Everyday heroes: Jamila Rizvi on ‘I’m a Hero Too’
16 September 2020
Jamila Rizvi's picture book I'm a Hero Too (illus by Peter Cheong, Puffin, November) 'provides gentle positive reinforcement for children who feel helpless and scared' in the face of changes...
Good Books: a new bookshop for Wellington
16 September 2020
Writers Catherine Robertson and Jane Arthur will open their new bookshop Good Books in Wellington in early October. Books+Publishing spoke to the pair about venturing into retail post–New Zealand lockdown....
Light bulb moment: why stories of women in STEM are important
9 September 2020
Books+Publishing's Junior columnist Adele Walsh reflects how far we've come and how far we still need to go when it comes to the representation of women in STEM in books...
Outsider art: Sofie Laguna on ‘Infinite Splendours’
2 September 2020
Infinite Splendours (A&U, November), Sofie Laguna's fourth novel for adults, charts the life of eccentric, artistic outsider Lawrence Loman. Conveyed through poetic prose that 'creates a tangible sense of beauty,...
Nathan Hollier on the Malaysian book market
2 September 2020
Over the past two years, Melbourne University Publishing CEO Nathan Hollier attended book fairs in Indonesia, India and Malaysia and researched the book markets in each country as part of...
Adventure time: Shivaun Plozza on ‘The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars’
26 August 2020
Shivaun Plozza's middle-grade debut The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars (Puffin, 20 October) is a fantasy adventure about a boy who is tasked with returning the stars to the sky....
Nathan Hollier on the Indian book market
24 August 2020
Over the past two years, Melbourne University Publishing CEO Nathan Hollier attended book fairs in Indonesia, India and Malaysia and researched the book markets in each country as part of...
Hope in chaos: Asphyxia on ‘Future Girl’
19 August 2020
Writer and artist Asphyxia's illustrated YA novel Future Girl (A&U, October) is set in an 'eerily plausible' dystopian Melbourne, and follows a Deaf teen Piper as she learns to embrace her...
Nathan Hollier on the Indonesian book market
19 August 2020
Over the past two years, Melbourne University Publishing CEO Nathan Hollier attended book fairs in Indonesia, India and Malaysia and researched the book markets in each country as part of...
Meet the ABDA Emerging Designers of the Year: Vanessa Masci
12 August 2020
In the lead-up to the 2020 Australian Book Designers Association (ABDA) awards, Books+Publishing spoke to the two shortlisted nominees for Emerging Designer of the Year. In this second and final instalment we talk...
Glowing up: Claire Christian on ‘It’s Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake’
5 August 2020
Claire Christian's second novel It's Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake (Text, October) is a queer romantic comedy that follows the eponymous Noni, who decides to overhaul her life after the end...
Meet the ABDA Emerging Designers of the Year: Akiko Chan
5 August 2020
In the lead-up to the 2020 Australian Book Designers Association (ABDA) awards, Books+Publishing spoke to the two shortlisted nominees for Emerging Designer of the Year. In this first instalment we...
The unequal impact of Covid-19 on publishers
29 July 2020
Although the major publishers appear to be holding up well in spite of the chaos wrought by Covid-19, it's a different story for many smaller publishers. Books+Publishing investigates the impact...
The golden age of middle-grade
29 July 2020
In the four years since Danielle Binks wrote about the under-representation of middle-grade literature, the genre has exploded. Now a middle-grade author herself, Binks follows up with a look at...
Magic man: Nicholas J Johnson on ‘Tricky Nick’
22 July 2020
Magician Nicholas J Johnson's debut book for children, Tricky Nick (Pan, September), won reviewer Annie Waters over in its first 20 pages. She spoke to the author about this embellished...
Sales down but community spirit up: Melbourne booksellers enter second lockdown
22 July 2020
As Melbourne enters its second week of renewed lockdown, booksellers across the city are feeling disappointed yet buoyed by community support. On Thursday, 9 July Melbourne re-entered stage three restrictions...
Green dream: Ketan Joshi on ‘Windfall’
15 July 2020
Windfall: Unlocking a fossil-free future (NewSouth, September) is renewable energy industry insider Ketan Joshi's account of two decades’ worth of climate wars in Australia. 'The minutiae of climate science can...
Sensitive subjects: The value of sensitivity reading
8 July 2020
Australian authors are increasingly employing sensitivity readers to ensure their representations of diverse characters are respectful and authentic. But who is regulating the practice, and what are the risks when...
Observational humour: Remy Lai on ‘Fly on the Wall’
8 July 2020
Remy Lai's middle-grade graphic novel Fly on the Wall (Walker, September) follows 12-year-old Henry Khoo, who goes on a solo international flight to Singapore without the knowledge of his overprotective family....
Bookselling during the ‘new normal’
1 July 2020
The financial effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on Australian booksellers are varied, but the sense that bookselling is about more than simply selling books has been highlighted, with booksellers finding...
Witnessing the future: Kate Mildenhall on ‘The Mother Fault’
1 July 2020
The Mother Fault (S&S, September), Kate Mildenhall's genre-bending follow-up to her 2016 debut Skylarking (Black Inc.), portrays a 'spine-tingling vision of a future Australia—eerie in its potential realism' as seen...
Community cup: Rawah Arja on ‘The F Team’
24 June 2020
Rawah Arja is a writer and teacher from Punchbowl, Sydney. In her debut YA novel The F Team (Giramondo, September), which is set in her home suburb, Arja explores family,...
Career Path: Middle Grade Mavens
24 June 2020
Pamela Ueckerman and Julie Grasso are two self-described ‘author mums’ and the hosts of the podcast Middle Grade Mavens. They review children’s books, interview industry experts and discuss all things...
Every unhappy family: S L Lim on ‘Revenge’
17 June 2020
S L Lim's second novel Revenge: Murder in Three Parts (Transit Lounge, September) follows teenage Yannie, who is bound by familial obligations to care for her parents instead of going...
The Wheeler Centre’s Next Chapter
11 June 2020
Two years after the Wheeler Centre established its The Next Chapter writers scheme, books by two of its inaugural fellows—Adam Thompson and Evelyn Araluen—have been acquired by the University of Queensland Press. As applications...
Behind closed doors: Victoria Hannan on ‘Kokomo’
3 June 2020
Kokomo (Hachette, August), the debut novel from Melbourne writer Victoria Hannan, is an intergenerational saga that centres on Mina and her mother Elaine, and their neighbours the Chengs. Reviewer Ellen...
Into the unknown: Zana Fraillon on ‘The Lost Soul Atlas’
27 May 2020
The Lost Soul Atlas (Lothian, July), Zana Fraillon's return to the middle-grade genre, is a dual-narrative fable that follows Twig's quest through the Afterlife and his memories of his former...
The magic of bricks-and-mortar
27 May 2020
As Covid-19 restrictions are relaxed and stores begin to reopen, long-time sales rep Mandy Wildsmith argues that bricks-and-mortar bookshops are here to stay. Nineteenth-century Melbourne entrepreneur E W Cole was...
Tourist trap: Luke Horton on ‘The Fogging’
20 May 2020
Luke Horton's debut novel The Fogging (Scribe, July) follows two Australian academics as their relationship breaks down while on holiday in Bali. Reviewer David Little described The Fogging as 'a...
Making connections: Cath Moore on ‘Metal Fish, Falling Snow’
13 May 2020
Cath Moore's debut YA novel Metal Fish, Falling Snow (Text, July) is an 'astonishingly original, heartfelt and funny' exploration of self-acceptance, identity and belonging, says reviewer Jacqui Davies. She spoke to...
