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Tasmanian Literary Awards 2025 longlists announced

Friday, 10 January 2025
The longlists for the 2025 Tasmanian Literary Awards have been announced. Longlisted titles have been announced in four award categories, worth $25,000 each. The books longlisted in each of these...

Riveted Press acquires middle-grade fantasy trilogy 

Photograph of Jayne McIntyre Friday, 10 January 2025
Riveted Press has acquired worldwide rights to the middle-grade fantasy series Farwood by Jayne McIntyre, in a three-book deal via Debbie Golvan at Golvan Arts Management. The first book in...

Berberovic wins inaugural WestWords Prize

The Westwords Prize logo Friday, 10 January 2025
Vahida Berberovic has won the inaugural WestWords Prize for her novel Piggy Tales. Berberovic receives a publication deal with WestWords Books, the adult trade imprint of WestWords. Piggy Tales was chosen...

Best of the best books of 2024 

Friday, 13 December 2024
Across five major ‘best books of 2024’ articles published this December, we counted the most-mentioned Australian books. From end-of-year lists published by the Age/Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Book Review, Guardian...

Osborne-Crowley longlisted for Gordon Burn Prize

Friday, 13 December 2024
In the UK, British–Australian author Lucia Osborne-Crowley has been longlisted for the £10,000 (A$20,011) Gordon Burn Prize. Osborne-Crowley was longlisted for her book The Lasting Harm: Witnessing the Trial of...

Indie Book Awards 2025 longlists announced

Indie Book Award Longlist Announced Friday, 13 December 2024
The longlist for the 2025 Indie Book Awards has been announced. The longlisted titles in each category are: Fiction Dusk (Robbie Arnott, Picador) Safe Haven (Shankari Chandran, Ultimo) The Valley...

Final ‘Books+Publishing’ newsletter for 2024

Friday, 13 December 2024
This Books+Publishing newsletter is the final edition for 2024. The newsletter will return on Monday 13 January 2025. The team at Books+Publishing wishes our readers all the best for the holiday season...

UQP acquires Jacobs, Natt picture book for adults 

Thursday, 12 December 2024
UQP has acquired world rights to a satirical picture book for adults, titled If Queers Weren’t Meant to Have Kids, by Narelda Jacobs and Karina Natt, to be illustrated by...

Juchau wins 2024 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship 

Thursday, 12 December 2024
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced Mireille Juchau as recipient of the $35,000 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship. Assessors Amal Awad and Kate Ryan said that in Juchau’s autofictional detective...

Inaugural WestWords Prize shortlist announced

The Westwords Prize logo Thursday, 12 December 2024
WestWords has announced the shortlist for its inaugural WestWords Prize. The shortlisted writers (and their manuscripts) are: Amy Anshaw-Nye for ‘The Maydown Girls’ Philip Barker for ‘Burning Good Samaritans’ Vahida...

Hollier appointed chair of new SPN board 

Thursday, 12 December 2024
A new board has been elected at the Small Press Network (SPN) annual general meeting, held on 9 December. Nathan Hollier, a former CEO of Melbourne University Publishing and more...

A year of Australian audiobooks: 2025 preview 

Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Audiobook lovers have plenty of local content due in 2025. Here, we round up the Australian titles highlighted by local audio publishers Bolinda and Wavesound. All our 2025 Books+Publishing preview feature articles...

New year 2025 preview: CYA 

Wednesday, 11 December 2024
From the witchy to the wistful, from the fact-filled to the fantastical, publishers have pulled together their lists of highlighted children's and young adult titles for 2025. Read on to...

New year 2025 preview: Poetry 

Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Publishers highlight forthcoming poetry books from well-loved voices in the field—like Kirli Saunders, Omar Sakr, Grace Yee, Antigone Kefala and Eileen Chong—as well as titles from some poets newer to...

Changes at Books+Publishing 

Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Gary Pengelly, owner of Books+Publishing, writes: I wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season, and a well-earned rest for our retailers in January, and the...

Leigh responds to petition on fixed-price book laws 

Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh has responded to a petition asking for Federal Parliament to introduce fixed-price laws for books in Australia. The petition, which attracted...

WeirDo, Wolf Girl to be adapted to screen 

Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Two Anh Do series, WeirDo (Scholastic) and Wolf Girl (A&U), are being adapted to screen, reports the Age. The WeirDo series is being turned into a television series in partnership...

CLNZ Contestable Fund Grants 2024 recipients announced

Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Copyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ) has announced recipients of its Contestable Fund Grants, totalling NZ$75,000. The recipients are: Georgina Tuari Stewart (NZ$8220): for the publishing project ‘Ngā Kararehe o Aotearoa—he Mātauranga, he Matatika, development...

Tu awarded 2025 BR Whiting Studio Residency

Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Jessie Tu has been awarded Creative Australia’s 2025 BR Whiting Studio Residency in Rome. Tu’s debut novel, A Lonely Girl Is a Dangerous Thing (A&U), was named literary fiction book...

Debenham wins 2024 Ampersand Prize

Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Michael Debenham’s Drowning for Beginners has won the 2024 Ampersand Prize for children’s and YA debut fiction. Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing (HGCP) publishing director Marisa Pintado said: ‘Michael’s compulsively readable...

Kate Kemp recommends 

Tuesday, 10 December 2024
I recently read and loved The Wakes by Dianne Yarwood. I am instantly drawn to books about women reinventing themselves at various ages. This book is a wonderful exploration of...

Kate Kemp on ‘The Grapevine’ 

Tuesday, 10 December 2024
Kate Kemp’s debut, The Grapevine (Hachette, February 2025), unravels the mystery of a murder in 1970s Canberra, revealing hidden secrets and buried tensions within the close-knit community of Warrah Place....