News | Books+Publishing

Billie B Brown optioned for TV

Wednesday, 17 June 2020
Fremantle and development partner 720 Creative have acquired screen rights to the children’s book character Billie B Brown, from the junior fiction series written by Sally Rippin, illustrated by Aki...

Pantera Press Foundation donates $85k in FY2020

Wednesday, 17 June 2020
Pantera Press has announced the company has donated $85,000 via the Pantera Press Foundation this financial year. Its donations include a total of $70,000 in untied funding to arts organisations...

Creative Vic Sustaining Creative Workers grants announced

Wednesday, 17 June 2020
Creative Victoria has announced the first recipients of its Sustaining Creative Workers initiative, created as part of the Victorian Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially announced in April as...

Latest ArtsACT grant recipients announced

Tuesday, 16 June 2020
ArtsACT has announced the successful recipients of its Homefront funding round, which was developed to support individual artists in response to the impact of Covid-19 on the arts sector. Funding...

Abulafia wins Wolfson History Prize for ‘The Boundless Sea’

Tuesday, 16 June 2020
In the UK, David Abulafia’s The Boundless Sea (Allen Lane)—a history of humankind told through its relationship with the world’s oceans—has won the £40,000 (A$72,670) Wolfson History Prize. Judging panel chair...

Hickey wins Walter Scott Prize for ‘The Narrow Land’

Tuesday, 16 June 2020
Irish author Christine Dwyer Hickey has won the £25,000 (A$45,450) Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for her novel The Narrow Land (Atlantic). Hickey, whose novel explores the marriage of...

Overett wins Penguin Literary Prize 2020

Tuesday, 16 June 2020
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has announced that the winner of the 2020 Penguin Literary Prize is The Rabbits by Sophie Overett. Victoria-based Overett wins $20,000 (which acts as an...

Harper, McKinty shortlisted for Theakston Old Peculier crime award

Monday, 15 June 2020
Australian author Jane Harper has been shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier 2020 Crime Novel Award for a crime novel published in paperback by authors from the UK or Ireland....

Revenue up, profit down at Wiley

Monday, 15 June 2020
In the UK, Wiley has reported a marginal gain in revenue and a drop in profit in the year to April 2020, reports the Bookseller. Wiley reported revenue of US$1.83...

Roff wins 2020 Peter Carey Short Story Award

Monday, 15 June 2020
Andrew Roff has won the Peter Carey Short Story Award for his story ‘Bock Bock’. Announcing the winner via YouTube, judge Elizabeth Tan said the story, which follows an ‘investigator...

Australia Council announces Cherish Fund to support First Nations creatives

Friday, 12 June 2020
The Australia Council has announced a new fund of approximately $500,000 to ‘support and invest in First Nations arts and cultural groups experiencing disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic’. The...

US publishing sales down 16% in April

Friday, 12 June 2020
In the US, total publishing sales fell 16% in April compared to the same month in 2019 according to the AAP’s Statshot program, reports Publishers Weekly. The drop in total...

New online Book Clubs Hub undertakes national survey

Friday, 12 June 2020
The organisers of Clunes Booktown Festival have established a free online platform for book clubs to connect and share information, and are undertaking a national survey of Australian book clubs....

The Book Grocer celebrates 20th anniversary

Friday, 12 June 2020
The Book Grocer is celebrating 20 years since establishing its first store. In a letter to staff and customers, founder Karl Slotte described opening the first of the chain’s stores...

Magabala Books announces First Nations’ publishing cadetship

Thursday, 11 June 2020
Magabala Books has announced it will create a new cadetship for First Nations publishing professionals. The cadetship program will provide on-the-job training, professional development and sustainable employment, with mentorship from...

Illustrating the truth: Charmaine Ledden-Lewis on ‘Found’

Thursday, 11 June 2020
Bundjalung artist Charmaine Ledden-Lewis was the recipient of the 2019 Kestin Indigenous Illustrator Award, which offered a mentorship and the opportunity to illustrate Bruce Pascoe's first picture book. The result...

Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction 2020 shortlist announced

Thursday, 11 June 2020
Lip magazine has announced the shortlist for the 2020 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. The shortlisted stories are: 'Plant Life' by Tanya Vavilova 'Arrow' by Mia-Francesca McAuslan 'Baby Season' by...

The Wheeler Centre’s Next Chapter

Thursday, 11 June 2020
Two years after the Wheeler Centre established its The Next Chapter writers scheme, books by two of its inaugural fellows—Adam Thompson and Evelyn Araluen—have been acquired by the University of Queensland Press. As applications...