News | Books+Publishing

Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

Thursday, 1 April 2021
Long-time Hachette Livre CEO Arnaud Nourry has been replaced by Pierre Leroy, co-managing partner of Hachette's parent company Lagardère. Nourry, who had run Hachette since 2003, was replaced on Monday,...

NEWC awarded $50k Create NSW grant

Thursday, 1 April 2021
The New England Writers’ Centre (NEWC) has been awarded a $50,000 grant from Create NSW under its Arts Restart program. The funding is for NEWC's The Inside Story project, which...

No Daily until Tuesday; WBN published Thursday next week

Thursday, 1 April 2021
The Daily newsletter will not be published tomorrow, 2 April, or on Monday, 5 April, due to the Easter public holidays. The next Daily will be published Tuesday, 6 April. Next week's Weekly...

Next ‘WBN’ to be published Thursday

Wednesday, 31 March 2021
Please note that, due to the Easter Monday public holiday on 5 April, the next Weekly Book Newsletter will be published on Thursday, 8 April. The deadline for classifieds and...

JobKeeper wraps up; mixed reactions from indie booksellers, publishers

Wednesday, 31 March 2021
The federal government’s JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme came to an end on Sunday, 28 March. In a survey conducted last year, Books+Publishing found none of the multinational publishers who responded...

Melbourne City of Lit meets Kraków’s Massolit Books

Wednesday, 31 March 2021
In this series, run in partnership with the Melbourne City of Literature Office, we get to know some of the bookshops in the UNESCO Cities of Literature network. 'Massolit is...

International Booker Prize longlist announced

Wednesday, 31 March 2021
The longlist for the 2021 International Booker Prize for translated fiction has been announced. The 13 longlisted titles are: I Live in the Slums (Can Xue, trans from Chinese by...

New writing prize for Western Sydney

Wednesday, 31 March 2021
WestWords and WestLit Libraries have announced a new writing competition for Western Sydney residents. With a prize pool of over $10,000, supported by Create NSW as part of Arts Restart,...

Shirley Marr on ‘A Glasshouse of Stars’

Wednesday, 31 March 2021
Perth author Shirley Marr's fourth children's book, A Glasshouse of Stars (Puffin, May), is a semi-autobiographical middle-grade novel inspired by Marr's experiences growing up as a first-generation Chinese–Australian migrant. Reviewer...

CBCA 2021 Book of the Year shortlists announced

Tuesday, 30 March 2021
The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has announced its 2021 Book of the Year shortlists. The shortlisted books in each category are: Older readers The End of the World...

HarperCollins to acquire Houghton Mifflin Harcourt trade division

Tuesday, 30 March 2021
HarperCollins parent company News Corp will purchase the trade publishing division of US publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) for US$349 million (A$457 million), reports Publishers Weekly (PW). According to PW HMH...

Finnigan awarded inaugural Māori and Pasifika Publishing Scholarship

Tuesday, 30 March 2021
Luke Finnigan has been awarded the inaugural Māori and Pasifika Publishing Scholarship. The scholarship, created by a collaboration between Whitireia Community Polytechnic Ltd and Penguin Random House New Zealand (PRH...

FWF announces closure

Tuesday, 30 March 2021
The biennial Feminist Writers Festival (FWF) has announced its closure due to lack of funding. The inaugural FWF was held during Melbourne Writers Festival in 2016 and in 2018 the...

National Book Critics Circle Awards winners announced

Monday, 29 March 2021
In the US, the winners of the 2020 National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Awards have been announced. The winners include: Fiction Hamnet (Maggie O’Farrell, Tinder Press) Nonfiction Island on Fire: The...

SPN announces 2021 conference dates

Monday, 29 March 2021
The Small Press Network (SPN) has announced the dates for the 2021 Independent Publishing Conference, which is scheduled to run from 25–27 November. The conference will take place in-person at...

APA launches rights networking events

Monday, 29 March 2021
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) has launched a series of rights networking events to help Australian publishers connect with international publishers. The series, which uses the online events platform Hopin,...

MidnightSun acquires Burge debut novel

Friday, 26 March 2021
MidnightSun Publishing has acquired debut novel Tank Water by Michael Burge, a story of homophobic hate crimes and the dangers of growing up feeling different in rural Australia. Burge met...

StoryFest 2021 guests announced

Friday, 26 March 2021
The guests for the second StoryFest festival, which will run from 18 to 20 June in Milton, Mollymook and Ulladulla on the NSW South Coast, have been announced. Guests include...

Federal RISE Covid funding increased to $200 million

Friday, 26 March 2021
The federal government has announced it will increase the funding available through its Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) fund from $75 million to $200 million. For the most...

Dublin Literary Award shortlist announced

Friday, 26 March 2021
The shortlist for the 2021 Dublin Literary Award, worth €100,000 (A$155,200), has been announced, reports the Bookseller. The shortlisted titles are: Girl, Woman, Other (Bernardine Evaristo, Hamish Hamilton) Lost Children...

Gardiner’s ‘Goddess’ optioned for screen

Thursday, 25 March 2021
Kelly Gardiner’s 2014 historical novel Goddess (HarperCollins) has been optioned for the screen by Deux Dames Entertainment and Black Magic, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Deux Dames Entertainment was founded...

Ultimo acquires latest Chandran novel

Thursday, 25 March 2021
Ultimo Press has acquired ANZ rights to Shankari Chandran's third novel Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens, via Tara Wynne at Curtis Brown. Chandran's novel is set in a nursing home...

Stella Prize 2021 shortlist announced

Thursday, 25 March 2021
The shortlist for the 2021 Stella Prize, worth $50,000, has been announced. The six shortlisted books are: Fathoms: The world in the whale (Rebecca Giggs, Scribe) Revenge: Murder in Three Parts (S...

Machado wins 2021 Folio Prize

Thursday, 25 March 2021
In the UK, American writer Carmen Maria Machado has won the 2021 Rathbones Folio Prize, worth £30,000 (A$54,100), for In the Dream House (Serpent’s Tail), an examination of her experience...

Meet literary agent Alex Adsett

Wednesday, 24 March 2021
As the pandemic keeps rights sellers from meeting face-to-face, Books+Publishing is shining a regular spotlight on the work of Australian rights agents. Today, we hear from Alex Adsett, a literary agent representing authors across...