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Comics anthology wins Brazilian Book Published Abroad

Thursday, 6 November 2025
The Brazilian Book Chamber (CBL) has announced the 2025 Jabuti Award for Brazilian Book Published Abroad. The award recognises both the Brazilian publisher and the foreign publisher of a translated...

Carvan wins 2025 Bragg Prize for Science Writing

Photo of Tabitha Carvan on campus at ANU. Thursday, 6 November 2025
Tabitha Carvan has been awarded this year’s UNSW Press Bragg Prize for Science Writing for her essay “The Unexpected Poetry of PhD Acknowledgements”. ⁠ The publisher said, “Carvan’s piece reflects...

Awesome Black announces new music and literary fund

An image of the Awesome Black logo. Thursday, 6 November 2025
The Awesome Black Foundation has announced the Voices Rising Fund, a new initiative for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians and writers. The foundation has also announced that Western Sydney–based...

Wombat Books acquires Gemmill’s middle-grade

A photo of Stef Gemmill. Gemmill wears glasses and has red hair. She stands in front of a bookcase. Thursday, 6 November 2025
Wombat Books has acquired world rights to The Ghost Horse of Snowy River, a middle-grade novel by Stef Gemmill. According to the publisher, The Ghost Horse of Snowy River follows 12-year-old...

Indigenous Literacy Foundation announces new ambassadors

Photo of ILF youth ambassador Bronte Charles. Thursday, 6 November 2025
The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) has announced seven new ambassadors for 2026. The ambassadors are: Anh Do (ILF ambassador) Lucas Proudfoot (ILF ambassador) Tehya Makani (ILF ambassador) Bronte Charles (ILF...

ISNI: A global standard for identifying creators 

Thursday, 6 November 2025
The ISNI is performing a growing role for authors, publishers, librarians and other creative organisations. Australian ISBN Agency representative Andrew Wrathall reports on the ISNI session at September’s International ISBN...

Garner wins Baillie Gifford

Photo of Helen Garner in garden. Wednesday, 5 November 2025
In the UK, author Helen Garner has won the £50,000 (A$100,700) Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction for How to End a Story: Collected Diaries (Text). The winning title was described...

A&U acquires Ham’s first nonfiction book

Photo of Rosalie Ham on a garden bench with her dog. Wednesday, 5 November 2025
Allen & Unwin has acquired world rights to Look After Your Feet by Rosalie Ham, via literary agency Jenny Darling and Associates. In this first nonfiction book, the author of...

HarperCollins acquires Bailey memoir

Wednesday, 5 November 2025
HarperCollins has acquired world rights to Flamingos Aren’t Born Pink, a memoir by Robin Bailey. Described by the publisher as “a moving and uplifting memoir on heartbreak, grief and finding...

2025 speech pathology book award winners announced

Wednesday, 5 November 2025
Speech Pathology Australia has announced the winners of its 2025 Book of the Year Awards. Chosen from shortlists announced in July, the winners in each category are: Birth to 3 years...

Suwannakit nominated for Carnegie Medal for Illustration 

Wednesday, 5 November 2025
Australian author and illustrator Tull Suwannakit’s Higher Ground (New Frontier) is among the newly announced nominees for the UK-based 2026 Carnegie Medal for Illustration. Nominated titles for the partner prize,...

Newcastle Short Story Award 2025 shortlist announced

Three people on Newcastle waterfront. Wednesday, 5 November 2025
The Hunter Writers’ Centre has announced the shortlist for this year’s Newcastle Short Story Award. Shortlisted stories are:   “Sun, Do Not Die” by ALB “Solastalgia” by Liz Allan “Backburn”...

Marani wins 2025 Richell Prize

Black and white photo of Monique Ivankovič Marani. Wednesday, 5 November 2025
Croatian Australian writer and theatre-maker Monique Ivankovič Marani has won the 2025 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers. Marani’s winning entry, “The Sweeter”, was selected from a shortlist of 5 manuscripts....

Webster wins 2025 Nature Writing Prize

Wednesday, 5 November 2025
Bridget Webster has won the 2025 Nature Writing Prize for her piece “Like All Good Fruit”. Island editorial manager and lead judge Jane Rawson said, “Bridget’s work stood out to...

UNESCO announces new Cities of Literature

Photo of ols building fronting the river in Gdansk, Poland Wednesday, 5 November 2025
The United Nations’ cultural arm UNESCO has announced 10 new Cities of Literature among its latest 58 Creative Cities. Newly designated as Cities of Literature are Aberystwyth (Wales), Abuja (Nigeria),...

Disability Arts History Australia website launched

Head and shoulders photo of Professor Bree Hadley of Queensland University of Technology Monday, 3 November 2025
A new Disability Arts History Australia website bringing together the stories, achievements and influence of Australian artists with disabilities over the past five decades has been launched at Queensland University...

Aston, Morton, Wright shortlisted for Walkley Book Award 

Cover of The Chairman’s Lounge by Joe Aston, with view through aircraft window. Monday, 3 November 2025
The Walkley Foundation has announced the shortlist for this year’s Walkley Book Award. The three books, drawn from a longlist of eight, are: The Chairman’s Lounge by Joe Aston (Scribner) Mean Streak by...

Australian historian wins Cundill History Prize 

Historian Lyndal Roper sitting on a windowsill. Monday, 3 November 2025
Oxford University-based historian Lyndal Roper has won this year’s Cundill History Prize for Summer of Fire and Blood (John Murray), her history of the German Peasants’ War of the 1520s....

No newsletter tomorrow

Monday, 3 November 2025
Due to the Melbourne Cup public holiday in Victoria, Books+Publishing will not publish a newsletter tomorrow. However, the deadline for classifieds and job advertisements for this Wednesday’s Weekly Book Newsletter...

Authors’ class action against OpenAI to proceed 

Exterior of the Thurgood Marshall US Courthouse in New York. Thursday, 30 October 2025
A New York federal judge has this week denied an OpenAI request to dismiss authors’ claims that the company’s ChatGPT infringes their copyrights. The suit consolidates lawsuits from a number...

Ultimo acquires Ash’s Mantle

Photo of writer Romy Ash in blue shirt. Thursday, 30 October 2025
Ultimo Press has acquired ANZ rights to novelist Romy Ash’s new work, Mantle, in a deal brokered by Michaela McGuire of a4 Literary. Mantle is a literary eco-thriller set in...

Priest wins Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship

Photo of Ann-Marie Priest smiling. Wednesday, 29 October 2025
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced Ann-Marie Priest as the 2025 recipient of the $35,000 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship for her biography “Tell It Slant: The Life and Loves...

BWF wrap up: Generous storytelling 

Brisbane Writers Festival 2025 logo Wednesday, 29 October 2025
This year, the Brisbane Writers Festival (BWF) ran from 9 to 12 October in its new venue, the Brisbane Powerhouse. Over 100 live events were organised with more than 200...

Public interest defence used successfully for first time 

Front view of federal and state law building in Sydney, NSW Wednesday, 29 October 2025
Australian defamation laws have weighed on the minds of Australian editors and publishers for decades. So does the new public interest/responsible reporting defence, introduced in 2021, make their work easier?...

Amba Press acquires ACER Press titles

Cover of a book called "Kit and Arlo Find a Way" Wednesday, 29 October 2025
Amba Press will acquire 38 educational titles under an agreement with ACER Press, the publishing arm of the Australian Council for Educational Research. Amba Press said, “The acquisition represents a...