Booktopia shortlisted for online retail awards
13 June 2019
Online bookseller Booktopia has been shortlisted in several categories in the 2019 Online Retail Industry Awards (ORIAs). Booktopia is a finalist for Best Pureplay Retailer and Technology Champion, while Booktopia...
Pages & Pages to close
13 June 2019
Pages & Pages Booksellers in Mosman, Sydney, will close on 30 August following the owners' decision not to renew their lease. Chris and Phil Page first opened the store in...
Hollier joins MUP as CEO
13 June 2019
Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) has appointed Nathan Hollier as its new chief executive officer. Hollier, who has been director of Monash University Publishing for nine years, takes over from acting...
Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction 2019 shortlist announced
13 June 2019
Lip magazine has announced the shortlist for the 2019 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. The shortlisted stories are: 'Inheritance' by Elizabeth Flux 'How to Cook Pho' by Emily Dang 'The...
PANZ Book Design Awards 2019 shortlists announced
12 June 2019
The shortlists for the 2019 Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ) Book Design Awards have been announced. The shortlisted titles in each category are: Best illustrated book As You Will:...
Booktopia launches book club; McHardy joins as head of publishing
12 June 2019
Booktopia will launch a members-only book club, with former Simon & Schuster Australia managing director Franscois McHardy joining the company to oversee the program. As part of the book club,...
Netflix to adapt ‘Thelma the Unicorn’ for animated musical feature
12 June 2019
Aaron Blabey’s picture book Thelma the Unicorn (Scholastic) will be adapted into an animated musical film by Netflix. The project will be adapted by husband-and-wife filmmakers Jared and Jerusha Hess...
Byron Writers Festival program announced
12 June 2019
The program for this year’s Byron Writers Festival, which runs from 2–4 August, has been announced. More than 140 local and international guests will take part in over 120 sessions...
Morrissey, Cunningham, Wood awarded in 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours
11 June 2019
A number of Australian authors and industry figures were recognised in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours. Di Morrissey, author of 25 novels and five children's books, was awarded a Member...
Ngaio Marsh Award 2019 longlist announced
11 June 2019
The longlist for this year’s Ngaio Marsh Award for New Zealand crime fiction has been announced, featuring a work begun by Ngaio Marsh herself during the Second World War. Marsh's...
Boochani, Kneen, Coleman to contribute to Affirm collection on homelessness
7 June 2019
Affirm Press will publish a new ‘profit-for-purpose’ book, an anthology of stories by writers who have experienced homelessness. We Are Here: Stories of home, place and belonging will be edited...
‘At the End of Holyrood Lane’ wins SCBWI Crystal Kite Award
7 June 2019
Children’s picture book At the End of Holyrood Lane (Dimity Powell & Nicky Johnston, EK Books) has won the Australian and New Zealand division of this year’s Crystal Kite Member...
NZ Book Awards for Children and YA 2019 finalists announced
6 June 2019
The shortlists for the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults have been announced. The shortlisted titles in each category are: Picture book award Mini Whinny: Happy Birthday...
Parrish wins Lambda award for graphic novel
6 June 2019
Canada-based Australian comics artist Tommi Parrish has won the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for a graphic novel for their book The Lie and How We Told It (Fantagraphics). The Lie and...
Chloe Wilson wins ‘Iowa Review’ Award for fiction
6 June 2019
Melbourne writer Chloe Wilson has won the Iowa Review Award for fiction for her story ‘Tongue-Tied’. Wilson receives US$1500 (A$2150) and publication in the December issue of the Iowa Review....
Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival program announced
6 June 2019
The program for the 2019 Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival, running from 12–28 July, has been announced. More than 60 events will be held at bookshops, libraries, cafes and...
S&S acquires global rights to two new Kathy Reichs novels
5 June 2019
Simon & Schuster (S&S) has acquired global rights to two new novels by bestselling crime fiction writer Kathy Reichs. The first novel, A Conspiracy of Bones and Blood, will be...
WA Premier’s Book Awards shortlists announced
5 June 2019
The shortlists for this year's Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards have been announced. The shortlisted titles in each category are: Premier’s Prize for an emerging writer ($15,000) If I Tell...
YA debut ‘What I Like About Me’ sold to US and France
5 June 2019
Jacinta di Mase Management has sold US and Canadian rights to Jenna Guillaume’s YA debut What I Like About Me (Pan) to Peachtree Publishing, and French-language rights to Pocket Jeunesse....
Karskens wins ‘ABR’ 2019 Calibre Prize
5 June 2019
Historian Grace Karskens has won the Australian Book Review’s (ABR) 2019 Calibre Prize for her essay ‘Nah Doongh’s Song’. Karskens' essay examines the ‘unusually long life of one of the...
Meyer wins UK’s inaugural ‘Mslexia’ Novella Competition
4 June 2019
Author Angela Meyer has won the inaugural £1000 (A$1815) Mslexia Novella Competition for Joan Smokes (Contraband). Joan Smokes centres on a young woman who attempts to escape the past by...
Croggon, Tuomy, Nou join advisory group for Victorian creative industries
4 June 2019
Writer and critic Alison Croggon, spoken word poet and author Abe Nouk, and screenwriter, director and producer Fiona Tuomy are among the 20 Victorians who have been appointed to a...
Copyright Agency announces recipients of Ignite grants
4 June 2019
The Copyright Agency has awarded a total of $46,440 to eight authors and three artists, as part of its Cultural Fund’s Ignite grants program. The authors to receive grants, which...
Berbay sells third Canty ‘Heads and Tails’ picture book to US
4 June 2019
Berbay Publishing has sold North American rights to Melbourne author and illustrator John Canty’s Heads and Tails: Underwater to Candlewick Press. This is the third picture book in Canty’s ‘Heads and Tails’...
Jennings presented with CBCA Lifetime Achievement award
3 June 2019
Paul Jennings has received the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Lifetime Achievement award, presented at an event at the CBCA conference in Canberra on 2 June. Jennings is the...
Australian Book Design Awards 2019 winners announced
3 June 2019
The Australian Book Designers Association (ABDA) announced the winners of the 2019 Australian Book Design Awards at an event in Sydney on 31 May. The winning titles in each category...
Ang, McGregor and Nelson win 2019 Woollahra Digital Literary Awards
3 June 2019
Rachel Ang, Fiona McGregor and Jason Nelson have won the 2019 Woollahra Digital Literary Awards for writing that was first published online or electronically. Ang won the fiction category for...
‘The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart’ receives Screen Australia funding
31 May 2019
A television adaptation of Holly Ringland’s novel The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (Fourth Estate) has received story development funding from Screen Australia. The eight-part series will be produced by...
Clarke’s ‘The Patchwork Bike’ wins US picture book award
31 May 2019
The Patchwork Bike (Maxine Beneba Clarke, illus by Van T Rudd, Lothian) has won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award in the picture book category. A winner and two honour books...
Hachette signs international deal for three new ‘Nevermoor’ books; details for book 3 announced
31 May 2019
Rights to three new books in Jessica Townsend’s ‘Nevermoor’ series have been jointly acquired by Hachette Australia, Hachette Children’s Group UK and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in the...
