News sections | Books+Publishing

Inaugural DANZ award to celebrate diverse children’s fiction

Tuesday, 1 August 2023
The new biennial DANZ (Diversity in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand) Children's Book Award has been established 'to recognise, award, and celebrate diverse children’s fiction'. In partnership with the Australian...

Rewell wins 2023 Furphy Literary Award

Monday, 31 July 2023
The winners of the 2023 Furphy Literary Award have been announced. Journalist and copywriter Jen Rewell won this year's $15,000 award for ‘Away to Me’, which judges described as an...

Nib Literary Award 2023 longlist announced

Monday, 31 July 2023
The longlist for the 2023 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award, worth $40,000, has been announced. The longlisted titles are: An Intimate History of Evolution: The story of the...

Read the latest Publishers Weekly

Monday, 31 July 2023
Books+Publishing is partnering with US trade news magazine Publishers Weekly to provide our subscribers with exclusive access to the weekly digital edition of PW magazine. View the edition here.

Sex: Two billion years of procreation and recreation optioned for television

Friday, 28 July 2023
The nonfiction book Sex: Two billion years of procreation and recreation (David Baker, Black Inc.) has been optioned by documentary producers Smith&Nasht for adaptation as a science television series, in a...

UWAP acquires debut novel by Tsokos Purtill

Wednesday, 26 July 2023
UWA Publishing (UWAP) has acquired world rights to Emily Tsokos Purtill’s debut novel Matia. Tsokos Purtill is a Western Australian writer of Greek heritage, who lives in Perth/Boorloo on the...

Davitt Awards 2023 shortlists announced

Wednesday, 26 July 2023
Sisters in Crime Australia has announced the shortlists for the 2023 Davitt Awards for best crime books by Australian women. The shortlisted titles in each category are: Adult novel Release...

Rights round-up

Wednesday, 26 July 2023
Sales Nonfiction Black Inc. has sold Czech rights to The Shortest History of China (Linda Jaivin) and The Shortest History of India (John Zubrzycki) to Leda in the Czech Republic....

Harris departs PRH; Aotearoa book industry award winners; Classification board upholds ‘Gender Queer’ determination

Wednesday, 26 July 2023
Penguin Random House Australia publishing director young readers Laura Harris has chosen to leave the company following a review of the publisher’s local children’s publishing division; Affirm Press has appointed...

We Know a Place (Maxine Beneba Clarke, Lothian)

Tuesday, 25 July 2023
Award-winning and well-loved writer for all ages, Maxine Beneba Clarke, celebrates the magic of bookshops in her latest title for younger readers. We Know a Place is an illustrated tribute to those...

Your Head’s Not The Place To Store Problems (Josh Pyke, illus Stephen Michael King, Scholastic)

Tuesday, 25 July 2023
By replacing human characters with a diverse range of animals, such as bears, dragons, fish, and dogs, Your Head's Not the Place to Store Problems skilfully demonstrates to children the...

Others Were Emeralds (Lang Leav, Viking)

Tuesday, 25 July 2023
The year is 1997—the era of Jerry Maguire and Scream, dial-up modems, and rising anti-Asian sentiment in the heavily politicised Australian town of Whitlam. Poet Lang Leav’s debut novel revolves...

One Day We’re All Going to Die (Elise Esther Hearst, HarperCollins)

Tuesday, 25 July 2023
Elise Esther Hearst’s impressive debut novel One Day We’re All Going To Die is introspective, evocative and imbued with poetic simplicity. With a playfully dark narrative, the book follows 27-year-old...

Chandran wins 2023 Miles Franklin for ‘Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens’

Tuesday, 25 July 2023
Shankari Chandran has won the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award, worth $60,000, for her novel, Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens (Ultimo). Chosen from a shortlist of six announced in June,...

Hachette acquires new series from Buist and Simsion

Tuesday, 25 July 2023
Hachette Australia has acquired ANZ and US rights to Out of the Blue by Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion in a two-book deal between the authors and Hachette’s head of...

NZ book trade awards: Lamplight wins Bookshop of the Year, A&U wins Publisher of the Year

Monday, 24 July 2023
The winners of the Aotearoa Book Trade Industry Awards, held 24 July in Rotorua, have been announced. Auckland bookstore Lamplight Books won the Bookshop of the Year award. Judges described...

Shaw wins 2023 Michael Gifkins prize

Monday, 24 July 2023
Author and editor Tina Shaw has been awarded the 2023 Michael Gifkins Prize for an unpublished manuscript by an Aotearoa New Zealand writer. Chosen from a shortlist of five, Shaw wins...

Read the latest Publishers Weekly

Monday, 24 July 2023
Books+Publishing is partnering with US trade news magazine Publishers Weekly to provide our subscribers with exclusive access to the weekly digital edition of PW magazine. View the edition here.

Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award 2023 longlist announced

Thursday, 20 July 2023
The longlist for the Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award, which has increased in value to $30,000 and is administered by the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies (FALS) at James...

Hodge awarded 2023 Marion fellowship

Thursday, 20 July 2023
Lardil and Yangkaal writer Maya Hodge has been awarded the inaugural Marion fellowship for 2023, the ACT writing organisation has announced. Marion said Hodge’s ‘writing practice is not just a...

Rights round-up

Wednesday, 19 July 2023
Sales Fiction UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding ANZ) to Fanatic Heart (Thomas Keneally, Vintage) have been acquired by Faber associate publisher Louisa Joyner and commissioning editor Libby Marshall from Sam Copeland...

National Biography Award shortlist; local authors shocked by US festival cancellation; inaugural Marilyn Lake Prize winner

Wednesday, 19 July 2023
The State Library of New South Wales has announced the shortlist for the $25,000 National Biography Award; a delegation of 10 Australian and New Zealand writers that were due to...