News sections | Books+Publishing

City of Fremantle Hungerford Award 2020 shortlist announced

Tuesday, 1 September 2020
The shortlist for the 2020 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award has been announced. The shortlisted manuscripts are: ‘The Silence of Water’, a work of historical fiction by Sharron Booth ‘Still...

Affirm acquires Layton memoir ‘No Apologies’

Tuesday, 1 September 2020
Affirm Press has acquired ANZ rights No Apologies, a memoir by former elite netballer and current All-Australian AFLW player Sharni Layton. In 2016 Layton was named International Netball Player of...

Read the latest Publishers Weekly

Monday, 31 August 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. This week's features include: 'Big...

SCBWI announces new awards for Australian illustrators

Monday, 31 August 2020
The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) has announced three new awards for Australian illustrators, with support from the Copyright Agency. The SCBWI Australian Picture Book Illustrator Awards...

‘Tiberius with a Telephone’ wins National Biography Award

Monday, 31 August 2020
Patrick Mullins has won the 2020 National Biography Award for Tiberius with a Telephone: The life and stories of William McMahon (Scribe). Mullins receives $25,000, while the other shortlisted authors...

UQP acquires second novel for children by Carnavas

Friday, 28 August 2020
UQP has acquired My Brother Ben, the second novel for children by Peter Carnavas. ‘Offering a rich narrative that centres on sibling relationships, the story follows brothers Luke and Ben...

Ned Kelly Awards 2020 shortlists announced

Wednesday, 26 August 2020
The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has announced the shortlists for this year’s Ned Kelly Awards for Australian crime writing. The shortlisted works in each category are: Best crime fiction...

The Guardian on the coming flood of new releases

Wednesday, 26 August 2020
'The books business can sometimes feel like fast fashion—pile ’em high, move ’em along a couple of weeks later to make space for the next new thing. This speed is...

Vale John Bangsund

Wednesday, 26 August 2020
Editor John Bangsund has died, aged 81. Bangsund edited the Hugo Award–nominated fanzine the Australian Science Fiction Review in the late 1960s, helped organise the 1975 World Science Fiction Convention...

The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars (Shivaun Plozza, Puffin)

Wednesday, 26 August 2020
Young readers with an insatiable hunger for adventure will love The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars, a timeless new novel from Shivaun Plozza. A departure from her writing for...

How to Make a Bird (Meg McKinlay, illus by Matt Ottley, Walker Books)

Wednesday, 26 August 2020
For those children who revel in the natural environment, particularly fossils and bones, How to Make a Bird is a delight. According to the young girl protagonist, you will need...

A Different Kind of Seeing (Marie Younan, Scribe)

Wednesday, 26 August 2020
This is a simply told tale of an extraordinary life. Marie Younan’s memoir unravels twin narratives: being blind in a seeing world and being part of a displaced people. For...

Living With the Anthropocene (ed by Cameron Muir, Kirsten Wehner & Jenny Newell, NewSouth)

Wednesday, 26 August 2020
‘You’re not alone’ is one of the key threads in this collection of essays. That and ‘deep grief’ for what we know and don’t know is being lost, with many...

Rights round-up

Wednesday, 26 August 2020
Sales Fiction Penguin Random House Australia has sold German translation rights in Where the Rekohu Bone Sings (Tina Makereti) to w_orten & meer; Romanian translation rights to The Hollow Bones...

Indigenous Literacy Day to stream on YouTube; Lui to curate new A&U imprint

Wednesday, 26 August 2020
The ILF will hold its annual Indigenous Literacy Day celebration as a ‘visual event’ on its YouTube channel on Wednesday, 2 September. Allen & Unwin has announced that writer, actor...

Hardie Grant, RMIT announce new narrative nonfiction prize

Wednesday, 26 August 2020
Hardie Grant Books and RMIT Writing and Publishing have established a new biennial developmental prize for narrative nonfiction. Open to published and unpublished Australian writers, the Spark Prize offers $2000...

RWA awards 2020 winners announced

Wednesday, 26 August 2020
The winners of the 2020 Romance Writers of Australia (RWA) Romantic Book of the Year awards, known as the Ruby Awards, have been announced. The winners include: Contemporary romance The...

Affirm acquires Williams’ ‘The Bookbinder of Jericho’

Tuesday, 25 August 2020
Affirm Press has acquired Pip Williams' second novel The Bookbinder of Jericho, set in the same world as her bestselling debut The Dictionary of Lost Words. The Bookbinder of Jericho...

Readings announces 2020 New Australian Fiction Prize shortlist

Tuesday, 25 August 2020
Readings has announced the shortlist for its 2020 New Australian Fiction Prize. The shortlisted books are: The Animals In That Country (Laura Jean McKay, Scribe) Dolores (Lauren Aimee Curtis, W&N)...

Ellmann, Szirtes win James Tait Black prizes

Monday, 24 August 2020
In the UK, Lucy Ellmann and George Szirtes have won the James Tait Black prizes for fiction and biography respectively. Ellmann won the fiction prize for her novel Ducks, Newburyport...

Epstein’s ‘Small Spaces’ optioned for film

Monday, 24 August 2020
Small Spaces (Sarah Epstein, Walker Books) has been optioned for film by Triptych Pictures and US producer Rebecca Green via Alex Adsett. Triptych produced feature film The Babadook and TV...

Read the latest Publishers Weekly

Monday, 24 August 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. This week's features include: 'A...

Magabala announces fellowship for mid-career writers

Friday, 21 August 2020
Magabala Books has launched a new fellowship for mid-career First Nations writers and storytellers, worth $10,000. The Magabala Fellowship, supported by the Serp Hills Foundation, is open to Aboriginal and...

ILF to hold Indigenous Literacy Day YouTube event

Thursday, 20 August 2020
This year, in lieu of its usual celebration at the Sydney Opera House, the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) will post a 45-minute 'visual event' on its YouTube channel to celebrate...

Synchronicity Australia options FitzGerald’s ‘Ash Mountain’ for screen

Wednesday, 19 August 2020
Synchronicity Australia, the new Melbourne-based arm of Glasgow production company Synchronicity Films, has acquired screen rights to Helen FitzGerald's forthcoming novel Ash Mountain (Affirm, March 2021). Affirm Press described Ash Mountain...