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Boyle wins 2021 Text Prize for ‘Dancing Barefoot’ Archive

Friday, 30 July 2021
Victorian writer and teacher Alice Boyle has won the 2021 Text Prize for her YA novel Dancing Barefoot. According to Text, Dancing Barefoot is 'a story about finding love, figuring out...

Kuracca Prize 2021 winner announced Archive

Friday, 30 July 2021
The winner and runners up in the inaugural Kuracca Prize for Australian Literature have been announced. Chosen from a longlist of 12 authors, Adam Brannigan won the $5000 prize for...

Polari Prize shortlists announced Archive

Thursday, 29 July 2021
In the UK, the shortlists for the Polari Prizes for LGBTQ+ literature have been announced, reports the Bookseller. The titles shortlisted for the £2000 (A$3770) Polari Prize, which awards an...

New FNAWN writers residency, masterclasses Archive

Thursday, 29 July 2021
The First Nations Australia Writers Network (FNAWN) has developed a new writers residency with the Regional Council of Goyder in South Australia. Due to current recent and ongoing Covid-19 lockdowns,...

MWF 2021 full program launched Archive

Thursday, 29 July 2021
The program for the 2021 Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF), which will run from 3–12 September, has been announced. In its 35th year, MWF will bring together celebrated figures in fiction,...

Ned Kelly Awards 2021 shortlists announced Archive

Wednesday, 28 July 2021
The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has announced the shortlist for the 2021 Ned Kelly Awards. The shortlisted titles in each category are: Best crime fiction Consolation (Garry Disher, Text)...

Diana Reid on ‘Love & Virtue’ Archive

Wednesday, 28 July 2021
Diana Reid's debut novel Love & Virtue (Ultimo, October) explores feminism, power and sex through the lives of two young women at an Australian university. Reviewer Georgia Brough calls Love &...

Melbourne City of Lit meets Quebec’s Librairie Hannenorak Archive

Wednesday, 28 July 2021
In this series, run in partnership with the Melbourne City of Literature Office, we get to know some of the bookstores in the UNESCO Cities of Literature network. In 2009,...

Welbeck to launch Australian subsidiary, Booker Prize longlist Archive

Wednesday, 28 July 2021
Independent UK publisher Welbeck is establishing a new standalone Australian subsidiary in partnership with Booktopia, with aims to publish 50 local titles a year. The NT Writers Festival has launched...

HarperCollins Publishers Australia is thrilled to announce it will publish Lisa Wilkinson’s memoir Archive

Wednesday, 28 July 2021
HarperCollins Publishers Australia is thrilled to announce it will publish Lisa Wilkinson’s memoir, It Wasn’t Meant to Be Like This, on 27 October 2021. The long-awaited autobiography from one of...

NT Writers Fest launches 2021 program, new residency for NT writers Archive

Tuesday, 27 July 2021
The program for the 2021 NT Writers Festival (NTWF), which will be held at the Olive Pink Botanic Garden in Mparntwe/Alice Springs from 26–29 August, has been announced. Storytellers from...

Taylor, Wasley receive 2022 KSP residencies Archive

Tuesday, 27 July 2021
The Katharine Susannah Prichard (KSP) Writers’ Centre in the Perth Hills has announced Josephine Taylor as its 2022 Emerging Writer-in-Residence and Sasha Wasley as its Established Writer-in-Residence. KSP’s residency program...

Booker Prize 2021 longlist announced Archive

Tuesday, 27 July 2021
The longlist for the 2021 Booker Prize has been announced. The 13 books longlisted for the £50,000 (A$93,600) prize are: A Passage North (Anuk Arudpragasam, Granta) Second Place (Rachel Cusk,...

Mary Gilmore Award 2021 shortlist announced Archive

Tuesday, 27 July 2021
The shortlist for the 2021 Mary Gilmore Award, for the best first book of poetry published in the previous year, has been announced. The shortlisted books are: Cadaver Dog (Luke...

Scholastic sales down 13% Archive

Monday, 26 July 2021
Scholastic has reported a 13% drop in sales for the year ending 31 May. Revenue declined US$186.8 million (A$253.6m) to US$1.3 billion (A$1.76b), due to lower sales through Scholastic’s book...

Ubud Writers & Readers Festival and Writing WA announce partnership festival Archive

Monday, 26 July 2021
Writing WA and the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (UWRF) have announced a partnership to bring the literary festival to Perth. The inaugural Ubud Writers & Readers Festival Perth will...

Davitt Awards 2021 shortlists announced Archive

Monday, 26 July 2021
Sisters in Crime Australia has announced the shortlists for the 2021 Davitt Awards for the best crime books by Australian women. The titles shortlisted in each category are: Adult crime...

Furphy Literary Award 2021 shortlists announced Archive

Friday, 23 July 2021
The shortlists for this year’s Furphy Literary Award has been announced. The shortlisted stories and writers in the open category are: ‘in vitro’ by Christine Fontana ‘Oranges’ by Thomas Alan...

Scarlet Stilettos offer record prize money in 2021 Archive

Thursday, 22 July 2021
Sisters in Crime Australia's annual Scarlet Stiletto Awards are offering a record $11,910 in prize money this year. The competition, for short crime and mystery stories by women writers, has...

Affirm acquires Cox’s ‘So Many Beats of the Heart’ Archive

Thursday, 22 July 2021
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to a novel by Perth-based journalist Carrie Cox via Lyn Tranter at Australian Literary Management. So Many Beats of the Heart is ‘a wonderfully...

S&S acquires two McAlister rom-coms Archive

Thursday, 22 July 2021
Simon & Schuster Australia has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to two adult novels by Jodi McAlister, author of the YA series 'Valentine', via Alex Adsett from Alex Adsett Literary....

Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize 2021 shortlist announced Archive

Thursday, 22 July 2021
The Australian Book Review (ABR) has announced the shortlist for the 2021 Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. The shortlisted works and their authors are: 'The Enemy Asyndeton' by Camilla Chaudhary (NSW) 'A...

Christmas in July Archive

Wednesday, 21 July 2021
Books+Publishing rounds up Australian publishers' top local adult titles releasing in time for Christmas 2021. Literary highlights Hannah Kent’s hotly anticipated third novel Devotion (Picador, November), set in 19th-century South...