A&U acquires Jackman’s “Detention”

Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired world rights to Detention, a new nonfiction title by author and teacher Ralph Jackman.

According to the publisher, Detention is Jackman’s “powerful and moving memoir about his inspiring and at times shocking period teaching” at Melbourne’s Parkville College, inside the Parkville Youth Justice precinct. The memoir also unpacks the youth detention system and how it lets down the most “desperate and damaged kids”.

Jackman was a broadcast journalist for many years, starting at the ABC in Perth before stints in London and New York. After training as a teacher mid-career, his first teaching job was at Parkville College.

Jackman said, “Teaching in juvenile detention was the most rewarding and challenging experience of my working life. I felt compelled to tell the story of my time there – to paint a fuller picture of the young people we’re so quick to demonise and to highlight the incredible work educators and Youth Justice staff do every day to help turn lives around. I feel very lucky to have worked with an amazing team at Allen & Unwin to help bring this important and timely story to life.”

A&U commissioning editor Tom Bailey-Smith said, “Ralph’s incredible story takes you inside a world few of us ever see – it’s both devastating and uplifting, full of humour as well as heartbreak. Ralph bravely took up the fight for the kids in youth detention and now tells his story in a unique and compelling voice. It’s a pleasure working with Ralph and I can’t wait to see Detention enter the hearts of Australia’s readers.”

A&U plans to publish Detention in June 2026.

Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions