Kembrey to step down at UNSW
Wednesday, 21 September 2022
NewSouth Books sales and marketing manager Jane Kembrey has announced her retirement after 25 years at UNSW Press, having started with the organisation in 1997. 'Anyone who has worked with...
Pantera acquires Colley fiction debut in two-book deal
Wednesday, 21 September 2022
Pantera Press has acquired world rights for debut novel The Next Big Thing by writer and comedian James Colley through Creative Representation, in a two-book deal. Pantera said The Next...
City of Fremantle Hungerford Award 2022 shortlist announced
Wednesday, 21 September 2022
The shortlist for the 2022 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award has been announced. The shortlisted manuscripts are: ‘The Slow Patience of the Sea & other stories’, a collection of short...
Ryckmans steps down at CWF
Wednesday, 21 September 2022
Canberra Writers Festival (CWF) has announced artistic director Jeanne Ryckmans is stepping down from the role. Ryckmans, who was appointed to the role in late 2019, said it had been...
ILD 2022: An ‘infectious’ day of celebrating literacy
Wednesday, 14 September 2022
Last Wednesday, 7 September, the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) celebrated its annual Indigenous Literacy Day (ILD) with a live event at the Sydney Opera House and a national digital event....
$100K Historical Novel Prize 2022 longlists announced
Wednesday, 14 September 2022
The Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA), has announced the longlists for the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize. The titles longlisted in the adult category are: Horse (Geraldine Brooks, Hachette) The...
Ngaio Marsh Awards 2022 shortlists announced
Wednesday, 14 September 2022
The shortlists for this year’s Ngaio Marsh Awards for New Zealand crime, mystery or thriller writing have been announced. The titles shortlisted in each category are: Best first novel Isobar...
Sewankambo appointed HGCP head of marketing
Wednesday, 14 September 2022
Yvonne Sewankambo has been appointed to the new role of head of marketing at Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing (HGCP). Sewankambo, who was previously the children’s books campaign manager at HarperCollins...
Scribe acquires new McKay fiction collection
Wednesday, 7 September 2022
Scribe Publications has acquired world rights to Gunflower, a new collection of short fiction by Laura Jean McKay. According to the publisher, Gunflower ‘charts the political, ecological, and bodily themes...
Drury appointed to new Affirm national sales team
Wednesday, 7 September 2022
Affirm Press has appointed former Simon & Schuster national field sales manager Kay Drury as the first member of its new sales team. The new national sales team, which Affirm...
Big Issue fiction edition returns
Wednesday, 7 September 2022
The Big Issue has announced the authors chosen for its annual fiction edition. The 2022 edition includes works from 12 writers selected from 905 submissions. The selected works were anonymously...
Wang wins 2022 Spark Prize
Wednesday, 7 September 2022
Becca Wang has won the 2022 Spark Prize, presented by Hardie Grant Books and RMIT Writing and Publishing, for her nonfiction book proposal ‘Birth Right’. Chosen from a shortlist of...
APA convenes diversity & inclusion working group; releases UniMelb ‘baseline’ survey results
Wednesday, 31 August 2022
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) has released the results of a ‘baseline’ survey of the Australian publishing industry undertaken by University of Melbourne researchers, and convened a Diversity & Inclusion...
Delaney’s ‘Reasons Not to Worry’ sells in multiple territories
Wednesday, 31 August 2022
Rights to Brigid Delaney’s nonfiction work Reasons Not to Worry (A&U, September) have been sold to North America, the UK and Commonwealth (ex ANZ and Canada), Greece and Serbia, in...
Byron Writers Festival returns after two years of upheaval
Wednesday, 31 August 2022
The 2022 Byron Writers Festival, which ran 26 to 28 August, was ‘a resounding success’, according to the organisers. The first in-person festival since 2019, following the cancellation of the...
Dymocks Neutral Bay win top award at in-person conference
Wednesday, 24 August 2022
Gina and Colin Pettitt of Dymocks Neutral Bay were awarded the Dymocks Chairman’s Award for Retail Excellence in 2022 during the bookselling chain’s annual conference, which ran from 7 to...
Transit Lounge acquires Bacon literary mystery novel
Wednesday, 24 August 2022
Transit Lounge has acquired world rights to Serengotti, a literary mystery novel by Eugen Bacon. According to Transit Lounge publisher Barry Scott, Serengotti takes the classic story of a woman...
CWF: ‘the little festival that could’ returns after two years of false starts
Wednesday, 24 August 2022
After being postponed and ultimately cancelled in 2021, the Canberra Writers Festival (CWF) returned in person this month, doubling its audience numbers in comparison to the 2020 CWF hybrid in-person...
Readings announces New Australian Fiction Prize 2022 shortlist
Tuesday, 23 August 2022
The shortlist for the Readings New Australian Fiction Prize has been announced. The shortlisted titles are: Cold Enough for Snow (Jessica Au, Giramondo) Hovering (Rhett Davis, Hachette) Losing Face (George Haddad, UQP)...
Oscar and Friends to close Double Bay store
Wednesday, 17 August 2022
Oscar and Friends bookshop has announced the closure of its original Double Bay store in Sydney. In a statement, the bookshop said that ‘sadly due to the redevelopment of our...
Readings YA Book Prize 2022 shortlist announced
Wednesday, 17 August 2022
The shortlist for the 2021 Readings Young Adult Book Prize has been announced. The shortlisted YA novels are: The Museum of Broken Things (Lauren Draper, Text) Sugar Town Queens (Malla...
Aus market up 4.1%, romance up 77% YTD
Wednesday, 17 August 2022
Australian book sales are up by 4.1% in value compared to this time last year, according to Nielsen BookData, which reports Australian book market sales of $544 million year to...
Readings union members to consider industrial action
Wednesday, 10 August 2022
Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU) members at Readings bookshop will consider industrial action, following on from a protest outside the independent chain’s Carlton store in Melbourne on 6...
ILF announces digital event for ILD 2022
Wednesday, 10 August 2022
The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) has announced two events in collaboration with the Sydney Opera House for Indigenous Literacy Day (ILD), which falls on Wednesday, 7 September this year. The...
Caro’s ‘The Mother’ optioned for film
Wednesday, 10 August 2022
Film rights for Jane Caro’s first novel for adults, The Mother (A&U), have been optioned by New Town Films in a deal negotiated by Jacinta di Mase of Jacinta di...
Pantera announces Public Holiday Swap initiative
Wednesday, 3 August 2022
Pantera Press has announced a new Public Holiday Swap initiative that gives permanent employees the option to work on a public holiday and take a different day of leave in...
Weir, Henderson launch Bold Type Agency
Wednesday, 3 August 2022
Former Penguin Random House (PRH) senior rights manager Nerrilee Weir and former Simon & Schuster (S&S) publishing director Fiona Henderson have announced the creation of a new rights agency. Bold...
MWF full program announced
Wednesday, 27 July 2022
Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) has announced its full 2022 program, which runs 8–11 September, and features over 150 events. The festival makes its return to live programming after two years...
APA, ABA children’s publishing conference returns
Wednesday, 27 July 2022
The program for the Australian Publishers Association (APA) Children's Publishing Conference, held in conjunction with the Australian Booksellers Association (ABA), has been announced. ‘Between the Covers, Behind the Counter’, which...
Kenwood’s ‘Unnecessary Drama’ sells to US
Wednesday, 27 July 2022
Text has sold North American rights to Nina Kenwood’s second YA novel Unnecessary Drama to Sarah Barley at Flatiron Books, in a deal brokered by David Forrer at Inkwell Management....
