Daily news | Books+Publishing

Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

Tuesday, 16 January 2024
Alaina Gougoulis is departing her role as senior editor at Text Publishing, after almost 15 years at the company. Said Gougoulis: ‘I’ve worked at Text for nearly fifteen years, so...

Bookshop in Kerang to close

Tuesday, 16 January 2024
The Little Blue Book Shop in Kerang, Victoria, has announced that it will close at the end of March. Bookseller Amanda Day told Books+Publishing: ‘The business was doing okay until...

Pearl Prize finalists announced

Tuesday, 16 January 2024
Midsumma Festival has announced the 15 finalists for its inaugural Pearl Prize. The prize accepted entries of short pieces of unpublished prose and/or poetry from LGBTIQA+ writers and their allies...

S&S announces staff restructure, new appointments

Monday, 15 January 2024
Simon & Schuster (S&S) Australia has announced several staff changes, including the creation of several new roles, in a restructure following the resignation of international and client product director Caitlin...

Ferguson to depart PANZ, join Auckland Writers Festival

Monday, 15 January 2024
Catriona Ferguson has resigned as director of the Publishers Association of New Zealand Te Rau o Tākupu (PANZ) after six years in the role. In a message announcing the move,...

2024 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship shortlist announced

Thursday, 11 January 2024
Writers Victoria has announced the shortlist for the 2024 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship. The shortlist includes nine writers: Carolyn Dowley (WA), ‘for a biography of Sadie Canning, a Wongutha woman,...

Larrikin House acquires Harry, Foster junior fiction

Thursday, 11 January 2024
Larrikin House has acquired world rights to a junior fiction text titled Camp Spook: Attack of the Aliants! co-authored by Pip Harry and Kate Foster. In this book, 10-year-old Julia...

Literary orgs, projects among Create NSW funding recipients

Tuesday, 9 January 2024
Several literary organisations and projects are among the successful applicants for the first round of Create NSW’s Arts and Cultural Funding Program (ACFP) for 2023/24. Included in the ACFP are...

APA announces 2024 REP editors

Tuesday, 9 January 2024
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) has announced the 15 editors selected for the 2024 Residential Editorial Program (REP), an intensive program for mid-career editors to work on an unpublished manuscript...

Peter Porter Poetry Prize 2024 shortlist announced

Monday, 8 January 2024
The shortlist for the 2024 Australian Book Review (ABR) Peter Porter Poetry Prize has been announced. The shortlisted poems are: ‘Poem of the Dead Woman’ by Judith Nangala Crispin (NSW) ‘Immigration Triction’...

Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2024 shortlists announced

Tuesday, 19 December 2023
The Wheeler Centre has announced the 2024 shortlists for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. In each category, the shortlists and highly commended titles are: Fiction ($25,000) But the Girl (Jessica...

Hoskins wins 2023 Frank Broeze Memorial Maritime History Book Prize

Thursday, 14 December 2023
Academic and public historian Ian Hoskins has won the 2023 Frank Broeze Memorial Maritime History Book Prize for his book Australia and the Pacific: A history (NewSouth). Australia and the...

PRH acquires Hay House

Thursday, 14 December 2023
Penguin Random House (PRH) has announced the acquisition of mind, body, spirit publisher Hay House. PRH, which did not disclose terms of the acquisition, said Hay House would 'retain its...

UWAP acquires Polimeni junior fiction series

Thursday, 14 December 2023
UWAP has acquired ANZ rights to a four-book junior fiction series, Ella and the Frogs, from Cassy Polimeni. The forthcoming series is for early readers aged five to eight years,...

Alice to depart Writers SA

Thursday, 14 December 2023
Writers SA has announced that CEO Jessica Alice will depart the organisation in early 2024. Alice was appointed as CEO of Writers SA in 2018. Programs and initiatives commenced during...

Werner Film Productions options Legge memoir screen rights

Tuesday, 12 December 2023
Werner Film Productions (WFP) has optioned the screen rights to Kate Legge’s memoir Infidelity & Other Affairs, in a deal negotiated by Thames & Hudson (T&H) Australia on behalf of...

Transit Lounge acquires Goldsmith novel

Tuesday, 12 December 2023
Transit Lounge has acquired world rights to Andrea Goldsmith’s novel The Buried Life, via the Jane Novak Literary Agency. Publisher Barry Scott said the book ‘subtly portrays the dangers of...

Text acquires Richardson’s ‘The Degenerates’

Tuesday, 12 December 2023
Text Publishing has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (ex Canada) to a debut novel by Melbourne writer Raeden Richardson, via Peggy Boulos Smith at Writers House. Following the interconnected lives...

Text acquires Carlyle’s ‘No One Will Know’

Monday, 11 December 2023
Text Publishing has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (ex Canada) to the new novel No One Will Know by Rose Carlyle, via Jenny Meyer. No One Will Know is a...

Writers Victoria announces 2023 Writeability fellows

Monday, 11 December 2023
Writers Victoria has announced the 2023 Writeability fellowship recipients. This year’s recipients are: Grace Hall for ‘Off Track’, ‘a young adult novel exploring how physical pain changes a person’s world’...

Pan Macmillan acquires Hardcastle novel

Monday, 11 December 2023
Pan Macmillan has acquired ANZ rights to the novel A Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle, via Zeitgeist Agency’s Benython Oldfield, who has also sold North American rights to the...

Magabala announces annual fellowship, creative development grants and scholarship recipients

Monday, 11 December 2023
Magabala Books has announced the 15 First Nations creators who will receive the publisher's annual fellowship, scholarships and Australian Indigenous Coffee (AIC) Creative Development Grants, sharing in over $65,000 of...

Curry launches VenX self-publishing business, partners with IPEd

Monday, 11 December 2023
Jane Curry, founder of independent book publisher Ventura Press, has established 'digital sibling' VenX, a membership-based digital community for writers that provides self-publishing options. Curry told Books+Publishing the idea for...