jones. Told in a dual timeline, the novel follows 39-year-old artist Alice in the...
Happy BookUp day
Wednesday, 22 July 2026
The program for Western Australia’s Festival of Fiction has been announced; the Australian Publishers Association (APA) has announced a new Graphic Novel Editing Intensive; the Anthropic settlement in the US...
Anthropic settlement approved
Wednesday, 22 July 2026
In the US, Publishers Weekly (PW) reports that Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín has given her final approval to the US$1.5 billion settlement in the class action lawsuit brought against Anthropic in...
AI dominates global publishing conversation at IPA Congress
Wednesday, 22 July 2026
Generative AI was the biggest topic of conversation at panel discussions during the International Publishers Congress, presented by the International Publishers Association (IPA) from 5 to 9 July in Kuala...
Explainer: What are the First Nations metadata standards?
Wednesday, 22 July 2026
Former Books+Publishing editorial and production coordinator – and author and literary all-rounder – Jasmin McGaughey gives an update on an APA project at the intersection of inclusion and metadata: the...
Festival of Fiction 2026 program announced
Wednesday, 22 July 2026
Festival of Fiction has announced this year’s program, running 21 to 22 November 2026 at Edith Cowan University Joondalup, featuring 80 authors, 10 publishing professionals and 1,200 readers and writers,...
Australian Publishers Association Graphic Novel Editing Intensive announced
Wednesday, 22 July 2026
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) has announced a Graphic Novel Editing Intensive, as part of its Children’s Editorial Program, to take place at RMIT in Melbourne on 29 to 30...
Nadine Browne recommends
Tuesday, 21 July 2026
The last Australian books that really stayed with me were Kate Rossmanith’s Small Wrongs and Bri Lee’s Eggshell Skull. I read them close together, and they’ve become linked in my mind. Rossmanith’s book...
Nadine Browne on “Gone Guru”
Tuesday, 21 July 2026
Nadine Browne is a Western Australian writer whose debut novel, Gone Guru (Fremantle Press, September), draws on her experience studying fiction at New York University under Joyce Carol Oates. Books+Publishing...
Wombat Books acquires debut picture book by AL Tait
Tuesday, 21 July 2026
Wombat Books has acquired world rights to Barnaby Percival Does Not Dress Up, the debut picture book by middle-grade author AL Tait, illustrated by Anke Noack. The book follows a...
Books Kinokuniya to open first Melbourne store
Tuesday, 21 July 2026
Books Kinokuniya will open its first flagship Melbourne store at Melbourne Central, with the bookshop scheduled to open in the first half of 2028. Ahead of the store’s launch, the...
Meet the Rising Stars: Rachel Chopping
Tuesday, 21 July 2026
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) Rising Star award recognises an emerging talent in Australian publishing with less than 10 years’ experience in the industry. In the lead-up to the winner...
Randa Abdel-Fattah sues Bendigo Writers Festival organisers
Tuesday, 21 July 2026
Author Randa Abdel-Fattah has launched legal action against the organisers of the Bendigo Writers Festival, reported ABC News. Abdel-Fattah is claiming Greater Bendigo City Council and Bendigo Writers Festival–sponsor La...
Researchers to investigate local editor and publisher AI use
Tuesday, 21 July 2026
University of Melbourne researchers Katherine Day and Sharon Mullins and RMIT researcher Rose Michael are surveying publishers and editors about their use of generative AI tools to understand how they...
Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize longlist announced
Tuesday, 21 July 2026
The Australian Book Review (ABR) has announced the longlist for the 2026 Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. The longlisted stories are: Ursula Brunetti for “Peach” Belinda Castles for “Connie” Sally Cunningham for “Pliable Bones” Laura...
Meet the Rising Stars: Caleb Vines
Monday, 20 July 2026
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) Rising Star award recognises an emerging talent in Australian publishing with less than 10 years’ experience in the industry. In the lead-up to the winner...
Hardie Grant appointed delivery partner for First Nations editorial development program
Monday, 20 July 2026
Following an expression of interest process led by Writing Australia, Hardie Grant has been appointed as the new delivery partner for the First Nations editorial development program formerly known as...
“Urchin Convicts” wins 2026 Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History
Monday, 20 July 2026
Alistair Scott has won the 2026 Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History, worth $25,000, for Urchin Convicts: The Point Puer boys in Van Diemen’s Land (Forty South). Urchin...
Tasmanian Writers and Illustrators Mentorship Program 2026 recipients announced
Monday, 20 July 2026
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced the 2026 recipients of the Tasmanian Writers and Illustrators Mentorship Program. The writers receiving 20-hour mentorships are: Fiction Laura Batham for “Dates...
