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A&U, NewSouth win industry awards at 2016 ABIAs; Szubanski’s ‘Reckoning’ named Book of the Year

20 May 2016   Books+Publishing
@booksandpublishing

The winners of the 2016 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) were announced in Sydney on 19 May.

Allen & Unwin was awarded Publisher of the Year and NewSouth Books was awarded Small Publisher of the Year, while Magda Szubanski won Book of the Year for her debut title Reckoning: A Memoir (Text).

Readings was named Best Independent Book Retailer of the Year after winning Best Bookstore in the World earlier this year, while Dymocks and Booktopia shared Best National Book Retailer honours.

The full list of winners is:

Book of the year

  • Reckoning: A Memoir (Magda Szubanski, Text)

General fiction book of the year

  • The Patterson Girls (Rachael Johns, Harlequin)

Literary fiction book of the year

  • The Other Side of the World (Stephanie Bishop, Hachette)

General nonfiction book of the year

  • Island Home (Tim Winton, Hamish Hamilton)

Biography of the year

  • Reckoning: A Memoir (Magda Szubanski, Text)

Book of the year for older children (8 to 14 years)

  • Illuminae (Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, A&U)

Book of the year for younger children (0 to 8 years)

  • The 65-Storey Treehouse (Andy Griffith, Pan Macmillan)

Illustrated book of the year

  • The Happy Cookbook (Lola Berry, Pan Macmillan)

International book of the year

  • Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Under-rated Organ (Giulia Enders)

Matt Richell award for new writer

  • Salt Creek (Lucy Treloar, Pan Macmillan)

Small publishers’ adult book of the year

  • All Fall Down (Matthew Condon, UQP)

Small publishers’ children’s book of the year

  • The Underwater Fancy-Dress Parade (Davina Bell, Scribe)

In the industry awards, the winners are:

Publisher of the year

  • Allen & Unwin

Small publisher of the year

  • NewSouth Books

Innovation award

  • Quirky Kid

Independent book retailer of the year

  • Readings

National book retailer of the year

  • Dymocks and Booktopia

Lloyd O’Neil Award for service to the Australian book industry

  • The late Brian Johns, former Penguin publishing director

Pixie O’Harris Award for service to Australian children’s books

  • Author Jackie French

Beatrice Davis Editorial Fellowship

  • Annabel Blay, senior editor for Harlequin.

The awards were selected by more than 100 industry figures, publishers and booksellers.  To see the shortlists, click here. The ABIA People’s Choice Awards winners were announced earlier in the week.

The awards presentation was dominated by speeches from local and international authors condemining the government’s plans to repeal parallel importation restrictions (PIRs), including addresses from Tim Winton and Richard Flanagan. There were no representatives from the Liberal government in attendance, but shadow minister for the arts Mark Dreyfus gave a brief speech in which he said he was not persuaded by the case to repeal PIRs.

Several speeches also paid tribute to the work of editors, with Szubanski praising her editors at Text and UQP publisher Madonna Duffy drawing attention to the work of Matthew Condon’s editor. Literary agent Gaby Naher also gave a moving speech about the author Gillian Mears, who passed away earlier this week, and who had a close relationship with her agent and publisher.

 

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Category: Local news