Text acquires Szubanski memoir
Wednesday, 25 March 2026
Text Publishing has announced the acquisition of the memoir I Can’t Tell You But I Will by Magda Szubanski. Szubanski is a comedian, actor and LGBT rights advocate. Her previous memoir,...
HGCP acquires “The Everywhere Train”
Wednesday, 25 March 2026
Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing (HGCP) has acquired world rights to The Everywhere Train by author Deborah Frenkel and illustrator Danny Snell. From the creators of 2025 National Simultaneous Storytime book The...
BookUp conference and research day dates announced
Wednesday, 25 March 2026
The 2026 BookUp publishing conference will run in Melbourne on 22 July, the Australian Publishers Association (APA) has announced. Now in its sixth year, BookUp in 2026 “will focus on...
Local bookshop numbers double for 2026 “crawl”
Wednesday, 25 March 2026
Following the inaugural Global Book Crawl (GBC) in 2025, 140 Australian bookshops have signed up for this year’s event. In 2026, 12 separate book crawls will take place in Australia,...
Thom wins 2025 Judith Wright Poetry Prize
Tuesday, 24 March 2026
Overland has announced Mia Thom as the winner of the 2025 Judith Wright Poetry Prize, worth $6000, for their poem “go raging”. Thom’s poem, chosen from a shortlist of 8, will...
Campos wins inaugural Kat Muscat Award
Tuesday, 24 March 2026
The inaugural winner of the $1000 Kat Muscat Award is Paula Campos for “Palm Trees, Piercings and a More Lowkey, Chill Place to Live”, which appeared in Voiceworks #136 “Quits!”. This year, the...
“Wild Dark Shore” wins Book of the Year at 2026 Indie Book Awards
Tuesday, 24 March 2026
Australian independent booksellers have announced the winners of the 2026 Indie Book Awards, with Charlotte McConaghy’s Wild Dark Shore (Penguin) named Book of the Year. The winners in each category...
A&U acquires Jeff Apter’s “Reckless”
Tuesday, 24 March 2026
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired world rights to the nonfiction title Reckless by music writer Jeff Apter. Reckless is the inside story of Australian Crawl, the band behind tracks...
Australian Book Design Awards 2026 shortlists announced
Monday, 23 March 2026
The shortlists for the 2026 Australian Book Design Awards, presented by the Australian Book Designers Association (ABDA), have been announced. Shortlisted works in each category are: Best designed general fiction...
Kinokuniya to open Chatswood store
Monday, 23 March 2026
Japanese book retailer Books Kinokuniya will open a new bookstore in Westfield Chatswood Shopping Centre in Chatswood, New South Wales. Books Kinokuniya is the largest bookstore chain in Japan, with...
Woldeyes awarded new travel fellowship
Monday, 23 March 2026
Poet and storyteller Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes will appear at national and international writers festivals this year as the recipient of a new travel fellowship supported by the Barton Family Foundation. The...
NZSA announces mentorship program recipients
Monday, 23 March 2026
New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (NZSA) has announced the recipients of its 2026 mentorship program. The mentees are: Vivienne Bailey (Paraparaumu) Cassandra Barnett (Waikato) Angela Barnett (Tāmaki Makaurau...
MWF releases 2026 program and ventures into the suburbs
Friday, 20 March 2026
Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) has released its program for 2026, featuring more than 150 artists participating in readings, panels and workshops from 7 to 10 May. This year marks MWF’s...
Writers Victoria petition achieves 10,000 signatures
Thursday, 19 March 2026
A petition to restore funding for Writers Victoria has gained more than 10,000 signatures, a number sufficient to trigger a debate in the Victorian parliament. Writers Victoria launched the petition in January...
NZ Booklovers Awards 2026 winners announced
Thursday, 19 March 2026
In Aotearoa New Zealand, the winners of the 2026 NZ Booklovers Awards have been announced. The winning titles in each category are: Best Adult Fiction Book Softly Calls the Devil...
Hachette, Sweatshop partner on new scholarship
Thursday, 19 March 2026
Hachette Australia has announced it will partner with Sweatshop Literacy Movement to create an annual scholarship for two First Nations and/or culturally and linguistically diverse writers. The scholarship, which will start...
Affirm acquires Williams’s “The German Ward”
Thursday, 19 March 2026
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to The German Ward, a “breathtaking historical love story” by Pip Williams, with US rights sold to Ballantine and UK rights to Chatto &...
Wombat acquires Dangerfield’s middle-grade novel
Thursday, 19 March 2026
Wombat Books has acquired world rights to The Misspelled Sky by Lucy Dangerfield following a pitch at last year’s CYA Conference. The speculative middle-grade novel follows Megana, who “always believed she was...
Online queer bookshop Obsidian opens in Sydney
Wednesday, 18 March 2026
Obsidian Bookshop, a new online-only queer bookshop, has opened in Sydney, reports Star Observer. The bookshop is run by librarian Billy Hambides, artist Archer Nox and photographer Bowen Halkett. “All...
Martin wins 2026 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship
Wednesday, 18 March 2026
The 2026 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship has been awarded to Jennifer Martin, who receives $20,000 for her proposed biography of Australian journalist Eva Sommer. In 1956 then 22-year-old Sommer beat...
S&S acquires Fanning memoir
Wednesday, 18 March 2026
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired world rights to the memoir All Heart, by three-time world champion surfer Mick Fanning. All Heart follows Fanning from the western suburbs of...
Canberra Writers Festival announces anniversary events
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Canberra Writers Festival is hosting a series of events this year, celebrating its tenth anniversary in the lead-up to the festival, which runs from 15 to 18 October. These events...
Silvey charged with new offences, alleged collaborator charged
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Author Craig Silvey has been charged with more child exploitation offences, reported the Guardian yesterday. Silvey, who was charged in January with possessing and distributing child exploitation material, has also...
Fitzroy Writers Festival 2026 program announced
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Yarra Libraries has released the program for this year’s Fitzroy Writers Festival, running on 18 April. To be held in inner Melbourne’s Fitzroy Town Hall, sessions are set to cover...
A&U acquires Tasker’s debut novel
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to Michael Caleb Tasker’s Just Like the Night, in a deal brokered by Ellen Levine at Trident Media Group. The novel follows...
A&U acquires Davis’s “The Modern Dad”
Monday, 16 March 2026
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired world rights to the nonfiction title, The Modern Dad, by Aotearoa New Zealand author Louis Davis. The Modern Dad provides advice about how to...
CJZ options Ayliffe’s “Dark Desert Road” for TV
Monday, 16 March 2026
Tim Ayliffe’s first standalone novel, Dark Desert Road (Echo), has been optioned by Australian TV production company CJZ. Dark Desert Road follows police officer Kit McCarthy, who hasn’t seen her twin...
Writing Australia seeks publisher to operate black&write!
Monday, 16 March 2026
Writing Australia is looking for a delivery partner in the publishing sector to operate the black&write! fellowship program. The black&write! program has been managed by the State Library of Queensland...
Text acquires MacFie’s debut novel
Monday, 16 March 2026
Text Publishing has acquired world rights to Stephanie MacFie’s debut novel Once Upon a Breakfast Show. Set in the high-pressure world of breakfast radio, this “funny and wise novel about love and...
HarperCollins acquires “Conversations with My Rabbi”
Monday, 16 March 2026
HarperCollins Australia has acquired ANZ rights to Conversations with My Rabbi: Timeless Teachings for a Fractured World by Nikki Goldstein in a deal negotiated with Rena Rossner of the Deborah...
