Tuesday, 1 September 2009
The cabinet response to the Productivity Commission's recommendation that Australia remove parallel import restrictions on books may come sooner than originally anticipated, with some indications cabinet may decide on the issue...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
The New Zealand Electronic Text Centre (NZETC), affiliated with Victoria University in Wellington, has launched a collection of 1150 free downloadable ebooks. The ebooks, which include works by Katherine Mansfield...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Booksellers New Zealand (Booksellers NZ) has announced that the New Zealand Book Awards will next year feature ‘fewer categories, more judges and bigger prizes', following a public review process. The...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Kate Eltham, CEO of the Queensland Writers Centre, announced on Thursday during the Melbourne Writers Festival digital publishing program that Australia is to have its own Institute of the Future...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Hardie Grant Publishing has announced it has agreed to acquire Universal Publishers from Sensis. Established as Gregory's in Sydney in 1934 and with the addition of UBD, Universal Publishers is...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) 2009 has ended, with record ticket sales in excess of $581,000 and over 50,000 people attending over 350 events over the 10-day festival, which ran from...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
A full-day digital publishing program was held for the industry and public on Thursday 28 August during the Melbourne Writers Festival. The daytime events were all chaired by Queensland Writers...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Chloe Hooper has been awarded the inaugural John Button Prize for The Tall Man (Penguin), presented during the Melbourne Writers Festival. Hooper told an audience of more than 300 on...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Prime Minister's shortlist coming soonThe fiction and nonfiction shortlists for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards will be announced by Minister for the Arts Peter Garrett on Friday 18 September in...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
The Australian Writer's Guild (AWG) Annual AWGIE Awards were held in Sydney last week. Patricia Cornelius received the Richard Wherrett Prize for excellence in playwriting, for Tenderness--Slut. The prestigious prize...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
The five national cultural awards from the University of Melbourne's Australian Centre in the Faculty of Arts were presented to six winners from across Australia, during a gala event at...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
The Brisbane Writers Festival (BWF) kicks off next Wednesday 9 September, running until Sunday 13 September, with over 250 local and international writers. The festival is held at the State...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
New Zealand author Eleanor Catton is on the longlist for the Guardian First Book Award, worth £10,000 (A$19,300), for The Rehearsal (Granta). The award honours debut books of all genres...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
The winners of the 2009 Ned Kelly Awards were announced on Friday 28 August, during the Melbourne Writers Festival. Best first fiction went to Nick Gadd for Ghostlines (Scribe). Best...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Crime writer, forensic anthropologist and academic Kathy Reichs' 206 Bones comes number one this week in the Highest New Entries chart. The White Queen by Philippa Gregory comes in at...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Trade events coming up over the next week, as shown on our events calendar, include: Indigenous Literacy Day, 2 SeptemberDigital Publishing Forum--workshop, forum and awards, Auckland, 3 SeptemberBeijing International Book...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Thomas Keneally's fervour for Australian history has resulted in what will be a three-volume series entitled 'Australians'. The first volume Australians: Origins to Eureka has just hit bookshop shelves and,...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Author and journalist Dominick Dunne has died, aged 83. His books include, An Inconvenient Woman and A Season in Purgatory. Too Much Money: A Novel, is scheduled for publication in...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Author and illustrator Karla Kuskin has died, aged 77. She wrote many books for children including Soap Soup; In the Middle of the Trees and  Moon, Have You Met My...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Senator Ted Kennedy has died, aged 77. As well as his forthcoming memoir True Compass, Kennedy wrote various other titles including Decisions for a Decade: Policies and Programs for the...

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Author and editor Fred Brenchley has died, aged 67. One of his best known books was Stoker's Submarine.

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Sheila Lukins, co-author of The Silver Palate Cookbook and The New Basics Cookbook has died, aged 66.

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Authors on tour from September to November: September Jeb Brugmann, UQP, (Welcome to the Urban Revolution) Joris Luyendijk, Scribe (Fit to Print) Phillip Karl, Cadmos (Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage)...

Tuesday, 25 August 2009
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) and Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) are continuing their lobbying efforts in Canberra ahead of an expected Cabinet decision on the Productivity Commission's recommendations within coming...

Tuesday, 25 August 2009
As reported in a WBN Special Bulletin last Friday, the Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) added to its line-up a special debate on the Productivity Commission report and on the pros...

Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Books Alive 2009 starts today, 26 August, and runs to 30 September. A free guide, 50 Books You Can't Put Down, has been distributed to booksellers nationwide. Cheryl Akle, Books...

Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Readings' 40th anniversary was celebrated on Monday night at Experimedia in the State Library of Victoria. Alongside the celebrations, Readings has launched an anthology--Readings and Writings: 40 Years in Books--a collection of...

Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Among the many stories added to our Around the World blog in the past week:Bologna dates changeSony teams with US indies; announces Epub support with new wireless E-readerGoogle settlement: privacy...

Tuesday, 25 August 2009
The New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc.) is demanding action from the NZ government on the Google Book Settlement as the 4 September deadline for rightsholders to ‘opt...