ALIA Online Storytime earns over $50k, Hassett joins Pantera

The ALIA Online Storytime pilot program has earned over $50,000 to be distributed to creators and publishers in its first three months of operation.

In personnel moves, Pantera Press has announced that Katherine Hassett will join the company as publisher, while at Booktopia, Jo Lewin and Joel Naoum have been promoted as part of the company’s merchandise teams restructure. In other news, the QBD Books chain is opening two new stores in Hervey Bay and Coffs Harbour.

This week Penguin Random House Australia announced its Write It fellowship recipients, Varuna announced its Writer’s Space fellows and the inaugural Ultimo Prize winners were revealed. Meanwhile, the Sydney Review of Books is among the recipients of the Australia Council’s Re-imagine fund and Ultimo Press’s Brigid Mullane received the Copyright Agency’s Publishing Industry Career Development grant.

Overseas, Bonnier Books UK has introduced an industry-first pregnancy loss policy, while, also in the UK, authors and illustrators have reported their earnings took a hit in 2020. Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi and Patrice Lawrence were named the winners of this year’s Jhalak prizes, and Jordanian novelist Jalal Barjas won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his novel Notebooks of the Bookseller.

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Category: This week’s news