Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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Ultimo acquires A Postcard from the Future 

25 October 2023
Ultimo Press has acquired ANZ rights to Ben Hamer's A Postcard from the Future, a nonfiction book which envisions the next twenty years, via Jane Novak. The book will imagine...

ADS adds Border Express 

25 October 2023
Alliance Distribution Services (ADS) has announced it has added Border Express as a secondary freight carrier 'to support operations through the 2023 peak book-selling season and into 2024'. ADS said...

Production begins on Runt film adaptation

25 October 2023
Craig Silvey has announced that production of the feature film adaptation of his novel Runt (A&U) begins next week in Western Australia, ‘where the Wheatbelt shire of York will be...

UQP acquires Gíslason nonfiction book 

Kári Gíslason with Madonna Duffy, standing in front of some Australian bushland. 25 October 2023
UQP has acquired world rights to Running with Pirates, a nonfiction book from Kári Gíslason, via Grace Heifetz of Left Bank Literary. With dual narratives separated by thirty years, Running...

Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand launches BookHub 

18 October 2023
Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand (BSANZ) has launched a consumer-facing centralised website called BookHub for book sales from bricks and mortar bookstores in that market. The new BookHub site follows a...

S&S acquires Callahan’s yoga book 

18 October 2023
Simon & Schuster has acquired world rights to Growing with Grace by Simone Callahan. A Melbourne-based yoga teacher, Callahan shares her insights on how yoga has been instrumental in ‘embracing...

Inaugural Stella Day Out announced

11 October 2023
Stella has announced the inaugural Stella Day Out, a free one-day literary festival that ‘celebrates and promotes the outstanding contributions of women and non-binary writers to Australian literature’. The event...

Richell Prize 2023 shortlist announced

Logo for the Richell Prize, featuring a swooping bird 11 October 2023
Hachette, in partnership with the Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF), has announced the shortlist for the 2023 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers. The five shortlisted entries are: ‘When I Was Your...

Newcastle Poetry Prize 2023 shortlist announced

11 October 2023
The Hunter Writers’ Centre has announced the 2023 shortlist for the $15,000 Newcastle Poetry Prize, with several poets reaching the shortlist with more than one entry. Shortlisted poets include: Eileen...

Pickard appointed OUP ANZ general manager 

11 October 2023
OUP ANZ has announced that former operations director Selina Pickard is returning to the organisation in the role of general manager. At OUP, Pickard was previously a digital and creative...

Beveridge wins $10k ACU Poetry Prize

4 October 2023
Sydney-based poet Judith Beveridge has won the $10,000 Australian Catholic University (ACU) Prize for Poetry for her poem ‘Two Houses’. Responding to this year’s theme of ‘Love’, Beveridge’s poem is...

Magabala to offer two $10k AIC Creative Grants

Logo for the AIC Creative Grants 4 October 2023
Magabala Books will offer two $10,000 creative grants for First Nations storytellers, writers, illustrators and artists, in partnership with Australian Indigenous Coffee (AIC). The publisher said the grants ‘are intended...

ARA Historical Novel Prize shortlists announced

27 September 2023
The Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA) has announced the shortlists for the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize. This year’s shortlisted titles are: Adult category Salonika Burning (Gail Jones, Text) Iris...

Upswell acquires Dominic Gordon debut 

Book cover image for Excitable Boy by Dominic Gordon, featuring a photograph of a boy standing on a garden path with a cigarette in hand 20 September 2023
Upswell Publishing has acquired world rights to Excitable Boy: Essays on risk, a debut book of essays by Melbourne writer Dominic Gordon. The publisher said that the book 'tracks the...

Affirm acquires King debut novel 

Author photograph of Rhianna King 20 September 2023
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to Birds of a Feather, a debut novel from Rhianna King, via Rochelle Fernandez of Alex Adsett Literary. Described by Fernandez as ‘a gorgeously...

Brown announced as new Magabala CEO 

A photograph of Dr Lilly Brown 20 September 2023
Magabala Books has announced that Gumbaynggirr educator, researcher and advocate Lilly Brown will be its next CEO. Brown—who has most recently held an executive director role at youth mental health...

Heath joins A&U 

13 September 2023
Sally Heath has joined Allen & Unwin as adult nonfiction publisher. Heath was previously an associate publisher at Thames & Hudson Australia and New Zealand, where she worked on the...

Hawker Brownlow authors move to Amba Press 

13 September 2023
Independent Australian educational publisher Amba Press has announced that it will republish a number of Australian authors formerly published by Hawker Brownlow Education (HBE). In an announcement posted to LinkedIn,...

Ultimo acquires Chandran novel 

13 September 2023
Ultimo Press has acquired ANZ rights to Safe Haven, the new novel from the winner of the 2023 Miles Franklin award, Shankari Chandran, via Tara Wynne at Curtis Brown Australia....

Stan adaptation of ‘Scrublands’ sold to BBC 

6 September 2023
A four-part adaptation of Scrublands (Chris Hammer, A&U) has been acquired by the BBC from Abacus Media Rights, which has international distribution rights for the series, and will screen on...

Celdran wins 2023 Margaret Mahy Illustration Prize

Photograph of illustrator Alba Celdran, who is in front of a houseplant. 6 September 2023
Alba Gil Celdran is the winner of the 2023 Margaret Mahy Illustration Prize, Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand and the Margaret Mahy Estate have announced. The judging panel praised the humour,...

Book industry organisations announce support for Voice

6 September 2023
A number of Australian publishers and writing organisations have published statements in support of Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum. The Australian Publishers Association (APA) made the following statement...