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Read the latest Publishers Weekly 

Monday, 22 February 2021
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.

WAYRBA 2021 shortlists announced

Thursday, 18 February 2021
The shortlists for the 2021 West Australian Young Readers’ Book Awards (WAYRBA) have been announced. The shortlisted titles in each category are: Picture books Pig the Blob (Aaron Blabey, Scholastic) Twelve...

Inaugural Little Hare Illustration Prize winner announced

Wednesday, 17 February 2021
Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing (HGCP) has announced Meg Rennie as the winner of the inaugural 2020 Little Hare Illustration Prize. ‘Meg’s artwork enchanted the judging panel with her vivacious character...

Rights round-up 

Wednesday, 17 February 2021
Sales Children’s Hardie Grant has sold Portuguese rights to Me, Microbes & I (Philip Bunting); Russian rights to All of the Factors of Why I Love Tractors (Davina Bell & Jenny...

No Document (Anwen Crawford, Giramondo) 

Wednesday, 17 February 2021
In this arresting book, Anwen Crawford reckons with the death of a close friend and comrade. Seeking a language suitable for grief, Crawford stitches together material from a wide range...

New HarperCollins imprint; Au wins inaugural Novel Prize

Wednesday, 17 February 2021
HarperCollins Australia is launching a new ‘design-led’ illustrated imprint, Harper by Design. In industry events, IPEd and BWF are collaborating on an Authors and Editors in Conversation series, while EWF...

The Truth About Her (Jacqueline Maley, Fourth Estate)

Wednesday, 17 February 2021
There is a lot to love about Fairfax journalist Jacqueline Maley’s debut novel, the ripped-from-the-headlines story of Suzy, a journalist who’s blamed for the shocking death of Tracey Doran, a...

HarperCollins acquires two Foster novels 

Wednesday, 17 February 2021
HarperCollins Australia has acquired ANZ rights to two new novels by Sara Foster, via Tara Wynne at Curtis Brown in a ‘fiercely contested’ auction. The first title, The Hush, ‘is...

HarperCollins acquires Cowell novel ‘Plum’ 

Tuesday, 16 February 2021
HarperCollins Australia has acquired ANZ rights to Plum, a new novel by writer, actor and director Brendan Cowell. Plum tells the story of Peter ‘The Plum’ Lum, a 48-year-old ex-NRL...

Read the latest Publishers Weekly 

Monday, 15 February 2021
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.

A&U acquires Agnew science debut 

Friday, 12 February 2021
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to a debut nonfiction book by Bachelor star Matt Agnew. Agnew, an astrophysicist, will explore the search for life in the solar...

S&S acquires Zonfrillo memoir 

Friday, 12 February 2021
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired the autobiography of chef and MasterChef Australia judge, Jock Zonfrillo. Zonfrillo’s memoir will tell the story of his troubled adolescence growing up in...

Au wins inaugural Novel Prize

Thursday, 11 February 2021
Melbourne-based writer Jessica Au has won the inaugural Novel Prize for her work Cold Enough for Snow. Au, whose novel was selected from an international field of almost 1500 submissions and...

The Prison Healer (Lynette Noni, Penguin) 

Wednesday, 10 February 2021
Lynette Noni, the winner of the 2019 Gold Inky for her dystopian sci-fi novel Whisper, returns to fantasy with The Prison Healer. Kiva’s daily life as prisoner and prison healer...

‘Sorrow and Bliss’ to be adapted for screen 

Wednesday, 10 February 2021
US production company New Regency has acquired the film and television rights to Meg Mason’s 2020 novel Sorrow and Bliss in a deal brokered by Casarotto Ramsay and HarperCollins Australia....

Love Objects (Emily Maguire, A&U) 

Wednesday, 10 February 2021
Pop culture representations of hoarding tend to paint a picture of unrestrained excess. Perhaps this is why, when Emily Maguire introduces Nic, a 45-year-old who loves her job at the...

Pre-Christmas sales up, Giggs wins ALA Carnegie Medal

Wednesday, 10 February 2021
Book sales in Australia were up 17.5% in the 10 weeks to 5 December 2020, data from Nielsen BookScan shows. Rebecca Giggs won the American Library Association's (ALA) Andrew Carnegie...

Rights round-up 

Wednesday, 10 February 2021
Sales Nonfiction Jeanne Ryckmans at Cameron Creswell Agency (Cameron’s Management) has sold Chinese translation rights to American Journeys (Don Watson, Penguin) to The Commercial Press; and Korean translation rights to...

Tussaud (Belinda Lyons-Lee, Transit Lounge) 

Wednesday, 10 February 2021
Madame Tussaud is synonymous with wax figures of the famous and infamous and also with the uncanny-valley discomfort that such figures evoke. This book takes the documented strange life of...

Huda and Me (H Hayek, A&U) 

Wednesday, 10 February 2021
When their parents make a sudden trip back to their home country of Lebanon, Huda and Akeal find themselves left with their fellow siblings under the care of a family...

Giggs wins ALA Andrew Carnegie Medal

Tuesday, 9 February 2021
In the US, Australian writer Rebecca Giggs has won the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for nonfiction for Fathoms: The world in the whale (Scribe). The Andrew Carnegie...

Hachette acquires Williams autobiography 

Tuesday, 9 February 2021
Hachette Australia has acquired the autobiography of All Blacks star Sonny Bill Williams via Nick Fordham of The Fordham Company, as part of a worldwide deal that will also see...

Ultimo announces poetry, short fiction prize

Tuesday, 9 February 2021
Ultimo Press has announced a new annual prize for poetry and short fiction, the Ultimo Prize. Open to writers under the age of the 30, the prize will be awarded...

Echo to publish new Morris novel 

Monday, 8 February 2021
Echo Publishing has acquired Heather Morris's third novel Three Sisters, which concludes The Tattooist of Auschwitz trilogy. Three Sisters tells the true story of Cibi, Magda and Livia, who were...