CBCA winners, MWF live events cancelled

The winners of this year’s CBCA Book of the Year Awards were announced last Friday. In other awards news, the recipients of the Sydney Opera House Mentorship for Diverse Emerging Writers and shortlists for the Educational Publishing Awards were also revealed.

In other news, Melbourne Writers Festival has cancelled its live events and brought forward its digital program, and Jane Morrow has been appointed Murdoch Books publishing director.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, the WORD Christchurch Festival, which was due to start today, has been postponed due to uncertainty around Covid-19 alert levels and lockdowns. The NZ government has extended the level four lockdown, with booksellers facing uncertainty over whether they are able to trade or not.

Overseas, uncorrected proofs of Sally Rooney’s upcoming novel Beautiful World, Where Are You (Faber) have fetched hundreds of dollars online, and Amazon is reportedly planning to open its own department stores in the US. Meanwhile, in the UAE, the Sharjah Book Authority has launched a pro-reading campaign under the slogan ‘If you’re into something, you’re into books’, with one of its videos reaching over 400,000 views in its first three days.

For all the latest local, international and rights news, sign up to our Daily newsletter here.

Category: This week’s news