Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

Image. Advertisement:

Weekly news >

Australian Political Book of the Year Award 2024 longlist

Wednesday, 9 October 2024
The longlist for the 2024 Australian Political Book of the Year Award has been announced. The longlisted titles are: The Odd Couple: The Australia-America Relationship (Allan Behm, Upswell) Quarterly Essay...

Kitching, Pickens shortlisted in Laurel Prize

Wednesday, 9 October 2024
Aotearoa New Zealand poets Megan Kitching and Robyn Maree Pickens are among those shortlisted for the annual UK nature and environmental poetry award, the Laurel Prize. The shortlisted titles are:...

HarperCollins acquires Ablett memoir 

Photograph of Jordan Ablett Wednesday, 9 October 2024
HarperCollins has acquired world rights to ‘inspirational memoir’ One Day at a Time by Jordan Ablett. ‘On a quiet Melbourne afternoon in the eerie early days of the pandemic, young...

Affirm acquires Brownlee rom-com 

Wednesday, 9 October 2024
Affirm Press has acquired ANZ rights to Victoria Brownlee’s foodie rom-com novel, Eat Your Heart Out, via Linwood Messina Literary Agency. Eat Your Heart Out follows six competing food writers...

Lewis to leave Hardie Grant 

Wednesday, 9 October 2024
Hardie Grant group director, people and culture Troy Lewis is leaving Hardie Grant after seven years to explore other opportunities. Having joined as maternity cover for then Hardie Grant Books...

Booktopia to build podcast studio, loyalty program 

Booktopia logo Wednesday, 2 October 2024
Booktopia is building a podcast studio to create ‘exclusive audio content’ for its customers, alongside a loyalty program, reports the Australian. New owner Shant Kradjian told the masthead that the...

Hardie Grant launches Figment imprint 

Wednesday, 2 October 2024
Hardie Grant is launching Figment—a new, dedicated graphic novel imprint, which will begin publishing in 2025. One of the first graphic novel imprints in Australian trade publishing, Figment will be led...

ARA Historical Novel Prize shortlists announced

Wednesday, 2 October 2024
The Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA) has announced the shortlists for the 2024 ARA Historical Novel Prize. Shortlisted titles, selected from longlists announced last month, are: Adult The Unearthed (Lenny...

Paice wins ACU Poetry Prize

Wednesday, 2 October 2024
Kiama-based poet and author Christine Paice has won the $10,000 Australian Catholic University (ACU) Prize for Poetry for a poem about the death of her mother. The winning poem, ‘Gabriel...

Hardie Grant acquires Pantera Press 

Wednesday, 25 September 2024
Hardie Grant has signed an agreement to acquire Pantera Press. Completion of the sale is set for 30 September, subject to customary closing conditions. Founded in 2008 by the Green...

HQ acquires James debut, ‘Second Skin’ 

Wednesday, 25 September 2024
HQ, a division of HarperCollins Australia, has acquired ANZ rights to Arianne James’ debut gothic novel, Second Skin, via Abigail Nathan at Alex Adsett Literary. A finalist in the 2024 ASA/HQ Fiction...

Nib Literary Award 2024 finalists announced

Wednesday, 18 September 2024
The finalists for the 2024 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award, worth $40,000, have been announced. Shortlisted titles for the award are: Reaching Through Time (Shauna Bostock, A&U) Book...

Echo acquires Maynard novels 

Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Echo Publishing has acquired world rights to two novels by debut author Anna Maynard, via Sally Bird at Calidris Literary Agency. The first novel, Dancing with Bees, is described by...

Hachette acquires Mansour-Nahra debut novel 

Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Hachette Australia has acquired ANZ rights to Jessica Mansour-Nahra’s debut novel, with a working title of The Farm, in a five-way auction, in a two-book deal via Marina de Pass...

Smith Street acquires Davies cookbook 

Wednesday, 11 September 2024
Smith Street Books has acquired world rights to a new Japanese cookbook by Emiko Davies, via Lou Johnson at Key People Literary Management. Davies is an Australian-Japanese food writer, photographer, author...

Christie to join Curtis Brown 

Photograph of Alexandra Christie sitting on a sofa Wednesday, 11 September 2024
Curtis Brown Australia has announced Alexandra Christie will join the business as an agent. Currently rights director at Giramondo Publishing and the editor of HEAT literary magazine, Christie is also...

Full program announced for Ubud 2024

Wednesday, 4 September 2024
Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (UWRF) has announced the full line-up for its 21st festival program, themed ‘Satyam Vada Dharmam Chara’ (‘Speak the Truth, Practice Kindness’), which will run on...

New offices for S&S

Simon & Schsuter Wednesday, 4 September 2024
Simon & Schuster Australia has moved to new offices. From 3 September, the Sydney office has moved to Level 4, 32 York Street, in the Sydney CBD. The Melbourne CBD...

MacDonald wins 2024 Margaret Mahy Illustration Prize

Photograph of Grant MacDonald Wednesday, 4 September 2024
Herb MacDonald is the winner of the 2024 Margaret Mahy Illustration Prize, the Margaret Mahy Estate, Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand, and Little Moa have announced. The judging panel praised MacDonald’s...

Medal for Excellence in Translation shortlist announced

Wednesday, 4 September 2024
The shortlist for the 2024 Medal for Excellence in Translation, administered by the Australian Academy of the Humanities (AAH), has been announced. The shortlisted translators and their works are: Stephanie...

A&U acquires Clutton novel in two-book deal 

Photograph of Sarah Clutton by Highlands Photography Wednesday, 4 September 2024
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to the ‘uplit’ novel The Remarkable Truths of Alfie Bains by Sarah Clutton, via Melanie Ostell from the Melanie Ostell Literary Agency,...

Books+Publishing to produce Australian Book Industry Awards

Wednesday, 28 August 2024
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) has announced that Books+Publishing will ‘take the production reins’ of the annual Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) under a new licensing agreement. In 2025, which...

Aotearoa research grants announced 

Wednesday, 21 August 2024
The 2024 Copyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ) and New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa PEN NZ Inc (NZSA) Research Grants have been awarded to four writers....

Steger among staff to leave Age/SMH

Wednesday, 21 August 2024
The books editor at the Age and Sydney Morning Herald, Jason Steger, is among dozens of journalists leaving the newspapers, reports the Guardian. The Guardian stated that up to 85...

Publishers welcome Australian owner for Booktopia 

Booktopia logo Wednesday, 21 August 2024
Publishers have welcomed the sale of Booktopia to Shant Kradjian, the owner of electronics retailer digiDirect, who has been meeting with publishers and authors to discuss the bookseller’s future and...

A&U acquires Caro novel ‘Lyrebird’ 

Photograph of Jane Caro Wednesday, 21 August 2024
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to Lyrebird, the second adult novel by Jane Caro, in a deal brokered by Jacinta di Mase Management. In the novel, no...