New ABR editors; Aotearoa New Zealand Book Industry Awards; ILF rebranding
Among industry news this week, the Australian Book Review (ABR) announced Felicity Plunkett and Ben Brooker as the new poetry editor and arts editor respectively; Allen & Unwin (A&U) announced Emma Nolan, previously commercial nonfiction publisher at Simon & Schuster, will be joining A&U as publisher in September.
Also in local news, the Indigenous Literacy Foundation launched a new brand identity, slogan and logo; Magabala Books announced a call for submissions for a First Nations romance anthology, to be edited by Ambelin Kwaymullina, Melanie Saward and Kate Cuthbert.
In awards news, the 2025 Aotearoa New Zealand Book Industry Awards winners were announced by Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand and the Publishers Association of New Zealand/Te Rau o Tākupu (PANZ); PANZ also announced the finalists for the 2025 PANZ Book Design Awards. Staying in Aotearoa New Zealand, Speculative Fiction Writers of New Zealand launched the inaugural Te Pae Tawhiti Awards for Aotearoa and Pasifika speculative fiction writers; and the longlist for the 2025 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel, celebrating Aotearoa New Zealand crime, mystery or thriller writing, was also announced. Across the Tasman, in Australia, the Faber Writing Academy (FWA) announced Amanda Maxwell and Fliss Goldstein, writing as AJ Lyndon, as the second-round winners of the 2025 FWA Alumni Award.
In features this week, B+P spoke with independent publisher Black Inc. in celebration of its 25th birthday; and B+P Tara Lee spoke with author Zoë Rankin about Rankin’s debut, The Vanishing Place (Moa Press, September). When asked for a local reading recommendation, Rankin described the novel Wild Dark Shore (Charlotte McConaghy, Penguin) as a ‘six out of five stars’ read.
In events, Stella announced dates and full programs for the upcoming Stella Day Out events in Canberra and Darwin; in Victoria, Phillip Island Festival of Stories announced its program for late July and the Gippsland Writers Festival released its program for August; youth literary festival Storyfest announced authors and locations for its regional tour in Queensland in September; and Mudgee Readers’ Festival announced the full lineup for its August event.
And, closing out this week’s news, Australia Reads has announced a collaboration with Creative Australia and BehaviourWorks Australia to create a new research report looking at effective tools the sector can adopt to get more Australians reading. This report will build on the existing 2025 Understanding Australian Readers report.
In acquisitions this week, Scribble acquired world rights to Sundays Under the Lemon Tree, written by Julia Busuttil Nishimura and illustrated by Myo Yim; Simon & Schuster Australia acquired world rights for Adam Reynolds’ memoir On My Own Terms; Penguin Random House (PRH) announced the forthcoming publication of Shadow Reaper, a new fantasy series from Lynette Noni, previously announced as part of a three-book deal; PRH also acquired Dear Campus Cupid by Aurelne Thian; A&U acquired ANZ rights to Jack Heath’s crime novel Kill Your Boss and world rights to Power Moves, Leesa Ronald’s second romcom novel; Pantera Press acquired world rights for the memoir Juicy: How to Live a Life in the Wreckage of Expectations by debut author Sheree Joseph; Melbourne Books acquired world rights to Entrecôte by restaurant owner Jason M Jones; Text acquired world rights to the debut romcom Side Character Energy by Olivia Tolich; and Larrikin House acquired Celebration Festival, a picture book from Alysia Kelly and Ruth-Mary Smith.
In other news this week, Sarah Wood González wrote for Elle about reading as a holiday trend, citing, among others, the carefully curated hotel library within Spanish resort Teranka and the New York community program Page Break. In the UK, the Bookseller reported on the closure of fiction and nonfiction imprint Coronet, announced by Hachette division Hodder & Stoughton; the restructure of DK, a division of Penguin Random House, which will involve multiple roles being cut; and the pledge from Chancellor Rachel Reeves to ensure all UK primary schools have libraries by 2029. Meanwhile, BookBrunch shared the longlists for the 2025 Comedy Women in Print Prize, which include writers such as Marian Keyes, Nussaibah Younis and Sara Pascoe. In the US, Publishers Weekly reported on HarperCollins’ acquisition of French/German manga publisher Crunchy Roll, as well as the Circana BookScan results, which show a small decline in print book sales in the United States in the first half of 2025, compared to the same period last year.
Category: This week’s news
