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White wins 2020 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction

Wednesday, 24 June 2020
Emily White has won the 2020 Lip magazine Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction for their short story ‘Swampy’. 'The unique and immediately engaging archival formatting of this story effortlessly, humorously...

Age/SMH seeks ‘greater diversity of applicants’ for book critic roles

Wednesday, 24 June 2020
The Nine-owned Age and Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) newspapers will reopen applications for two book critics, following the resignation of Jack Callil and Bec Kavanagh. Kavanagh and Callil jointly resigned from...

Kavanagh and Callil resign as emerging critics over lack of diversity

Tuesday, 23 June 2020
Book critics Bec Kavanagh and Jack Callil have jointly announced their resignation from the Copyright Agency-funded emerging critics initiative, due to the lack of diversity of the applicants selected for...

Footprint Books to close

Tuesday, 23 June 2020
Distributor Footprint Books has announced it is closing at the end of October 2020. 'It is with great sadness that we announce the closure of Footprint Books,' co-director Kate O'Reilly...

First Nations and People of Colour Writers Count research commences

Monday, 22 June 2020
The organisers of the First Nations and People of Colour Writers Count have announced that research for the project has commenced. Following a successful crowdfunding campaign that raised $26,559, the...

BWF appoints Runcie as CEO, confirms festival will run in May 2021

Monday, 22 June 2020
Brisbane Writers Festival (BWF) has appointed Sarah Runcie as CEO and confirmed the festival will run in May 2021. Runcie, formerly strategy and policy manager at the Australian Publishers Association,...

Fremantle Press acquires ‘Unlimited Futures’ anthology

Monday, 22 June 2020
Fremantle Press will publish a new anthology, Unlimited Futures: Speculative, Visionary Blak+Black Fiction, to provide ‘the chance for established and emerging First Nations writers and Black writers to share the...

Hind wins £10,000 Betty Trask Prize for ‘Hitch’

Friday, 19 June 2020
Kathryn Hind has been awarded the £10,000 (A$18,100) UK Society of Authors’ Betty Trask Prize for her novel Hitch (Hamish Hamilton). Judge Elanor Dymott said the book was ‘an extraordinary...

White departs UWA Publishing

Friday, 19 June 2020
UWA Publishing director Terri-ann White has left the publisher after 14 years, as the future direction of the organisation remains unconfirmed. ‘I finished my fourteen years as publisher at UWA...

Tan wins 2020 Kate Greenaway Medal

Thursday, 18 June 2020
In the UK, Australian artist and author Shaun Tan has won the 2020 Kate Greenaway Medal for distinguished illustration in a book for children and young people for his picture...

Sales of Bluey books hit 1 million copies

Thursday, 18 June 2020
Sales of Bluey children's books have reached 1 million copies in Australia, the series’ publisher Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has announced. The first three Bluey titles, which launched in...

Juchau wins 2020 Walkley-Pascall Prize for arts criticism

Thursday, 18 June 2020
Novelist, essayist and critic Mireille Juchau has won the 2020 Pascall Prize for arts criticism for her essays ‘How Dreams Change Under Authoritarianism’ (The New Yorker), 'Twilight Knowing: Jenny Offill’s...

Hachette acquires Lau’s ‘Gunk Baby’

Thursday, 18 June 2020
Hachette Australia has acquired ANZ rights to the novel Gunk Baby by Jamie Marina Lau. Hachette head of literary Robert Watkins said he is excited to be publishing the novel,...

Miles Franklin Literary Award 2020 shortlist announced

Wednesday, 17 June 2020
The shortlist for the $60,000 Miles Franklin Literary Award 2020 has been announced. The six longlisted novels are: The White Girl (Tony Birch, UQP) Islands (Peggy Frew, A&U) No One (John Hughes, UWA...

Billie B Brown optioned for TV

Wednesday, 17 June 2020
Fremantle and development partner 720 Creative have acquired screen rights to the children’s book character Billie B Brown, from the junior fiction series written by Sally Rippin, illustrated by Aki...

Pantera Press Foundation donates $85k in FY2020

Wednesday, 17 June 2020
Pantera Press has announced the company has donated $85,000 via the Pantera Press Foundation this financial year. Its donations include a total of $70,000 in untied funding to arts organisations...

Creative Vic Sustaining Creative Workers grants announced

Wednesday, 17 June 2020
Creative Victoria has announced the first recipients of its Sustaining Creative Workers initiative, created as part of the Victorian Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially announced in April as...

Latest ArtsACT grant recipients announced

Tuesday, 16 June 2020
ArtsACT has announced the successful recipients of its Homefront funding round, which was developed to support individual artists in response to the impact of Covid-19 on the arts sector. Funding...

Overett wins Penguin Literary Prize 2020

Tuesday, 16 June 2020
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has announced that the winner of the 2020 Penguin Literary Prize is The Rabbits by Sophie Overett. Victoria-based Overett wins $20,000 (which acts as an...

Harper, McKinty shortlisted for Theakston Old Peculier crime award

Monday, 15 June 2020
Australian author Jane Harper has been shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier 2020 Crime Novel Award for a crime novel published in paperback by authors from the UK or Ireland....

Roff wins 2020 Peter Carey Short Story Award

Monday, 15 June 2020
Andrew Roff has won the Peter Carey Short Story Award for his story ‘Bock Bock’. Announcing the winner via YouTube, judge Elizabeth Tan said the story, which follows an ‘investigator...

Australia Council announces Cherish Fund to support First Nations creatives

Friday, 12 June 2020
The Australia Council has announced a new fund of approximately $500,000 to ‘support and invest in First Nations arts and cultural groups experiencing disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic’. The...

New online Book Clubs Hub undertakes national survey

Friday, 12 June 2020
The organisers of Clunes Booktown Festival have established a free online platform for book clubs to connect and share information, and are undertaking a national survey of Australian book clubs....

The Book Grocer celebrates 20th anniversary

Friday, 12 June 2020
The Book Grocer is celebrating 20 years since establishing its first store. In a letter to staff and customers, founder Karl Slotte described opening the first of the chain’s stores...

Magabala Books announces First Nations’ publishing cadetship

Thursday, 11 June 2020
Magabala Books has announced it will create a new cadetship for First Nations publishing professionals. The cadetship program will provide on-the-job training, professional development and sustainable employment, with mentorship from...