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Affirm appoints Bell kids commissioning editor, Whelan editor

Thursday, 15 August 2019
Affirm Press has appointed senior editor Davina Bell as the new commissioning editor for its kids list. Assistant editor Meg Whelan has also been promoted to editor of the kids...

Text acquires ANZ rights to Booker-longlisted ‘Ducks, Newburyport’

Thursday, 15 August 2019
Text Publishing has acquired ANZ rights to Lucy Ellmann’s Booker-longlisted novel Ducks, Newburyport, published in the UK by Galley Beggar Press. The novel, comprised of only eight sentences, follows an...

Angie Martin wins inaugural First Nations Fellowship for commercial writing

Wednesday, 14 August 2019
Harlequin has announced Angie Martin as the winner of the inaugural Commercial Fiction Fellowship for First Nation Writers, for her manuscript ‘Melaleuca’. Martin’s manuscript was chosen from a shortlist of...

Highest ever box office sales at 2019 Byron Writers Festival; Indigenous authors dominate bestsellers

Wednesday, 14 August 2019
This year’s Byron Writers Festival attracted the highest box office sales in its 23-year history, according to event organisers. The festival, which ran from 2–4 August in Byron Bay, attracted...

Rosenbloom selected for Shanghai Visiting International Publishers program

Wednesday, 14 August 2019
Scribble publisher Miriam Rosenbloom has been awarded a Shanghai Visiting International Publishers fellowship to attend a specialist program alongside the Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair in November this year. The...

Shortlist announced for inaugural Margaret Mahy Illustration Prize

Wednesday, 14 August 2019
Hachette NZ and the Margarey Mahy estate have announced the shortlist for the inaugural Margaret Mahy Illustration Prize for unpublished illustrators. The shortlisted illustrators are: Emily Walker Hilary Jean Tapper...

New report shows lack of diversity in arts sector leadership roles

Wednesday, 14 August 2019
A new report launched today by Diversity Arts Australia has found culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) Australians are underrepresented in arts sector leadership roles. The report, titled Shifting the Balance:...

UQP appoints Hume as commissioning editor for children’s and YA

Wednesday, 14 August 2019
The University of Queensland Press (UQP) has appointed Clair Hume as commissioning editor for children’s and young adult books. Hume, who joined Affirm Press in 2016 to launch the Melbourne-based...

Environment Award for Children’s Literature 2019 shortlist announced

Wednesday, 14 August 2019
The Wilderness Society has announced the shortlist for the 2019 Environment Award for Children’s Literature. The shortlisted books in each category are: Picture fiction: More and More and More (Ian...

Arnott’s ‘Flames’ shortlisted for Not the Booker

Tuesday, 13 August 2019
Hobart-based author Robbie Arnott has been shortlisted for the Guardian’s 2019 Not the Booker prize. Arnott’s debut, Flames (Text), was one of six shortlisted titles chosen from a longlist of...

ASA, HQ launch $10,000 commercial fiction prize

Tuesday, 13 August 2019
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) and HarperCollins imprint HQ have announced a new commercial fiction prize for an unpublished manuscript. The winner of the ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize will receive...

Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award 2019 longlist announced

Tuesday, 13 August 2019
The longlist for the 2019 Mark and Evette Moran Literary Award, known as ‘the Nib’, has been announced. The longlisted titles are: An Unconventional Wife: The life of Julia Sorrell...

Overland VU Short Story Prize 2019 shortlist announced

Tuesday, 13 August 2019
The shortlist for the 2019 Overland Victoria University (VU) Short Story Prize for new writers has been announced. The shortlisted stories are: ‘Quinn’ by Claire Aman ‘Starving in the land...

‘No Friend but the Mountains’ wins National Biography Award

Monday, 12 August 2019
The State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) has announced No Friend but the Mountains by Behrouz Boochani (Picador) as the winner of this year’s $25,000 National Biography Award. The...

Colloborative literary organisation established in New Zealand

Monday, 12 August 2019
A new literary organisation called the Coalition for Books has launched in New Zealand. Established with seed funding from Creative New Zealand, the Coalition for Books will be a collaborative...

RWA awards 2019 winners announced

Monday, 12 August 2019
The winners of the 2019 Romance Writers of Australia (RWA) Romantic Book of the Year awards, known as the Ruby Awards, were announced on 10 August at the RWA conference...

Macmillan Education to withdraw schools division from Australian market

Friday, 9 August 2019
Macmillan Education Australia has announced its intention to withdraw its schools division from the Australian market ‘in due course’. In a statement, the company said: ‘Following a review of the...

Liminal Fiction Prize shortlist announced

Friday, 9 August 2019
Liminal magazine has announced the shortlist for the inaugural Liminal Fiction Prize. The shortlisted authors and their works are: Bryant Apolonio, for ‘Bad Weather’ Claire Cao, for ‘See You Tomorrow’...

‘The Girl on the Page’ film rights acquired

Friday, 9 August 2019
Sydney-based production company Causeway Films has acquired the film rights to John Purcell’s The Girl on the Page (HarperCollins), via Simone Camilleri of Green Ink Agency. Set in the UK in the...

HarperCollins to publish Ellyse Perry’s ‘Perspective’

Friday, 9 August 2019
HarperCollins will publish Australian cricketer and soccer player Ellyse Perry’s debut nonfiction book Perspective in November 2019. HarperCollins said Perry’s ‘inspiring’ and ‘heavily illustrated’ title will feature ‘stories and reflections from her...