Vic Prem’s History Award 2020 shortlist announced
25 September 2020
The shortlist for the 2020 Victorian Premier’s History Award and Community History Awards has been announced. A total of 48 projects and publications have been shortlisted for prizes ranging from...
WestWords, Booktopia launch ‘Booktober’ fundraiser
25 September 2020
In partnership with Booktopia, WestWords has launched Booktober, a new annual event ‘to encourage people in reading more books’ and raise funds for WestWords’ work providing books and literacy programs...
Hachette announces $2.5m investment in ADS capacity
24 September 2020
Hachette Australia has announced it is making a 'major infrastructure investment' of $2.5 million in its distribution business Alliance Distribution Services (ADS), based in Tuggerah, New South Wales. ADS director...
QBD, Dymocks petition Vic premier to reopen Melbourne stores
24 September 2020
Bookselling chains QBD and Dymocks have each written to Victorian premier Daniel Andrews asking that bookstores be allowed to open in Melbourne, which has been under stage four lockdown since...
NewSouth acquires Gunaydin’s nonfiction debut
24 September 2020
NewSouth Publishing has acquired world rights to Sydney writer Eda Gunaydin’s debut nonfiction collection. Provisionally titled Root and Branch, the collection explores race, class, gender and violence and Turkish diaspora. The publisher...
Varuna Writing NSW 2020 fellowships announced
23 September 2020
The recipients of the annual Varuna Writing NSW fellowships have been announced. Kylie Boltin was awarded the general fellowship for her novel Snake Bite. Writing NSW said, ‘With striking prose...
Affirm acquires middle-grade fantasy series
23 September 2020
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to a four-book middle-grade fantasy series by Samantha-Ellen Bound, via Danielle Binks and Jacinta di Mase of Jacinta di Mase Management. The publisher describes...
Police procedural ‘Flood Debris’ wins 2020 Banjo Prize
23 September 2020
HarperCollins Australia has named Dinuka McKenzie the winner of the 2020 Banjo Prize for her 'gripping, pacy police procedural' Flood Debris. McKenzie's manuscript was chosen from a shortlist of four announced...
Dalton, Pape, Bluey dominate Australian bestsellers YTD
22 September 2020
Trent Dalton’s debut novel Boy Swallows Universe tops Nielsen BookScan’s Australian fiction chart for the year to date, having sold more than 80,000 copies in 2020 and more than 500,000...
Crispin awarded 2020 Blake Poetry Prize
22 September 2020
The Blake Poetry Prize 2020 has been awarded to Judith Nangala Crispin for the poem 'On Finding Charlotte in the Anthropological Record'. Crispin, a poet and visual artist of Bpangerang...
‘The White Girl’ optioned for film
22 September 2020
Tony Birch’s novel The White Girl (UQP) has been optioned for feature film by Typecast Entertainment. Birch's Miles Franklin-shortlisted novel follows Odette Brown, who is raising her granddaughter on her own and...
ABA to host Love Your Bookshop Day Facebook Live event
22 September 2020
The Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) will host a Facebook Live event for this year's Love Your Bookshop Day (LYBD) on Saturday, 3 October. Starting at 11am AEST, the KidLit Club...
Page wins 2020 ACU Prize for Poetry
22 September 2020
Geoff Page has won the $10,000 ACU Prize for Poetry for his poem ‘Jericho’. Fiona Lynch received the $5000 second prize for ‘Footprints’ and Damen O’Brien received the $3000 third...
Rabble to cease stocking Rowling titles
21 September 2020
Rabble Books and Games in the Perth suburb of Maylands has stated that while it will special order J K Rowling titles for customers who request them, it will no...
Exploring Eden Media acquires ‘Fire to Fork’ cookbook
21 September 2020
Exploring Eden Media has acquired world rights Fire to Fork, a camping cookbook by Harry Fisher. Fisher, who has developed a strong following on Instagram and via his YouTube series...
NYWF 2020 program launched
18 September 2020
The full program for the National Young Writers’ Festival (NYWF), which runs online from 1-4 October, has been announced. The program includes panels, debates, readings, forums, workshops and other events,...
NZ Margaret Mahy Illustration Prize winner announced
18 September 2020
Hachette NZ and the Margaret Mahy estate have announced Nelson-based artist Lily Emo as the winner of the 2020 Margaret Mahy Illustration Prize for unpublished illustrators. Unpublished New Zealand artists...
Azar longlisted for National Book Award for Translated Literature
17 September 2020
In the US, Iranian–Australian writer Shokoofeh Azar has been longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Translated Literature for her novel The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree (trans by...
Hardie Grant acquires Alberici memoir
17 September 2020
Hardie Grant Books has acquired world rights to journalist Emma Alberici’s memoir Rewrite the Story. Interweaving her life as a first generation Australian and her career in journalism with an...
Guineay, Walpert win 2020 Viva La Novella competition
17 September 2020
Seizure has announced the winners of the 2020 Viva la Novella competition. Dark Wave by Adelaide writer Lana Guineay and Late Sonata by Auckland writer Bryan Walpert were chosen from...
Molloy memoir ‘Fourteen’ to be adapted for screen
17 September 2020
Screen rights to journalist Shannon Molloy’s memoir Fourteen (S&S) have been acquired by Orange Entertainment Co. Fourteen is Molloy's account of the homophobic bullying and violence he experienced during high...
Young wins 2020 Colin Roderick Award for ‘Paper Emperors’
17 September 2020
Writer and academic Sally Young has won the $20,000 Colin Roderick Literary Award and the H T Priestley Medal for her nonfiction book Paper Emperors: The rise of Australia’s newspaper...
NZ Book Industry Awards 2020 winners announced
17 September 2020
The 2020 New Zealand Book Industry Awards have been announced. The winners in each category are: Young NZ Publisher of the Year Paul Stewart, Mākaro Press and the Cuba Press...
Hamilton appointed Writers Vic CEO
17 September 2020
Lucy Hamilton has been appointed CEO of Writers Victoria, replacing Angela Savage, who has been appointed the inaugural CEO of Public Libraries Victoria. Hamilton has been general manager and CEO...
Avila wins 2020 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize
16 September 2020
In the UK, Australian writer Jacob P Avila has won the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize for Best Unpublished Manuscript for his self-published novel Cave Diver. Avila receives a world...
APA, Australia Reads to host Indies Virtual Roadshow
16 September 2020
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) and Australia Reads are hosting a free online roadshow showcasing upcoming releases from independent publishers today, Wednesday, 16 September. The 12 independent publishers presenting at...
PRH acquires Madden’s ‘Anything But Fine’
16 September 2020
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired ANZ rights to YA novel Anything But Fine by Tobias Madden. The novel’s teenage protagonist Luca Mason has been preparing to audition for...
QBD unrolls Australian Geographic kiosks
16 September 2020
QBD has unrolled three Australian Geographic kiosks within its stores at Carindale, Chermside and Joondalup as part of its retail partnership with the Australian Geographic brand. The partnership also includes...
Arathimos wins 2020 Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award
15 September 2020
Michalia Arathimos has won the the 2020 Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award for her short story collection Apologia (originally titled ‘The Free Box’). Judge Justin Wolfers described the collection as...
S&S acquires biography ‘The Nazis Knew My Name’
15 September 2020
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired world rights to The Nazis Knew My Name, Maya Lee's biography of her mother, Australian–Slovakian Auschwitz survivor Magda Hellinger. Lee's book is based on...
