Morsi wins 2025 Dorothy Hewett Award
Thursday, 31 July 2025
Mohammed Massoud Morsi has won the 2025 Dorothy Hewett Award for his unpublished fiction manuscript The Hair of the Pigeon. Chosen from a shortlist of six, Morsi receives a publishing...
Sharman wins 2025 Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize
Thursday, 31 July 2025
Victorian writer Tara Sharman has won the 2025 Australian Book Review (ABR) Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize ($6000) for ‘Shelling’. At 22, Sharman is the youngest recipient in the prize's...
Sam Quyên Huỳnh wins SLQ 2025 Young Writers Award
Thursday, 31 July 2025
The State Library of Queensland (SLQ) has announced Sam Quyên Huỳnh as the winner of the 2025 Young Writers Award. Huỳnh, 21,wins $2000, a membership with Queensland Writers Centre (QWC)...
Griffith Review 2025 Emerging Voices competition winners
Thursday, 31 July 2025
Griffith Review has announced the winners of its 2025 Emerging Voices competition, which seeks ‘fiction and creative nonfiction that reflect new ideas, fresh voices and bold perspectives’. The winners, chosen...
Morgan wins 2025 Mallinson Rendell Illustrators Award
Thursday, 31 July 2025
The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi has announced Josh Morgan (Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Rongowhakaata, Te Whānau-a-Kai) as the 2025 Mallinson Rendel Illustrators Award recipient. The 2025 selection panel, which included illustrator...
Lu wins Miles Franklin; new NSW ‘lit hub’; LitUp pilot participants
Wednesday, 30 July 2025
Headlining the news this week, Siang Lu won the 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award for his latest novel, Ghost Cities (UQP). (We at B+P also deeply appreciate his ongoing collection of Siang-ed covers.) Elsewhere...
Rights round-up
Wednesday, 30 July 2025
Sales Fiction Arndell, an imprint of Keeperton, has sold Polish rights to several T L Swan titles (The Do-Over, Miles Ever After, My Temptation and My Rules) to Wydawnictwo NieZwykle. HarperCollins...
Riveted Press acquires Cullen debut middle-grade
Wednesday, 30 July 2025
Riveted Press has acquired world rights to The Prime Minister Problem, a debut middle-grade novel by Brenton Cullen. The Prime Minister Problem is 'a heartfelt and timely story about an...
Read the latest Publishers Weekly
Wednesday, 30 July 2025
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.
Very Impressive for Your Age (Eleanor Kirk, A&U)
Tuesday, 29 July 2025
In Very Impressive for Your Age, Eleanor Kirk brings insight, wit and dark humour to her sharply drawn portrait of a young woman whose carefully imagined future vanishes overnight. Evelyn...
The Watervale Ladies’ Writing and Firefighting Society (Mette Menzies, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Mette Menzies’ debut novel, The Watervale Ladies’ Writing and Firefighting Society, is a charming and layered exploration of unexpected friendship, personal reinvention and the quiet strength of women who show...
Maisy Hayes Is Not for Sale (Allayne L Webster, Text)
Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Maisy Hayes Is Not for Sale is a big-hearted read that balances emotional depth with laugh-out-loud moments. Told from the perspective of 14-year-old Maisy, the middle child in a single-parent family...
Mega Rich Guinea Pigs (Kate & Jol Temple, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 29 July 2025
In Mega Rich Guinea Pigs, the first laugh-out-loud book in a new illustrated series by Kate and Jol Temple (Frog Squad), four pampered pets unexpectedly become billionaires. When tech tycoon...
A Catalogue of Love (Erin Hortle, S&S)
Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Erin Hortle’s A Catalogue of Love is a powerful work of Australian literary fiction. Set against the salt-sprayed wilderness of Bruny Island, the novel follows Neika, a surfer tracing her life...
CYA Writers & Illustrators Conference announces 2025 competition winners
Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Winners of a range of writing and illustrating competitions have been announced as part of the 2025 CYA Writers & Illustrators Conference. Among the winners are: Illustrations (published) ‘Janey Has...
Australia Reads announces first LitUp participants
Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Australia Reads has announced the 27 schools, libraries and bookshops that will host LitUp events as part of the pilot for this live literature initiative. In its pilot year, the...
A&U acquires Gifford picture book
Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Albert Street Books, an imprint of Allen & Unwin (A&U), has acquired world rights to picture book Valerie: Australia’s Bravest Sausage Dog by Lucinda Gifford, via Pippa Masson at Curtis Brown...
We Read Auckland announces full program
Tuesday, 29 July 2025
We Read Auckland | Ka Pānui Tātou i Tāmaki Makaurau has announced its full program, which will run 1–31 August. The month-long reading and writing festival offers free events with...
Riveted Press acquires Farrell junior fiction trilogy
Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Riveted Press has acquired world rights to a junior fiction trilogy by debut author Anne Farrell. The as-yet-untitled speculative fiction series is suitable for readers aged 6 years and above,...
Princess Pictures adapting ‘Stillwater’ novel to the screen
Monday, 28 July 2025
Melbourne-based film company Princess Pictures is adapting Tanya Scott’s crime novel Stillwater (A&U) as a feature film, reports Variety. Stillwater follows the story of ‘Jack Quinn, whose mother died of...
2025 Shalom Collective Australian Jewish Writer Awards shortlist
Monday, 28 July 2025
The shortlists for the 2025 Shalom Collective Australian Jewish Writer Awards have been announced. The shortlisted writers and their titles are: The Leslie and Sophie Caplan Award for Jewish Nonfiction ($10,000)...
Rafferty wins 2025 Rosanne Fitzgibbon Editorial Award
Monday, 28 July 2025
The Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd) has announced Emma Rafferty as the 2025 winner of the biennial Rosanne Fitzgibbon Editorial Award for her editorial work on the novel 17 Years...
Elliffe awarded the 2025 NZSA Laura Solomon Cuba Press Prize
Monday, 28 July 2025
The New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ Inc) (NZSA) has announced Susanna Elliffe as the winner of the 2025 NZSA Laura Solomon Cuba Press...
Moss wins 2025 Furphy Literary Award
Monday, 28 July 2025
Serena Moss has won the 2025 Furphy Literary Award, worth $15,000, for her short story ‘The Eulogy Business’. Based in Geraldton, Moss works in real estate and is an aspiring...
Lu awarded 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award
Thursday, 24 July 2025
Siang Lu has won the 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award, worth $60,000, for his novel Ghost Cities (UQP). Lu is an author based in both Brisbane, Australia, and Kuala Lumpur,...
George Robertson Award 2025 winners
Thursday, 24 July 2025
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) has announced the 2025 winners of the George Robertson Award. The recipients, chosen by the APA board of directors, are: Penny Evershed (head of supply...
Larrikin acquires McKerrow’s middle-grade novel
Thursday, 24 July 2025
Larrikin House has acquired world rights to Grave Robbing and Other Curious Activities, a middle-grade novel by Joel McKerrow. Described by the publisher as ‘heart-racing, spine-tingling and poetic’, the story...
New ABR editors; Aotearoa New Zealand Book Industry Awards; ILF rebranding
Wednesday, 23 July 2025
Among industry news this week, the Australian Book Review (ABR) announced Felicity Plunkett and Ben Brooker as the new poetry editor and arts editor respectively; Allen & Unwin (A&U) announced Emma...
Rights round-up
Wednesday, 23 July 2025
Sales Fiction Arndell, an imprint of Keeperton, has sold Italian rights to The Bonus (T L Swan) to Quixote Italy. Nonfiction Black Inc. has sold Polish rights to The Shortest...
Text acquires Tolich’s debut romcom
Wednesday, 23 July 2025
Text Publishing has acquired world rights to debut romcom Side Character Energy by Olivia Tolich, in a deal brokered by Martin Shaw at Shaw Literary. Side Character Energy follows character...
