Tuesday, 15 August 2006
Three of the nineteen novels on the longlist for this year's Man Booker Prize are by Australian authors.Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey (Knopf), The Secret River by Kate...

Tuesday, 15 August 2006
In news from our ‘Around the World' blog this week, one of the world's largest libraries--the library of the University of California--joins Google's library project, London's Evening Standard speculates that...

Tuesday, 15 August 2006
The first Tasmanian Book Fair was held in Hobart on Sunday, as part of Tasmanian Living Writers' Week. The fair, which included a meet-an-author program, readings, launches, giveaways and music...

Tuesday, 15 August 2006
The winners of this year's Romance Writers of Australia Romantic Book of the Year awards have been announced. The winner of the long romance section was Pride of Lancashire (Anna...

Monday, 14 August 2006
A letter to WBN subscribers The new online WBN service has now been in operation for about two months and we would like to share with the trade some of things...

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
It's not often that a story on poetry makes the news section of the Sydney Morning Herald, but a war of words between poets John Kinsella, Anthony Lawrence and Robert...

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
Books Alive may have just started, but it seems to have made an impact on our reading habits already. The proof of the pudding is in the charts. Four of...

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
The shortlist of books nominated for this year's Age Book of the Year prize has been released. The shortlisted titles are: Nonfiction: A Trial Separation: Australia and the Decolonisation of...

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
The winners of this year's Speech Pathology Australia's Book of the Year 2006 are:Language development, young children--Annie's Chair (Deborah Niland, Viking)Language development, lower primary children--The Postman's Dog (Lisa Shanahan, illus...

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
Indian novelist Raja Rao has died in Austin, Texas, aged 97. His book Kanthapura (Oxford University Press India), published in 1938, was the first major Indian novel to be written...

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
The future of Campus Bookseller+Publisher--the only magazine to focus exclusively on Australian tertiary publishing and campus bookselling--is in the balance following confirmation that the forthcoming October issue may be its last.The magazine,...

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
Several authors including Christopher Cheng, Matthew Reilly, Hazel Edwards and Jen McVeity, have been named as literacy ‘champions' as part of this year's National Literacy and Numeracy Week (NLNW) which...

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
In news from our ‘Around the World' blog this week: a US-based print-on-demand publisher has lost a long-running defamation case; toy maker Fisher-Price is developing a bank of downloadable children's stories for...

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
At its recent annual general meeting, the Society of Editors (Victoria) presented Jackie Yowell with an award for honorary life membership in recognition of her outstanding services to the editing...

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has joined the chorus of voices protesting plans by the Attorney-general, Philip Ruddock, to tighten the classification regime for books.In a letter sent to...

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
With Father's Day only a month away, several blokey titles have crept into this week's bestseller charts. The blokiest of them all is Conn and Hal Iggulden's The Dangerous Book...

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
New Zealand writer Nigel Cox died on Friday 28 July.Victoria University Press writes: One of New Zealand's best writers, Nigel was recognised at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards on...

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
UK fantasy writer David Gemmell died on Friday 28 July, two weeks after undergoing heart bypass surgery, according to his publisher Random House. Gemmell was a prolific writer whose works...

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
The official program of the Age Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) has been released, appearing online and as a supplement in the Age newspaper on 29 July. The Festival’s traditional opening...

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
In the lead up to the release of the official festival program in the Australian newspaper on 5 August, the Brisbane Writers Festival has released details of what attendees can...

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
Advanced Marketing Services (AMS), parent company of Bookwise International in Australia and New Zealand, has launched a new division, Bluefin Global Logistics, to provide ‘third-party logistics' services to clients in...

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
Australian romance author Marion Lennox has won her second Rita award, with Romance Writers of America members voting her novel Princess of Convenience (Harlequin Mills & Boon) the best traditional...

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
Following the announcement from Random House Australia that it will now represent BBC Books in Australia as part of the Random House Group portfolio, BBC Worldwide confirmed that it would...

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
The 2006/07 board of Booksellers New Zealand was elected at the board's annual general meeting, held at the New Zealand Booksellers Conference in Auckland on 23 July 2006. The directors...

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
The Book Publishers Association of New Zealand (BPANZ) elected two new members to the council at its annual general meeting in Auckland on 23 July. The new members are Chris...

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
As announced in a WBN special bulletin last Friday, last week saw the presentation of both the inaugural Australian Book Industry Academy (ABIA) awards and the Australian Awards for Excellence...

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
The ABIA awards dinner last week also saw the official launch of the 2006 Books Alive campaign by Senator Rod Kemp, the Minister for Arts and Sport.The distribution of 2.5...

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
Australian Publishers Association (APA) CEO Maree McCaskill has written to Attorney-general Philip Ruddock and to all state attorneys-general expressing ‘grave concern' about plans to tighten regulations governing the Classification Review...

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
The Canadian Consulate General, in conjunction with the Australia Council (OzCo), is funding the pilot of an Australian/Canadian publisher exchange as an extension of OzCo's successful Visiting International Publisher program.The...