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Wright honoured for Lifetime Achievement in Literature

Photograph of Alexis Wright Monday, 18 September 2023
Alexis Wright has won the Creative Australia Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature, which ‘acknowledges the achievements of eminent literary writers over the age of 60 who have made an...

Ultimo acquires Goode debut novel

Monday, 18 September 2023
Ultimo Press has acquired world rights to Melissa Goode’s debut novel Ordinary Human Love. Ordinary Human Love follows Mardi McKee, prodigal daughter, who returns to her father’s home in Lithgow...

Indigo revenue drops 12% in aftermath of cyberattack

Friday, 15 September 2023
Canadian bookselling chain Indigo Books & Music reported a 12% drop in revenue for the quarter ending 1 July, following a cyberattack on the company’s website in February, reports Publishers...

Ultimo acquires new Snoekstra novel 

Friday, 15 September 2023
Ultimo Press has acquired ANZ rights to The Ones We Love by Anna Snoekstra, after rights were pre-empted in the US and the UK by Dutton, a division of Penguin...

IBBY reveals change to Ena Noël Award

Friday, 15 September 2023
The Australian branch of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) has announced a change to its IBBY Ena Noël Award, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the...

ARA Historical Novel Prize longlists announced

ARA Historical Novel Prize 2023 logo Thursday, 14 September 2023
The Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA) has announced the longlists for the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize. Featuring ‘a vast tapestry of settings and eras’, this year’s longlisted titles are:...

Varuna announces 2024 residential fellowships

Varuna, the National Writers House logo Thursday, 14 September 2023
Varuna, the National Writers’ House has announced the recipients of the Varuna residential fellowships for 2024, including seven flagship fellowship recipients. The writers and their projects are: Eleanor Dark flagship...

Spotify to offer free audiobook trial to subscribers

Thursday, 14 September 2023
Spotify is planning to offer US subscribers a free audiobook trial in the coming months, reports the Wall Street Journal. According to the report, Spotify is working with large US...

Australian book market overview: 2023 so far 

Wednesday, 13 September 2023
Ahead of the Frankfurt Book Fair, Books+Publishing’s rights publication, Think Australian, looks at how the local market has fared so far this year. After three consecutive years of growth, the Australian book...

Heath joins A&U 

Wednesday, 13 September 2023
Sally Heath has joined Allen & Unwin as adult nonfiction publisher. Heath was previously an associate publisher at Thames & Hudson Australia and New Zealand, where she worked on the...

Hawker Brownlow authors move to Amba Press 

Wednesday, 13 September 2023
Independent Australian educational publisher Amba Press has announced that it will republish a number of Australian authors formerly published by Hawker Brownlow Education (HBE). In an announcement posted to LinkedIn,...

Ultimo acquires Chandran novel 

Wednesday, 13 September 2023
Ultimo Press has acquired ANZ rights to Safe Haven, the new novel from the winner of the 2023 Miles Franklin award, Shankari Chandran, via Tara Wynne at Curtis Brown Australia....

New Amazon guidelines to disclose use of AI

Tuesday, 12 September 2023
Amazon has updated its Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) guidelines to require users to acknowledge AI-generated content, reports the Bookseller. The new guidelines distinguish between AI-generated content and AI-assisted content, which...

ILD 2023: Over 300,000 tune in for music-filled celebration

Tuesday, 12 September 2023
Last Wednesday, 6 September, was Indigenous Literacy Day (ILD)—the annual event hosted by the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) to celebrate First Nations peoples’ storytelling and raise funds to support literacy...

Big Sky acquires Blum memoir 

Tuesday, 12 September 2023
Big Sky Publishing has acquired world rights to the memoir Easy Target: Battling the black dog by Adam Blum. In the book, Blum shares his battle with bullying and health...

Inaugural SA Literary Fellowships open for applications

Writers SA CEO Jessica Alice and State Library of South Australia director Geoff Strempel standing together in the State Library of South Australia Monday, 11 September 2023
Writers SA and the State Library of South Australia (SLSA) have announced that applications are open for the inaugural SA Literary Fellowships program for professional writers in South Australia. The...

Dymocks customers warned about data breach

Dymocks logo Monday, 11 September 2023
Dymocks has warned its customers of a potential data breach, after the retailer’s cybersecurity experts found evidence of discussions about Dymocks customer records being available on the dark web. In...

EPAA 2023 winners announced

Friday, 8 September 2023
The winners of the 2023 Educational Publishing Awards Australia (EPAA) have been announced. The winners in each category are: Primary publisher of the year Seven Steps Secondary publisher of the...

Danger Awards 2023 shortlists announced

Friday, 8 September 2023
The BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival has announced the shortlists for the 2023 Danger Awards. The shortlisted titles in each category are: Fiction Brunswick Street Blues (Sally Bothroyd, HarperCollins) Daughters...

NSW Premier’s History Awards 2023 winners announced

Friday, 8 September 2023
The State Library of NSW (SLNSW) has announced the winners for the 2023 NSW Premier’s History Awards. The winning titles in each category are: Australian history prize Elizabeth and John:...

Affirm acquires Downes novel 

An author photograph of Anna Downes Thursday, 7 September 2023
Affirm Press has acquired ANZ rights to thriller Red River Road, the third novel from Anna Downes, via Tara Wynne of Curtis Brown. Set along the Western Australian Coral Coast,...

WHSmith sales grow 28%

Thursday, 7 September 2023
In the UK, retailer WHSmith has reported a 28% year-on-year increase in revenue in the 12 months to 31 August, driven by a 42% spike in its travel business, reports...

Queensland Literary Awards 2023 winners announced

Thursday, 7 September 2023
The winners of the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards have been announced, with a total of $238,500 in prize money awarded across 12 categories. The winning titles in each category are:...

Beverley McWilliams on ‘Spies in the Sky’ 

Wednesday, 6 September 2023
Beverley McWilliams is a children's writer based in South Australia who loves sharing history with children. Books+Publishing reviewer Karys McEwen describes her new book, Spies in the Sky (Pantera, November),...

Stan adaptation of ‘Scrublands’ sold to BBC 

Wednesday, 6 September 2023
A four-part adaptation of Scrublands (Chris Hammer, A&U) has been acquired by the BBC from Abacus Media Rights, which has international distribution rights for the series, and will screen on...