News | Books+Publishing

NZ Book Awards for Children and YA 2019 finalists announced

Thursday, 6 June 2019
The shortlists for the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults have been announced. The shortlisted titles in each category are: Picture book award Mini Whinny: Happy Birthday...

Parrish wins Lambda award for graphic novel

Thursday, 6 June 2019
Canada-based Australian comics artist Tommi Parrish has won the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for a graphic novel for their book The Lie and How We Told It (Fantagraphics). The Lie and...

Jones wins 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction for ‘An American Marriage’

Thursday, 6 June 2019
American author Tayari Jones has won the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction for her novel An American Marriage (Vintage). The book follows newlyweds Celestial and Roy as their lives are...

Chloe Wilson wins ‘Iowa Review’ Award for fiction

Thursday, 6 June 2019
Melbourne writer Chloe Wilson has won the Iowa Review Award for fiction for her story ‘Tongue-Tied’. Wilson receives US$1500 (A$2150) and publication in the December issue of the Iowa Review....

Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival program announced

Thursday, 6 June 2019
The program for the 2019 Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival, running from 12–28 July, has been announced. More than 60 events will be held at bookshops, libraries, cafes and...

S&S acquires global rights to two new Kathy Reichs novels

Wednesday, 5 June 2019
Simon & Schuster (S&S) has acquired global rights to two new novels by bestselling crime fiction writer Kathy Reichs. The first novel, A Conspiracy of Bones and Blood, will be...

WA libraries receive statewide innovation awards

Wednesday, 5 June 2019
Two public libraries in WA have received the 2019 Library Board of Western Australia Award for Innovation and Collaboration. In the metropolitan and large regional category, the City of Canning...

UK authors rally to save Essex libraries

Wednesday, 5 June 2019
In the UK, authors including David Walliams, Jacqueline Wilson and David Baddiel are supporting a campaign to save libraries in Essex, reports the Bookseller. Of the 74 libraries in Essex...

Library patrons buy more books, Canadian report finds

Wednesday, 5 June 2019
In Canada, a new report by industry study group BookNet has found consumers who borrow books from libraries purchase more books per month than those who don’t use libraries, reports...

Meet the ABA Young Booksellers of the Year: Michael Earp from The Little Bookroom

Wednesday, 5 June 2019
In the lead-up to the Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) 2019 conference, Books+Publishing spoke to each of the five shortlisted nominees for the Young Bookseller of the Year award ahead of...

Book buyer spotlight: Dymocks’ Imogen Neely

Wednesday, 5 June 2019
Imogen Neely is the merchandise manager for Dymocks. She spoke to Books+Publishing for our ‘book buyer spotlight’ series. How long have you been in the role and what did you do...

Octopus buys indie publisher Short Books

Wednesday, 5 June 2019
Octopus Publishing Group, part of Hachette Livre, has acquired independent publisher Short Books for an undisclosed sum, reports the Bookseller. Best known for health and diet publishing, Short Books has...

WA Premier’s Book Awards shortlists announced

Wednesday, 5 June 2019
The shortlists for this year's Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards have been announced. The shortlisted titles in each category are: Premier’s Prize for an emerging writer ($15,000) If I Tell...

YA debut ‘What I Like About Me’ sold to US and France

Wednesday, 5 June 2019
Jacinta di Mase Management has sold US and Canadian rights to Jenna Guillaume’s YA debut What I Like About Me (Pan) to Peachtree Publishing, and French-language rights to Pocket Jeunesse....

Karskens wins ‘ABR’ 2019 Calibre Prize

Wednesday, 5 June 2019
Historian Grace Karskens has won the Australian Book Review’s (ABR) 2019 Calibre Prize for her essay ‘Nah Doongh’s Song’. Karskens' essay examines the ‘unusually long life of one of the...

‘WBN’ published Thursday next week

Wednesday, 5 June 2019
Please note that, due to the Queen’s Birthday holiday on Monday in all states except Queensland and Western Australia, the next Weekly Book Newsletter will be published on Thursday 13 June. The...

Meyer wins UK’s inaugural ‘Mslexia’ Novella Competition

Tuesday, 4 June 2019
Author Angela Meyer has won the inaugural £1000 (A$1815) Mslexia Novella Competition for Joan Smokes (Contraband). Joan Smokes centres on a young woman who attempts to escape the past by...

Sissay wins 2019 PEN Pinter Prize

Tuesday, 4 June 2019
In the UK, poet and playwright Lemn Sissay has been awarded the 2019 PEN Pinter Prize. Prize judge Maureen Freely said: ‘In his every work, Lemn Sissay returns to the underworld...

Croggon, Tuomy, Nou join advisory group for Victorian creative industries

Tuesday, 4 June 2019
Writer and critic Alison Croggon, spoken word poet and author Abe Nouk, and screenwriter, director and producer Fiona Tuomy are among the 20 Victorians who have been appointed to a...

Copyright Agency announces recipients of Ignite grants

Tuesday, 4 June 2019
The Copyright Agency has awarded a total of $46,440 to eight authors and three artists, as part of its Cultural Fund’s Ignite grants program. The authors to receive grants, which...

Berbay sells third Canty ‘Heads and Tails’ picture book to US

Tuesday, 4 June 2019
Berbay Publishing has sold North American rights to Melbourne author and illustrator John Canty’s Heads and Tails: Underwater to Candlewick Press. This is the third picture book in Canty’s ‘Heads and Tails’...

Turkish prosecutors put novelists under investigation

Monday, 3 June 2019
Turkish prosecutors have launched investigations into the country’s fiction writers, including award-winning novelist Elif Shafak, reports the Guardian, with Shafak calling on the international community to support Turkish authors, journalists...