Bologna Prize shortlist: EK Books
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Publisher Anouska Jones introduces health and wellbeing press Exisle Publishing's children's imprint EK Books. How and why did Exisle's children's imprint EK begin its life? Exisle Publishing began 30 years...
Bologna Prize shortlist: Magabala Books
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Publisher Rachel Bin Salleh introduces Australia's leading First Nations press Magabala Books. How and why did Magabala's children's division begin its life? Magabala has been publishing children’s pictures books since...
Bologna Prize shortlist: Affirm Press
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Children's publisher Tash Besliev intoduces Melbourne independent Affirm Press. How and why did the Affirm Press children's division begin its life? After successfully publishing across many other categories, Affirm Press...
Two Walker titles jointly win Prime Minister’s children’s literature prize
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Two titles published by Walker Books Australia jointly won the children’s book category of the prestigious and valuable Prime Minister’s Literary Awards in 2021: middle-grade graphic novel Fly on the...
So much to share
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Ahead of this year's Bologna Children's Book Fair, running 21–24 March, we are thrilled to share the latest children's and YA titles from Australian publishers in this issue of Think...
Australian children’s and YA bestsellers for 2022 YTD
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
After a bumper year of sales in 2020, in which the children's category was up 9.6% on 2019, the Australian children's book market fell ever so slightly in 2021 (-0.2%),...
Aus YA shows its range
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
From horror to fantasy with some wit and mystery along the way, Australian YA shows its range in several recent deals. Two recent acquisitions by Australian publishers present a similar...
Introducing Gabrielle Wang, Australia’s new Children’s Laureate
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Australian children's author Gabrielle Wang is the new Australian Children’s Laureate for 2022–23. Wang is the award-winning author and illustrator of over 20 books, including The Lion Drummer (illus by...
Aus middle-grade golden age continues
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Australia’s ‘golden age’ of middle-grade fiction doesn’t look it's ending any time soon, with several high-profile fiction acquisitions in the age bracket. Fans of Amelia Mellor around the world will...
Picture this
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
From a nonfiction book about how trees talk to a slam poetry adaptation, Australian publishers are pitching some picture books with a difference at Bologna this year. Jordan Collins’ debut...
In Bologna? Pop by the Australian stand
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
If you’re on the ground in Bologna for this year’s fair, pop by the Australian stand, Hall 25, Stand B78. The Australian Publishers Association stand will be managed by Rome-based...
Serious about series
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Australian publishers will be pitching several new series at Bologna—from some well established names, as well as emerging authors. In middle-grade, Penguin Random House Australia has a ‘charming’ new series...
Zadie Ma and the Dog Who Chased the Moon
Tuesday, 15 March 2022
By the new Australian Children’s Laureate, Gabrielle Wang. Meet Zadie Ma, a girl who writes magical stories that sometimes come true. Zadie’s dearest wish is to have a dog of...
Root & Branch (Eda Gunaydin, NewSouth)
Tuesday, 8 March 2022
Root & Branch is the debut essay collection from Eda Gunaydin, Turkish-Australian scholar and writer of academic and creative nonfiction. It examines with spectacular tenacity and wit the real-world impacts that...
The Most Important Job in the World (Gina Rushton, Macmillan)
Tuesday, 22 February 2022
Gina Rushton begins her story in a place that so many women seem to arrive at too often, both literally and metaphorically, when it comes to fertility and the question...
Dinner with the Schnabels (Toni Jordan, Hachette)
Tuesday, 1 February 2022
In this timely new novel, Toni Jordan lends her signature wit to the story of a dysfunctional yet loving family group. Simon Larsen has lost his business and his home...
Unlimited Futures (ed by Rafeif Ismail & Ellen van Neerven, Fremantle Press)
Tuesday, 25 January 2022
Unlimited Futures is a YA anthology of sci-fi and speculative fiction edited by Rafeif Ismail and Ellen van Neerven. What makes it so different from other collections like it is...
Growing Up in Flames (Zach Jones, Text)
Tuesday, 18 January 2022
Zach Jones’s debut novel Growing Up in Flames is as gritty as bushfire ash. Written for a doctorate in creative writing at the University of the Sunshine Coast, the novel’s...
Son of Sin (Omar Sakr, Affirm)
Tuesday, 11 January 2022
Son of Sin by Omar Sakr tells the story of growing up queer and Muslim in a constant state of dispossession. The story begins with Jamal as a 14-year-old boy,...
Pearly and Pig and the Great Hairy Beast (Sue Whiting, Walker Books)
Tuesday, 11 January 2022
Pearly Woe is not your average 10-year-old. She can speak 27 languages, talk to and understand most animals and, in this tale, travels to Antarctica. However, this is no holiday....
Tik Merauke: An epidemic like no other (John Richens, MUP)
Wednesday, 1 December 2021
In the early 1900s the sexually transmitted infection donovanosis ravaged the Marind of New Guinea. Through the lens of this disease, known as tik Merauke to the native people, doctor...
Found, Wanting (Natasha Sholl, Ultimo Press)
Tuesday, 9 November 2021
Beginning with a sudden death, Natasha Sholl’s memoir sets us up to expect a traditional grief narrative, ending with the author having processed the loss, found new meaning in their...
Family Tree (Josh Pyke, illus by Ronojoy Ghosh, Scholastic)
Tuesday, 26 October 2021
Family Tree shares the beauty of life through the growth of a tree, one that unites families and communities around the world, spreading joy, love and spirit—and it all starts...
‘Magical Australian light’: Rights successes and recent titles from Australian illustrated nonfiction publishers
Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Australia’s leading publisher of books on the visual arts, Thames & Hudson Australia, has been publishing—and exporting—local titles for many years. ‘We find there is a real thirst for Australian...
Exploring the natural world: Australian picture books and children’s nonfiction with an environmental theme
Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Australian artist and mother of three Kat Macleod was inspired by the challenge of entertaining small children during lockdown to create her first picture book for Thames & Hudson Australia....
YA, graphic novels among recent international sales
Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Lisa Fuller’s multi-award-winning YA novel Ghost Bird (UQP), which previously won the David Unaipon Award for an Unpublished Indigenous Writer, has been sold to UK independent publisher Old Barn Books...
Debut buzz: new authors attract major deals
Wednesday, 29 September 2021
A number of debuts have been picked up by Australian publishers in recent months amid significant buzz. Hachette Australia has acquired world rights to two crime novels by Canberra debut...
‘Ginnie & Pinney’ educational children’s series optioned for TV
Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Big Sky Publishing’s educational children’s series Ginnie & Pinney, Learn & Grow has been optioned for development as a television series by Australian animation studio Moody Street Productions. Created by...
Modern families, joy and koalas: latest nonfiction acquisitions
Wednesday, 29 September 2021
A new acquisition at NewSouth Publishing offers a ‘meticulously researched and highly accessible deep-dive’ into 21st-century families. The publisher has acquired ANZ rights to Kin: Family in the 21st century...
Williams, Pape, Bluey top Australian bestsellers 2021 YTD
Wednesday, 29 September 2021
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams has topped the Australian fiction bestsellers for the year to date (YTD), selling more than 66,000 copies in 2021 so far, edging...
