MWF releases 2026 program and ventures into the suburbs
Friday, 20 March 2026
Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) has released its program for 2026, featuring more than 150 artists participating in readings, panels and workshops from 7 to 10 May. This year marks MWF’s...
NZ Booklovers Awards 2026 winners announced
Thursday, 19 March 2026
In Aotearoa New Zealand, the winners of the 2026 NZ Booklovers Awards have been announced. The winning titles in each category are: Best Adult Fiction Book Softly Calls the Devil...
Affirm acquires Williams’s “The German Ward”
Thursday, 19 March 2026
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to The German Ward, a “breathtaking historical love story” by Pip Williams, with US rights sold to Ballantine and UK rights to Chatto &...
Wombat acquires Dangerfield’s middle-grade novel
Thursday, 19 March 2026
Wombat Books has acquired world rights to The Misspelled Sky by Lucy Dangerfield following a pitch at last year’s CYA Conference. The speculative middle-grade novel follows Megana, who “always believed she was...
Stella Prize longlist; Penguin Literary Prize shortlist; Silvey faces further charges
Wednesday, 18 March 2026
Writing Australia is looking for a delivery partner in the publishing sector to operate the black&write! fellowship program. Author Craig Silvey was charged with more child exploitation offences. Obsidian Bookshop,...
Magnum Book Services: “Specialist book logistics support matters”
Wednesday, 18 March 2026
In the lead-up to the 2026 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs), Books+Publishing is inviting the event’s major sponsors to share little-known facts about their organisations, their top tips for booksellers and...
Rights round-up
Wednesday, 18 March 2026
Sales Children’s/YA Allen & Unwin has sold French rights to A Murder is Going Down (Kate Emery). Audio UQP has sold ANZ audiobook rights to A Short History of Longans (Mirandi...
Vale Elizabeth Morrison
Wednesday, 18 March 2026
Media historian Elizabeth Morrison has died, aged 89. Professor Bridget Foley writes: Elizabeth Morrison was a print culture historian specialising in 19th-century Australia literature and the press. With a background...
Martin wins 2026 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship
Wednesday, 18 March 2026
The 2026 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship has been awarded to Jennifer Martin, who receives $20,000 for her proposed biography of Australian journalist Eva Sommer. In 1956 then 22-year-old Sommer beat...
S&S acquires Fanning memoir
Wednesday, 18 March 2026
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired world rights to the memoir All Heart, by three-time world champion surfer Mick Fanning. All Heart follows Fanning from the western suburbs of...
Read the latest Publishers Weekly
Wednesday, 18 March 2026
Books+Publishing partners with US trade news magazine Publishers Weekly to provide our subscribers with exclusive access to the weekly digital edition of PW magazine. View the current edition.
Once Upon Tomorrow (Karen Comer, Lothian)
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Once Upon Tomorrow is a complex young adult verse novel by CBCA-winning author Karen Comer (Grace Notes). The novel weaves together 3 alternating perspectives: Miri, an ambitious Year 12 student...
The Ruiners (Ellena Savage, Summit)
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Ellena Savage’s debut novel, The Ruiners, introduces a narrator suspended between self-awareness and self-sabotage: a 29-year-old waitress, working at casino-adjacent lobster shack Claws, whose life feels both theatrically doomed and...
The Prime Minister Problem (Brenton Cullen, Riveted)
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Brenton Cullen’s debut middle-grade novel, The Prime Minister Problem, is a tender story about loneliness and community, an ode to the power one person can have to spark change, and...
Women Who Win: Celebrating Courage, Conviction and Change (Antoinette Lattouf, Penguin)
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Before “Lattoufed” entered the lexicon as shorthand for an unjust dismissal, Antoinette Lattouf (How to Lose Friends and Influence White People) was already known for her award-winning media career. In...
Margaret, Are You Leaving? (Dianne Yarwood, Hachette)
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Following her much-loved debut, The Wakes, Dianne Yarwood’s latest novel, Margaret, Are You Leaving?, is a contemplative exploration of mother–daughter relationships, identity and the accumulation of moments that make up a...
Drawing Nudes While Making Other Plans (Zoe Gaetjens, Penguin)
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Zoe Gaetjens’s Drawing Nudes While Making Other Plans is a tender, thoughtful young adult novel about self-discovery, first love and learning to be brave in unfamiliar spaces. During a summer...
Mantle (Romy Ash, Ultimo)
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Romy Ash’s Mantle is a novel that settles slowly and irrevocably, like sediment. Set on a windswept Tasmanian coastline, it follows Ursula as she returns to care for her dying...
Canberra Writers Festival announces anniversary events
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Canberra Writers Festival is hosting a series of events this year, celebrating its tenth anniversary in the lead-up to the festival, which runs from 15 to 18 October. These events...
Fitzroy Writers Festival 2026 program announced
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Yarra Libraries has released the program for this year’s Fitzroy Writers Festival, running on 18 April. To be held in inner Melbourne’s Fitzroy Town Hall, sessions are set to cover...
A&U acquires Tasker’s debut novel
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to Michael Caleb Tasker’s Just Like the Night, in a deal brokered by Ellen Levine at Trident Media Group. The novel follows...
Carnegie Medal 2026 shortlists released
Monday, 16 March 2026
In the UK, the shortlists for this year’s Carnegie Medal for Writing and the Carnegie Medal for Illustration have been announced. The shortlisted titles in each category are: The 2026...
A&U acquires Davis’s “The Modern Dad”
Monday, 16 March 2026
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired world rights to the nonfiction title, The Modern Dad, by Aotearoa New Zealand author Louis Davis. The Modern Dad provides advice about how to...
CJZ options Ayliffe’s “Dark Desert Road” for TV
Monday, 16 March 2026
Tim Ayliffe’s first standalone novel, Dark Desert Road (Echo), has been optioned by Australian TV production company CJZ. Dark Desert Road follows police officer Kit McCarthy, who hasn’t seen her twin...
Text acquires MacFie’s debut novel
Monday, 16 March 2026
Text Publishing has acquired world rights to Stephanie MacFie’s debut novel Once Upon a Breakfast Show. Set in the high-pressure world of breakfast radio, this “funny and wise novel about love and...
HarperCollins acquires “Conversations with My Rabbi”
Monday, 16 March 2026
HarperCollins Australia has acquired ANZ rights to Conversations with My Rabbi: Timeless Teachings for a Fractured World by Nikki Goldstein in a deal negotiated with Rena Rossner of the Deborah...
Apollo Bay WORDfest 2026 line-up announced
Monday, 16 March 2026
The Apollo Bay WORDfest has released the program for its 2026 festival, to be held in the Victorian coastal town from Friday 24 July to Sunday 26 July. Authors scheduled...
Vale Patricia Clarke
Thursday, 12 March 2026
Writer, historian and former journalist Patricia Clarke has died, aged 99. National Library of Australia Publishing writes: Dr Patricia Clarke OAM FAHA is the author of over a dozen books...
Penguin Literary Prize 2026 shortlist announced
Thursday, 12 March 2026
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has announced the shortlist for the 2026 Penguin Literary Prize. The shortlisted manuscripts are: “An Allergy” by Sunil Badami (Sydney, NSW) – “‘An Allergy’ explores...
Manly Writers’ Festival announces 2026 program
Thursday, 12 March 2026
The Manly Writers’ Festival has released its program, which will run from 19 to 22 March 2026, bringing together almost 90 writers, journalists, historians, thinkers and musicians, while examining “how...
