Weekly news | Books+Publishing

Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

Friday, 23 March 2018
Simon & Schuster (S&S) has appointed Brandon VanOver to the newly created role of associate publisher, nonfiction. VanOver has worked across fiction, nonfiction and children’s titles as managing editor at...

Queensland Writers Centre appoints new CEO

Friday, 23 March 2018
Lori-Jay Ellis has been appointed the new chief executive officer of Queensland Writers Centre (QWC), effective from 16 April. Ellis will replace outgoing CEO, Katie Woods, who joined QWC in...

Thomas wins Waterstones children’s prize, ‘Nevermoor’ wins younger readers category

Friday, 23 March 2018
Jessica Townsend’s middle-grade novel Nevermoor (Lothian) has won the younger readers category of the 2018 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. The UK retailer described the Queensland writer’s debut as ‘one of the...

Black Inc. to publish Ludlam book

Friday, 23 March 2018
Black Inc. has acquired world rights to a book by former deputy leader of the Australian Greens, Scott Ludlam. The as-yet-untitled book, scheduled for publication in 2019, is described as...

‘Meanjin’ relaunches podcast after three-year hiatus

Friday, 23 March 2018
Literary journal Meanjin has relaunched its podcast, after a three-year absence. The Meanjin podcast is pitched as ‘a spoken version of Australia’s favourite literary quarterly’, and will provide new content...

FWF announces 2018 Victorian festival program

Friday, 23 March 2018
The Feminist Writers Festival (FWF) has launched the program for its Victorian festival, which will be held in Melbourne and Geelong from 25-27 May. The Victorian program is the first...

Antigny and Prendergast join Giramondo

Thursday, 22 March 2018
Giramondo Publishing has appointed Léa Antigny to the newly created position of publicity manager. Antigny previously worked as a publicist at Pan Macmillan and Text Publishing, as well as in...

ANZ authors nominated for 2018 RITA Awards

Thursday, 22 March 2018
Several Australian and New Zealand authors have been nominated for the Romance Writers of America (RWA) 2018 RITA Awards for excellence in published romance novels and novellas. Avril Tremayne is...

Red Room Poetry fellowship 2018 shortlist announced

Thursday, 22 March 2018
The shortlist has been announced for the 2018 Red Room Poetry fellowship, which recognises the achievements and artistic goals of contemporary Australian poets. The 11 shortlisted poets are: Zenobia Frost...

Brow Books enters into co-publishing agreement with Tilted Axis Press

Thursday, 22 March 2018
Brow Books has announced it will enter into a co-publishing agreement with UK-based Tilted Axis Press. Under the new agreement, Tilted Axis will hold world English rights for each title...

134,000 attend AWW 2018; Krasnostein tops bestsellers

Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Adelaide Writers’ Week (AWW) has reported 134,000 people attended the 2018 festival, which ran from 3 to 8 March. Attendance was up slightly compared to last year’s event, which recorded...

Brow Books sells UK rights to ‘Apple and Knife’

Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Brow Books has sold UK and Commonwealth rights to Sydney-based Indonesian author Intan Paramaditha’s short-fiction collection Apple and Knife to Harvill Secker, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK. Harvill Secker...

Scholastic acquires Rogers’ ‘Girltopia’

Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Scholastic Australia has acquired a middle-grade fiction trilogy, 'Girltopia', written by former Hardie Grant Egmont publishing director Hilary Rogers. Book one in the trilogy, Girltopia, marks Rogers’ debut as an...

PRH acquires 13-year-old slam poet Solli Raphael’s debut

Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Penguin Random House Australia’s Young Readers division has acquired 13-year-old slam poet Solli Raphael’s first book, a collection of slam poetry paired with inspirational writing techniques. Scheduled for publication on...

ALS Gold Medal 2018 longlist announced

Wednesday, 21 March 2018
The longlist for the 2018 Australian Literature Society (ALS) Gold Medal has been announced. The longlisted titles are: The Last Days of Jeanne d’Arc (Ali Alizadeh, Giramondo) Common People (Tony Birch, UQP) A...

Wong wins Peter Porter Poetry Prize 2018

Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Hong Kong-based poet Nicholas Wong has won the Australian Book Review (ABR) Peter Porter Poetry Prize for his poem ‘101 Taipei’. Wong’s poem was chosen for the $5000 prize from...

New bookstore Collaroy Books to open in northern Sydney

Tuesday, 20 March 2018
A new bookstore, Collaroy Books, is set to open in the northern Sydney suburb of Collaroy at the start of May. The new store will be located at Collaroy Beach...

Perimeter Editions wins Cornish Family Book Prize

Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Melbourne publisher Perimeter Editions has won the Cornish Family Book Prize for Art and Design Publishing for To Note: Notation Across Disciplines (edited by Hannah Mathews, designed by Ziga Testen...

NSW Premier’s Literary Awards 2018 shortlists announced

Tuesday, 20 March 2018
The shortlists for the 2018 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards have been announced. The shortlisted titles in each category are: Christina Stead Prize for Fiction ($40,000) Common People (Tony Birch, UQP)...

HGE sells US rights to Henseleit debut

Monday, 19 March 2018
Hardie Grant Egmont has sold US rights to debut author Jack Henseleit’s middle grade fiction books The Witching Hours: The Vampire Knife and its sequel, The Troll Heart, to Little, Brown...

Shortlist announced for inaugural Perimeter Small Book Prize

Monday, 19 March 2018
The shortlist for the inaugural Perimeter Small Book Prize has been announced. The shortlisted entrants are: Michael Garbutt Luke Van Aurich Saskia Pandji Sakti Jacob Raupach Kathryn McCool Ross Taylor...

Black Inc. to end ‘Best Australian Essays, Stories and Poems’; announces new collection

Monday, 19 March 2018
Black Inc. has announced it will no longer publish its series of Best Australian Essays, Stories and Poems, but will publish a new annual short story collection instead. Beginning in...

SWF 2018 program announced

Friday, 16 March 2018
The program has been announced for this year’s Sydney Writers’ Festival (SWF), which runs from 30 April to 6 May. Sixty international guests and 400 Australian writers, academics and public...

Australian book industry orgs release joint statement on ‘safe workplaces’

Friday, 16 March 2018
The Australian Publishers Association (APA), the Australian Booksellers Association (ABA), the Australian Society of Authors (ASA) and the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) have released a joint statement promoting...