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Text sells UK and US rights to Korean thriller

Thursday, 15 March 2018
Text Publishing has sold North American and UK English-language rights to forthcoming Korean thriller The Plotters by Un-su Kim. Text acquired world English rights to the book, and subsequently sold...

Noosa bookshop Written Dimension closes 

Thursday, 15 March 2018
Queensland independent bookshop Written Dimension has closed, after 30 years of trading. The Noosa bookstore closed its doors on 21 February, with owner Keith Moore citing rental costs as the...

Auckland Writers Festival 2018 program released

Thursday, 15 March 2018
The program for the 2018 Auckland Writers Festival has been announced. This year’s festival, which runs from 15 to 20 May, will be headlined by Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgård...

Picador to publish new Zusak novel

Wednesday, 14 March 2018
Pan Macmillan Australia has announced it will publish a new novel by Australian author Markus Zusak in October—his first in 13 years. The new book, Bridge of Clay, comes 13...

Leading Edge Books announces conference program

Wednesday, 14 March 2018
Leading Edge Books has released the program for its 2018 conference, to be held from 25-27 March at the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Hobart, Tasmania. Entrepreneur and author Andrew Keen...

Hazel Rowley Fellowship Award 2018 winners announced

Friday, 9 March 2018
Writers Victoria has announced that author Jacqueline Kent has been awarded the $15,000 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship for her proposed biography of political campaigner and women's rights activist Vida Goldstein....

Stella Prize 2018 shortlist announced

Thursday, 8 March 2018
The shortlist for the 2018 Stella Prize has been announced. The shortlisted titles are: The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree (Shokoofeh Azar, Wild Dingo Press) Terra Nullius (Claire G Coleman,...

ABIA 2018 longlists announced

Thursday, 8 March 2018
The longlists for the 2018 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) have been announced. The titles in each category are: General fiction book of the year Force of Nature (Jane Harper,...

Pantera acquires the Author People

Thursday, 8 March 2018
Pantera Press has acquired boutique publishing company the Author People from co-founder Lou Johnson. The purchase will see Pantera take on US rights to A Thousand Shards of Glass by...

Kostakis nominated for Lammy award

Wednesday, 7 March 2018
YA author Will Kostakis has been announced as a finalist in the 30th annual Lambda Literary Awards—known as the ‘Lammys’—for his book The Sidekicks (Penguin). The Lammys celebrate achievement in...

20,000 attend PFWW; Beer tops bestsellers 

Wednesday, 7 March 2018
Twenty thousand people attended the 2018 Perth Festival Writer’s Week (PFWW), which ran from 19 to 25 February. Attendance was down on last year’s event, but a festival spokesperson said...

HarperCollins launches unpublished manuscript prize

Tuesday, 6 March 2018
HarperCollins has launched The Banjo Prize, an annual unpublished manuscript prize for Australian commercial fiction. The winner of the prize will receive a publishing contract with HarperCollins and an advance...

‘The Jade Lily’ sold into North America 

Tuesday, 6 March 2018
Australian author Kirsty Manning’s forthcoming historical-fiction novel, The Jade Lily (A&U), has sold in the US at auction to William Morrow in a two-book deal. The deal was negotiated by...

‘Overland’ Neilma Sidney Prize winners announced

Monday, 5 March 2018
The winner and runners-up for Overland’s second Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize for travel-themed short fiction have been announced. Laura Elvery’s story ‘Unspooling’—about a woman ‘overwhelmed by a pair of...

Pascoe honoured for Lifetime Achievement in Literature

Monday, 5 March 2018
Bunurong writer Bruce Pascoe has won the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. The Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature ‘acknowledges the achievements of eminent literary writers...

Readings Carlton store robbed

Friday, 2 March 2018
Readings’ flagship bookstore in Carlton has been robbed, with the burglars stealing a safe containing more than $10,000, reports the Age. Readings managing director Mark Rubbo said the crime happened...