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Varuna announces recipients of 2021 Residency Fellowships

Friday, 16 October 2020
Varuna, the Writers House, has announced the recipients of the 2021 Varuna Residency Fellowships. The writers and their projects are: The Mick Dark flagship fellowship  Rachael Mead, for her literary...

Deacon in the running for US award

Friday, 16 October 2020
Australian writer Desley Deacon is in the running for the US Theatre Library Association’s 2020 George Freedley Memorial Award. Deacon’s book Judith Anderson: Australian Star First Lady of the American...

PRH acquires Edgar’s ‘The Coffin Confessor’ 

Thursday, 15 October 2020
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired world rights to The Coffin Confessor by ‘funeral crasher’ Bill Edgar. Edgar's memoir was acquired by PRH commissioning editor Brandon VanOver, who said...

Walkley Book Award 2020 longlist announced

Thursday, 15 October 2020
The Walkley Book Award longlist for 2020 has been announced. The longlisted titles are:  After the Count (Stephanie Convery, Viking) City On Fire (Antony Dapiran, Scribe) Hazelwood (Tom Doig, Viking)...

Ned Kelly Awards 2020 winners announced

Thursday, 15 October 2020
The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has announced the winners of this year’s Ned Kelly Awards for Australian crime writing. The winning works and authors in each category are: Best...

Rights round-up 

Wednesday, 14 October 2020
Sales Fiction Jenny Darling & Associates has sold Simplified Chinese rights to The Natural Way of Things (Charlotte Wood, A&U) to Beijing White Horse Time; and rights to The Weekend...

Vale Ania Walwicz

Wednesday, 14 October 2020
Poet, writer and teacher Ania Walwicz died on 29 September, aged 69. Born in Poland in 1951, Walwicz emigrated to Australia in 1963 and studied at Melbourne's Victorian College of...

Morton to edit ‘Growing Up in Country Australia’

Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Black Inc. has announced the latest addition to its 'Growing Up' nonfiction anthology series, Growing Up in Country Australia, to be edited by journalist Rick Morton. Morton is the Saturday Paper's...

Lucas-Pennington wins 2020 Nakata Brophy prize

Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Grace Lucas-Pennington has won the 2020 Nakata Brophy Short Fiction and Poetry Prize for her poem ‘Superposition’. Lucas-Pennington receives $5000 and a three-month writing residence at Trinity College at the...

Deborah Cass Prize 2020 shortlist announced

Tuesday, 13 October 2020
The shortlist for Writers Victoria’s Deborah Cass Prize for emerging writers from migrant backgrounds has been announced. The shortlisted works and their authors are: ‘Oluwale, My God Has Come Home’...

Read the latest Publishers Weekly 

Monday, 12 October 2020
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.  

Glück awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for Literature

Friday, 9 October 2020
American poet Louise Glück has been awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for Literature, reports Publishers Weekly. Glück was named winner at a ceremony at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm on...

Bragg Prize for Science Writing 2020 shortlist announced

Thursday, 8 October 2020
The shortlist for this year’s UNSW Press Bragg Prize for Science Writing has been announced. The shortlisted pieces are: ‘True Grit’ by Ceridwen Dovey (Wired) ‘Case of the missing frogs’...

Affirm acquires Rees children’s book 

Thursday, 8 October 2020
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to a children’s book by ABC children’s television presenter Jimmy 'Giggle' Rees, via Red Mgmt. Rees’s debut, to be illustrated by Briony Stewart, will...

Hachette acquires Wilson picture book series 

Wednesday, 7 October 2020
Hachette Australia has acquired ANZ rights to a ‘funny and heartfelt’ picture book series by Australian comic actress Rebel Wilson. The ‘Bella the Brave’ series, to be published in hardback...

Rights round-up 

Wednesday, 7 October 2020
Sales Fiction UQP has sold Italian-language rights to Too Much Lip (Melissa Lucashenko) to Edizioni Lindau. Children’s Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing has sold German rights to Wild About Dads and...

Egan on Christmas bookselling in 2020

Wednesday, 7 October 2020
'There will be no airfreighting of books into Australia for this Christmas. If it’s not here or in a container on a ship now it’s not going to be available.’—ABA...

Booktopia senior appointments, latest awards

Wednesday, 7 October 2020
This week Booktopia announced a slate of senior appointments, including a new CFO. Meanwhile, the Big Issue released its 2020 fiction edition line-up and the Queensland Poetry Festival received funding...

The Odds (Matt Stanton, ABC Books) 

Wednesday, 7 October 2020
The lack of locally produced graphic novels for young Australians has been noted for some time now, but middle-grade and children’s author Matt Stanton has a new book to appease...

Give Me Some Space! (Philip Bunting, Omnibus) 

Wednesday, 7 October 2020
Una is a singular girl on a mission: leave boring old Earth behind for greener pastures—or in this case, planets. Smart, determined and ingenious, she crafts herself a homespun spacesuit...

Inaugural $50k Historical Novel Prize longlist announced

Wednesday, 7 October 2020
The Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA) has announced the longlist for the inaugural ARA Historical Novel Prize. The HNSA has also confirmed sponsor ARA has doubled its funding for the...

Richell Prize 2020 shortlist announced

Logo for the Richell Prize, featuring a swooping bird Tuesday, 6 October 2020
Hachette Australia and the Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) have announced the shortlist for the 2020 Richell Prize for emerging writers. The shortlisted writers and their works are: ‘The Boy Who...