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Byron Bay Writers Festival announces headline writers

Monday, 13 April 2015
The Byron Bay Writers Festival has announced that Julia Gillard, Joan London, Helen Garner, Kate Grenville and Jackie French will be the headline writers at this year’s festival, which runs...

ABIA 2015 shortlists announced

Monday, 13 April 2015
The shortlists for this year’s Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) have been announced.The shortlisted titles are: General fiction book of the year  Laurinda (Alice Pung, Black Inc.) Lost & Found (Brooke Davis,...

Te Papa Press under review by museum

Monday, 13 April 2015
Te Papa Press, run out of the Te Papa museum in Wellington, New Zealand, is under review by management and could be shut for up to five years, reports Stuff.co.nz.Te...

Clunes Booktown Festival 2015 program announced

Monday, 13 April 2015
The program for the 2015 Clunes Booktown Festival has been released.Among the authors at this year’s festival, which will be held from 2-3 May in Clunes, Victoria, are Michael Mori,...

Hockey flags changes to GST on downloads

Friday, 10 April 2015
Federal treasurer Joe Hockey has flagged that the GST could be applied to intangible downloads such as ebooks as part of ‘tax integrity’ measures to be introduced in the May...

Kibble and Dobbie Awards 2015 longlists announced

Thursday, 9 April 2015
The longlists for this year’s Kibble and Dobbie Literary Awards have been announced.The longlisted titles for the $30,000 Kibble Literary Award, which recognises the work of an established Australian female...

Rights round-up 

Thursday, 9 April 2015
SalesNonfiction—Black Inc. has sold Polish rights to Crimwife: An Insider’s Account of Love Behind Bars (Tanya Levin) to Hachette; and UK and US rights to David Kilcullen’s forthcoming Quarterly Essay...

New APA committee members elected; Adler returned as president

Thursday, 9 April 2015
New members have been elected to the Australian Publishers Association’s (APA) sectional committees at the APA’s AGM on 1 April.Publisher Jane Curry has joined the Independent Publishers Committee (IPC) as convenor,...

Quote of the week 

Thursday, 9 April 2015
‘The PIRs should finally be abolished, buried and cremated so they don’t rise like zombies in a quite different future’—Peter Donoughue argues for the removal of Parallel Importation Restrictions following...

Hachette Australia to bring Gollancz SF festival to Australia 

Thursday, 9 April 2015
Hachette Australia will bring the second Gollancz science-fiction and fantasy festival to Australia and New Zealand from 16-17 October.The inaugural festival, which was run in the UK by Hachette/Orion imprint Gollancz, was...

Larke, Canavan win Ditmar for best novel

Wednesday, 8 April 2015
Glenda Larke’s The Lascar’s Dagger (Hachette) and Trudi Canavan’s Thief’s Magic (Hachette) have been named joint winners of the best novel award at this year’s Ditmar Awards for Australian science-fiction,...

Bestsellers this week

Tuesday, 7 April 2015
This week’s bestsellers chart mixes the old and new with Going Paleo (Pete Evans & Nora T Gedgaudas, Plum) in the top spot for a second consecutive week, ahead of a slate...

Winners of 2015 George Robertson Award announced

Tuesday, 7 April 2015
The winners of the 2015 George Robertson Award were announced by the Australian Publishers Association (APA) on 1 April.The winners of the award, which recognises long and distinguished service to...

Noske appointed editor of ‘Westerly’ 

Tuesday, 7 April 2015
Kate Noske has been appointed editor of the biannual literary journal Westerly, based at the University of Western Australia.Noske, who has a PhD in Creative Writing from Monash University in Melbourne,...

Bainbridge appointed Express Media CEO

Tuesday, 7 April 2015
Express Media has appointed Pippa Bainbridge as its new CEO and general manager.Bainbridge was previously the company manager and creative producer at La Mama Theatre in Melbourne, and studied arts...

A&U wins Bologna Prize for children’s publishing

Thursday, 2 April 2015
Allen & Unwin has won the Bologna Prize for Best Children’s Publisher of the Year in the Oceania category. The publisher was chosen from a shortlist of three, which included...

New models, technologies discussed at university publishing symposium

Wednesday, 1 April 2015
A one-off symposium on ‘reinventing university publishing’ was held at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra from 17-19 March, bringing together representatives from university presses, universities and libraries.Nathan Hollier,...

‘WBN’ published Thursday next week 

Wednesday, 1 April 2015
Please note that, due to the Easter Monday public holiday, the next Weekly Book Newsletter will be published on Thursday 9 April.The deadline for classifieds and job advertisements is therefore 12 noon...

Quote of the week

Wednesday, 1 April 2015
‘If their proposal was implemented, the diversity of Australian books available to Australian consumers would be significantly reduced for a benefit both small and unlikely’—Australian Publishers Association president Louise Adler...

Rights round-up 

Wednesday, 1 April 2015
SalesFiction—Jenny Darling & Associates has sold ANZ and world English-language (ex ANZ) rights to The Bone Queen (Alison Croggon) to Penguin and Walker Books UK, respectively. Text has sold Arabic...

Miles Franklin Literary Award 2015 longlist announced

Tuesday, 31 March 2015
The longlist for this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award has been announced.The longlisted titles are: In Certain Circles (Elizabeth Harrower, Text) Golden Boys (Sonya Hartnett, Hamish Hamilton) The Eye of...

Australian academics awarded romance research grant

Tuesday, 31 March 2015
A group of Australian academics have been awarded funding from the Romance Writers of America’s (RWA) Academic Research Grant Program.Beth Driscoll from the University of Melbourne, Lisa Fletcher from the...