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Rights round-up 

Wednesday, 20 January 2021
Sales Fiction Hachette Australia has sold Turkish rights to Night Lessons in Little Jerusalem (Rick Held) to Nemesis Kitap. Children’s Affirm Press has sold South Korean rights to How to...

Dropbear (Evelyn Araluen, UQP) 

Wednesday, 20 January 2021
When I was in primary school, on the occasion that foreign travellers or tourists would come to visit, our conversation would inevitably turn to Australia's famous fauna and flora—to snakes...

Vale Brian Yates

Wednesday, 20 January 2021
Logistics manager Brian Yates passed away on the weekend. Yates's career in book publishing spanned three decades. He managed the Universal Publishers (UBD Gregory’s) warehouse for many years from the...

Hold Your Fire (Chloe Wilson, Scribner)

Wednesday, 20 January 2021
Hold Your Fire is the incisive and darkly funny fiction debut by Melbourne poet Chloe Wilson, author of Not Fox Nor Axe and The Mermaid Problem. The 17 stories in...

The Breaking (Irma Gold, MidnightSun) 

Wednesday, 20 January 2021
When Hannah meets fellow Australian traveller Deven in the lobby of a hostel in Thailand, her trip quickly gains a sense of purpose. Hannah’s drawn to the fiery, charismatic Deven...

Waking Romeo (Kathryn Barker, A&U) 

Wednesday, 20 January 2021
Waking Romeo is a stunning reimagining of the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet—meets Wuthering Heights, meets epic time-travelling extravaganza. The main story revolves around Juliet and a group of...

Indie Book Awards 2021 shortlists announced

Wednesday, 20 January 2021
Leading Edge Books has announced the shortlists for the 2021 Indie Book Awards. The shortlisted titles in each category are: Fiction All Our Shimmering Skies (Trent Dalton, HarperCollins) The Living Sea...

PRH acquires Goldberg debut 

Tuesday, 19 January 2021
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired ANZ rights to Ashley Goldberg’s debut novel Abomination, from Akin Akinwumi at Willenfield Literary Agency. Shortlisted for the 2020 Kill Your Darlings Unpublished...

Griffith Review launches new writing competition

Monday, 18 January 2021
Griffith Review has announced a new award for new and emerging writers. The Long and Short of It competition is open to submissions of fiction and nonfiction from 3500 to...

Read the latest Publishers Weekly 

Monday, 18 January 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.

Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship 2021 shortlist announced

Friday, 15 January 2021
Writers Victoria has announced the shortlist for the 2021 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship, awarded annually to an Australian writer for a proposed biographical work. The shortlisted writers and their projects...

KYD partners with Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize

Friday, 15 January 2021
Kill Your Darlings has signed on as a partner journal for the Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize. The international experimental fiction award, launched by the Madrid-based bookshop Desperate Literature in...

Overland creates new prize in honour of Reed-Gilbert

Thursday, 14 January 2021
Overland literary journal has created a new prize in honour of the late Wiradjuri elder, poet, writer, activist and artist Kerry Reed-Gilbert. The Kuracca Prize for Australian Literature is intended...

Vale Mark Bonello

Wednesday, 13 January 2021
Publishing consultant Mark Bonello has died after an illness. Ernie Mason, friend and former managing director of Random House, writes: 'I first met Mark with Terry Kinsella in the early...

UWAP to become hybrid publisher, latest awards and more

Wednesday, 13 January 2021
In December last year, the University of Western Australia announced the university’s publishing arm will become a ‘hybrid’ publisher, with the library to take over internal management of the press....

The Gaps (Leanne Hall, Text) 

Wednesday, 13 January 2021
The fourth novel by 2009 Text Prize winner Leanne Hall is simultaneously harrowing and enchanting. The Gaps begins as abruptly as a slap, with a newscast declaring schoolgirl Yin Mitchell...

Main Abija My Grandad (Karen Rogers, A&U) 

Wednesday, 13 January 2021
Written as a tribute to the author and artist Karen Rogers’s grandfather, who was instrumental in teaching her about her ancestry and Country, this picture book is a celebration of...

A Room Called Earth (Madeleine Ryan, Scribe)

Wednesday, 13 January 2021
In the light of a full moon on a sweltering December night—Christmas Eve eve—a nameless young woman drapes herself in a silk kimono and goes to a party, alone. Singularly...

Other People’s Houses (Kelli Hawkins, HarperCollins) 

Wednesday, 13 January 2021
This suburban thriller, set on Sydney’s North Shore, explores what happens when unresolved grief turns into obsession. After experiencing a horrific tragedy, Kate develops some bad habits, including an alcohol...

The Missing Among Us (Erin Stewart, NewSouth) 

Wednesday, 13 January 2021
The Missing Among Us is instantly enthralling. Erin Stewart profiles a number of missing persons cases, deftly and confidently straddling the line between reportage and personal response. Balancing the interviewees'...

A&U acquires Xu memoir ‘You’re So Brave’ 

Wednesday, 13 January 2021
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to Vicky Xu’s memoir You’re So Brave at auction, from Benython Oldfield of Zeitgeist Agency. A&U described the book as ‘a coming-of-age...

ABR announces Peter Porter Poetry Prize 2021 shortlist

Tuesday, 12 January 2021
The shortlist for the 2021 Australian Book Review (ABR) Peter Porter Poetry Prize has been announced. The shortlisted poems are: 'The Vernal Equinox Story' by Danielle Blau (USA) 'A Poetics of...

Magabala announces winner of inaugural fellowship

Tuesday, 12 January 2021
Magabala Books has announced Tristan Michael Savage as the recipient of the inaugural Magabala Fellowship for a mid-career author. Savage, a Brisbane-based, Kalkadoon man who grew up in Townsville, is...

Limprecht awarded 2020 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship

Monday, 11 January 2021
Eleanor Limprecht has been awarded the Australian Society of Authors' (ASA) 2020 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship, worth $20,000. The scholarship is offered annually to an Australian author to provide them with...

Read the latest Publishers Weekly 

Monday, 11 January 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.