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Farrells wins best LYBD display

a photo of Farrells front window, featuring colourful hearts Tuesday, 21 October 2025
Mornington Peninsula bookshop Farrells has won the Love Your Bookshop Day (LYBD) award for the best window display. According to BookPeople, the Australian booksellers association, “Their amazing window display captured...

New journal of trans and gender-diverse creativity launches

the front cover of transitive rag, a yellow and orange sunburst Tuesday, 21 October 2025
transitive rag, a journal for trans and gender-diverse creativity, has launched its first issue. The quarterly online journal will publish poetry, personal writing, art and digital projects from transgender and...

A&U acquires Wright fiction

A portrait of Michelle Wright. Tuesday, 21 October 2025
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to Michelle Wright’s Good Boy, in a deal brokered by Alexandra Christie at Curtis Brown Australia. The novel follows Cookie, an inmate in a...

UQP acquires new Prosser novel

A portrait of Jordan Prosser. Tuesday, 21 October 2025
University of Queensland Press (UQP) has acquired world rights for Blue Giant by writer and filmmaker Jordan Prosser. The novel centres on disillusioned Melburnian millennial Abby Horne. “Abby once believed...

Create NSW announces literature strategy 

NSW government logo Tuesday, 21 October 2025
The New South Wales government has launched Stories Matter: A Writing and Literature Strategy for NSW to support writers and readers across the state and beyond. The strategy, developed in...

Manawatu wins 2025 Keri Hulme Award

Pikihuia Awards logo Monday, 20 October 2025
Becky Manawatu (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Māmoe, Waitaha) has been awarded the 2025 Keri Hulme Award for Kataraina (The Cube Press) as part of the biennial Pikihuia awards. The Keri Hulme...

Varnish lit mag, prize launches 

Varnish literary magazine logo Monday, 20 October 2025
Varnish, a new Australian literary journal that aims to publish “evocative written art with timeless beauty”, has launched. “Motivated by the desire to see a broadening space for literary culture,...

Murdoch acquires King nonfiction

A portrait of Madonna King, a woman with long red hair wearing a fuchsia blouse. Monday, 20 October 2025
Murdoch Books has acquired world rights to Screen Wise by Madonna King. Screen Wise will address screen time and online safety, “the biggest issue facing parents today”, said the publisher....

David Brooks wins 2025 Patrick White Literary Award

a portrait of David Brooks, a bald man with a white moustache and goatee Monday, 20 October 2025
Poet, writer, and academic David Brooks has won the $20,000 Patrick White Literary Award for 2025. Award trustee Perpetual described the award as “a richly deserved recognition of [Brooks’s] profound...

Walkley Book Award 2025 longlist announced

The Walkley foundation logo Monday, 20 October 2025
The Walkley Foundation has announced the finalists for the 70th annual Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism. The works longlisted for the Walkley Book Award are: All Women Want (Alyx...

Tan announced as managing editor for Overland

Photo of Cher Tan Monday, 20 October 2025
Overland has announced Cher Tan will step into the role of managing editor. An essayist, editor and critic, Tan takes over from Natasha Seymour, who is leaving the journal after seven...

Arnott, Walton, Leal win 2025 ARA Historical Novel Prize

a composite image of three book covers: I am Nannertgarrook, Dusk, and The Year We Escaped Thursday, 16 October 2025
Robbie Arnott and Tasma Walton will share the $100,000 ARA Historical Novel Prize in the adult category for their works Dusk (Picador) and I Am Nannertgarrook (Bundyi) respectively, while Suzanne Leal has...

Ventura Press acquires Fitzsimmons’s debut crime novel

An image of Whitney Fitzsimmons. Thursday, 16 October 2025
Ventura Press has acquired world rights to The Rising, a gripping police procedural crime novel by journalist Whitney Fitzsimmons. The Rising follows journalist Bec Carter, who finds the bones of...

2025 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers shortlist

Logo for the Richell Prize, featuring a swooping bird Thursday, 16 October 2025
Hachette Australia and the Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) have announced the shortlist for the 2025 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers. Chosen from the longlist announced last month, the 5 shortlisted writers...

Jenner wins 2025 Kathleen Grattan Poetry Award

a portrait of Lynn Jenner, an older woman wearing a green cardigan Thursday, 16 October 2025
In Aotearoa New Zealand, Lynn Jenner has been announced as the winner of the 2025 Kathleen Grattan Poetry Award for her manuscript The Gum Trees of Kerikeri. The collection is...

Prichard wins 2025 Landfall Tauraka Essay Prize

An image of Tasmin Prichard. Thursday, 16 October 2025
In Aotearoa New Zealand, literary journal Landfall Tauraka has announced Tasmin Prichard as the winner of this year’s Landfall Tauraka Essay Prize for their essay “Four Hours in the Dark,...

A&U acquires Legge’s memoir

An image of Kate Legge. She sits at a table with her head leaning on her fist. Thursday, 16 October 2025
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired world English rights to Delicious, a memoir “celebrating food and friendship” by author and journalist Kate Legge. According to the publisher, Delicious: Stories of Cooking, Love...

Murray awarded 2025 ASA Medal

a portrait of Kirsty Murray. She has long curly blonde hair and is wearing a black top. Wednesday, 15 October 2025
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced Kirsty Murray is the recipient of the 2025 ASA Medal. The ASA board noted Murray’s contribution to young people’s literature, including “her...

Riveted Press acquires Hargreaves’s middle-grade fantasy trilogy

A portrait of Cody Hargreaves. Tuesday, 14 October 2025
Riveted Press has acquired world rights to middle-grade fantasy trilogy The Sterling Brothers by debut author Cody Hargreaves. The first instalment, The Ostrich Dilemma, features estranged twin brothers who must overcome their lifelong...

PRH acquires Timms’s debut crime novel

A portrait of Nicolas Timms standing in front of a brick wall. Tuesday, 14 October 2025
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired ANZ rights to The Lineup, a crime fiction debut by Nicholas Timms. PRH commercial fiction publisher Beverley Cousins acquired the novel via Daniel...

Bragg science writing prize shortlist announced

Tuesday, 14 October 2025
The shortlist for this year’s UNSW Press Bragg Prize for Science Writing has been announced. Shortlisted pieces are: “The Unexpected Poetry of PhD Acknowledgements” by Tabitha Carvan “The Night I...