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A&U acquires Beer middle-grade novel 

Photograph of Sophie Beer Monday, 19 February 2024
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to Thunderhead, a debut illustrated middle-grade novel by picture book author and illustrator Sophie Beer, via Annabel Barker at Annabel Barker Agency....

Rodrick wins inaugural Pearl Prize

Monday, 19 February 2024
Spencer M F Rodrick has won the inaugural Pearl Prize, presented by queer arts and cultural organisation Midsumma. Rodrick, who was chosen from a list of 15 finalists, and was...

DANZ Children’s Book Award shortlists announced

DANZ logo Thursday, 15 February 2024
The shortlists for the inaugural DANZ (Diversity in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand) Children’s Book Award have been announced. Chosen from longlists announced last month, the shortlisted titles in each...

Ultimo acquires Holmes debut 

Thursday, 15 February 2024
Ultimo has acquired Commonwealth rights (ex Canada) to a debut novel from Gail Holmes, titled In the Margins. Calling Holmes ‘a remarkable new voice in historical fiction’, the publisher described...

Graham longlisted for Carnegie Medal for Illustration

Cover of Concrete Garden by Bob Graham Wednesday, 14 February 2024
In the UK, Australian author Bob Graham has been longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Illustration (previously known as the Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration), which was announced along with...

Read the latest Publishers Weekly 

Wednesday, 14 February 2024
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.

No Church in the Wild (Murray Middleton, Picador) 

Tuesday, 13 February 2024
Stereotypes and bad press about the commission towers of Melbourne’s inner west are easy to come by, but Vogel winner Murray Middleton’s deeply researched and complex portrayal of this community...

The Gorgon Flower (John Richards, UQP) 

Tuesday, 13 February 2024
John Richards’s The Gorgon Flower is a collection of six short stories (and the title novella), for fans of the macabre and peculiar. This is a collection both classic and...

Signal Erased (Adele Jones, Rhiza Edge) 

Tuesday, 13 February 2024
Signal Erased is the latest YA near-science-fiction novel by Adele Jones. The story follows Anna Faraday, a high schooler with a remarkable singing voice and a traumatic past. While occupied with...

Audrey’s Gone AWOL (Annie de Monchaux, Ultimo) 

Tuesday, 13 February 2024
Annie de Monchaux’s debut novel, Audrey’s Gone AWOL, is a beautifully crafted and witty coming-of-middle-age tale that explores womanhood, motherhood, life, death, marriage and betrayal. Audrey has devoted her life...

Bundyi acquires Stan Grant memoir 

An author photograph of Stan Grant, pictured in front of a bookshelf Tuesday, 13 February 2024
Simon & Schuster (S&S) imprint Bundyi has announced that it has acquired world rights to A Song of Time, a memoir by author, media commentator and public intellectual Stan Grant....

Ena Noël Award 2024 shortlists announced

Monday, 12 February 2024
The shortlists for the biennial Ena Noël Award has been announced by the Australian branch of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY). The shortlisted authors and illustrators are:...

Affirm acquires Micallef anthology 

Monday, 12 February 2024
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to Slivers, Shards and Skerricks, a comedy anthology from television personality and author Shaun Micallef. The publisher described Micallef’s forthcoming anthology as ‘a spectrum...

Rippin appointed Australian Children’s Laureate 2024–25

Wednesday, 7 February 2024
The Australian Children’s Laureate Foundation (ACLF) has named Sally Rippin as the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2024–25. Rippin has written over 100 books for children and young adults, including the...

Rights round-up 

Wednesday, 7 February 2024
Sales Fiction Hachette has sold Russian rights to Bird (Courtney Collins) to Azbooka, via the Zeitgeist Agency. HarperCollins has sold Russian rights to The House That Joy Built (Holly Ringland)...

Larrikin acquires Betoota Advocate series 

Wednesday, 7 February 2024
Larrikin House has acquired world rights to an as-yet-untitled nonfiction series from satire publication the Betoota Advocate. The publisher said the series, which is for readers aged 8 to 12,...

Read the latest Publishers Weekly 

Wednesday, 7 February 2024
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.

The Cave (Victor Kelleher, Eagle Books) 

Tuesday, 6 February 2024
In Victor Kelleher’s upper-middle-grade prehistoric adventure novel The Cave, young Irian—one of the few survivors after the Beast (a sabre-toothed tiger) attacks the cave where he lives—is traumatised into muteness...

How to Knit a Human (Anna Jacobson, NewSouth) 

Tuesday, 6 February 2024
The contents of Anna Jacobson’s memoir How to Knit a Human are the stuff of nightmares: a young, award-winning artist and poet has a psychotic break, is involuntarily hospitalised and...

Amma (Saraid de Silva, Moa Press) 

cover image for Amma Tuesday, 6 February 2024
Annie Fernando has flown to London to meet her estranged uncle Suri. So begins the captivating tale of family, love and secrets told through the lives of three generations of...