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Agius appointed MD of Welbeck ANZ 

Monday, 11 October 2021
Welbeck has announced the appointment of Bernadette Agius as managing director of its local business. Currently general manager of Bonnier Books imprint Echo Publishing, Agius is the first appointment to...

Richell Prize 2021 shortlist announced

Logo for the Richell Prize, featuring a swooping bird Friday, 8 October 2021
Hachette Australia and the Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) have announced the shortlist for the 2021 Richell Prize for emerging writers. The shortlisted writers were judged on the first three chapters...

MWF to launch podcast, free digital events

Friday, 8 October 2021
Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) has announced it will release more than 50 cancelled events from its 2021 program as podcasts from 13 October, with a further five events from First...

Balint, Meany win 2021 Viva la Novella prize

Thursday, 7 October 2021
The 2021 Viva la Novella prize has been awarded to Christine Balint for Water Music and Helen Meany for Every Day is Gertie Day. Both novellas have been published by Seizure....

Monash Publishing appoints Carlomagno publisher 

Wednesday, 6 October 2021
Monash University Publishing has announced the appointment of Black Inc. publisher Julia Carlomagno to the newly created role of publisher, as Monash Publishing moves ‘away from largely scholarly output towards...

Transit Lounge acquires Fyfe novel ‘T’ 

Wednesday, 6 October 2021
Transit Lounge has acquired world rights to T, a novel by Perth-based author Alan Fyfe. T is about ‘people living on the economic margins and the epidemic of meth addiction’....

Text moves offices 

Wednesday, 6 October 2021
After 17 years at Swann House in Melbourne’s CBD, Text Publishing has moved. The publisher told Books+Publishing the move around the corner to Royal Bank Chambers at 287 Collins Street...

ACWA announces new fiction award

Tuesday, 5 October 2021
The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has announced a new fast fiction crime writing prize, the Louie Award. Sponsored by ACT president of the Australian Medical Association Antonio Di Dio,...

PRH acquires Dao debut novel ‘Anam’ 

Tuesday, 5 October 2021
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired ANZ rights to André Dao's debut novel Anam, in a deal agented by Clare Forster at Curtis Brown Australia. UK rights have been...

Affirm acquires Saleh debut novel 

Tuesday, 5 October 2021
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to Sara Saleh’s debut novel Songs for the Dead and the Living through the Affirm Press Mentorship for Sweatshop Writers. Saleh, an Arab-Australian human...

Ventura acquires Jacoby memoir 

Monday, 4 October 2021
Ventura Press has acquired world rights to a memoir by television producer Anita Jacoby, Secrets Beyond the Screen. Jacoby was the producer of television shows including 60 Minutes, The Gruen...

Hereaka awarded 2021 NZSA Beatson Fellowship

Monday, 4 October 2021
Wellington-based novelist and playwright Whiti Hereaka has been awarded the 2021 New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) Peter & Dianne Beatson Fellowship, worth NZ$10,000 (A$9549). Hereaka will use the fellowship...

Canberra Writers Festival cancelled

Monday, 4 October 2021
The Canberra Writers Festival has announced the event will not go ahead in 2021. The announcement follows an earlier postponement of the festival due to Covid outbreaks. In a statement,...

Hazel Rowley fellowship increases to $20,000

Friday, 1 October 2021
Writers Victoria has announced the value of the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship will increase from $15,000 to $20,000 in 2022. Established in 2011 to encourage Australian authors to aim for...

Open Book internship pilot program to run in 2022

open book logo Friday, 1 October 2021
Open Book, a new paid internship aiming to increase cultural diversity in the Australian publishing workforce, has announced the details of its pilot program. After being announced late last year...

Hallifax appointed Walker Books publisher 

Friday, 1 October 2021
Clare Hallifax has been appointed publisher of Walker Books Australia and New Zealand, replacing Linsay Knight, who has been in the role for five years. Hallifax was previously publisher at...

Pantera acquires nonfiction by Pickering, Ramo 

Thursday, 30 September 2021
Pantera Press has acquired ANZ rights to The Mother of All Shocks by Karen Pickering, via Jacinta di Mase. The book was acquired by publisher Lex Hirst. The Mother of...

Wakefield acquires McAlister YA rom-com 

Thursday, 30 September 2021
Wakefield Press has acquired world rights to Jodi McAlister’s YA rom-com Libby Lawrence is Good at Pretending, via Alex Adsett of Alex Adsett Literary. Libby Lawrence is Good at Pretending...

Crime novel ‘The Whispering’ wins 2021 Banjo Prize

Wednesday, 29 September 2021
HarperCollins Australia has announced Veronica Lando as the winner of the 2021 Banjo Prize for her ‘hauntingly atmospheric mystery’ manuscript The Whispering. Lando’s crime novel was selected from a shortlist...

Voss Literary Prize 2021 longlist announced

Wednesday, 29 September 2021
The longlist for the 2021 Voss Literary Prize, awarded to the best novel published in Australia in the previous year, has been announced. The longlisted titles are: The Rain Heron...

Jennings wins British Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer

Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Kathleen Jennings has won the Best Newcomer category in the 2021 British Fantasy Awards for her Australian gothic novel Flyaway (Picador). Jennings’ debut novel, chosen out of a shortlist of...

OUP launches new branding for digital transformation

Tuesday, 28 September 2021
Oxford University Press (OUP) has launched new branding to support its ongoing digital transformation. Under the new branding, the publisher will continue producing materials in its three core markets of...

MidnightSun announces book cover design competition

Tuesday, 28 September 2021
MidnightSun Publishing has announced a new book cover design competition for two of its forthcoming novels, Random Acts of Unkindness by Anna Mandoki and The Rider on the Bridge by...

McKay wins Arthur C Clarke Award

Tuesday, 28 September 2021
The Animals in that Country by Laura Jean McKay (Scribe) has won the UK's Arthur C Clarke Award for science fiction. McKay’s debut novel was selected from a shortlist of...

Nib Literary Award 2021 shortlist announced

Monday, 27 September 2021
The shortlist for the $20,000 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award, known as ‘the Nib’, has been announced. The shortlisted books are: Only Happiness Here: In search of Elizabeth...