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ARA Historical Novel Prize increases prize pool to $150,000

10 April 2024
The ARA Historical Novel Prize this year will have a prize pool of $150,000, with the winner of the adult category to receive $100,000—making this 'the richest individual literary prize...

Ambrose joins HarperCollins

10 April 2024
HarperCollins Australia has appointed Sophie Ambrose to the role of publisher, commissioning nonfiction for the ABC Books and HarperCollins imprints. Ambrose replaces Georgia Frances King, who will leave HarperCollins on...

Explainer: What is generative AI, and what does it have to do with books?

10 April 2024
Millicent Weber, Julienne van Loon and Bronwyn Coate write: The term generative artificial intelligence, or generative AI, refers to algorithms that can be used to generate text, images, and audiovisual...

Huia wins 2024 Bologna Prize, Oceania region

10 April 2024
Huia Publishers, based in Aotearoa New Zealand, is the 2024 Oceania winner of the Bologna Prize (BOP) for the Best Children’s Publisher of the Year. The Māori-owned independent publisher has...

ILF wins Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2024

10 April 2024
The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) has won the 2024 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA), worth five million Swedish kronor (A$710,000). The ILF was announced as the winner at a live...

Hachette acquires Farnham memoir

9 April 2024
Hachette Australia has acquired world rights to The Voice Inside, a memoir by John Farnham. The book is written in partnership with Poppy Stockell, director of 2023 Farnham biopic Finding...

Aotearoa New Zealand publishers represented at Bologna

9 April 2024
Eight publishers are exhibiting at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair as part of the Aotearoa New Zealand collective stand. The stand will be managed by Publishers Association of New Zealand...

Puffin UK to launch graphic novel imprint

9 April 2024
In the UK, Penguin Random House has revealed the logo and publishing program of its new graphic novel imprint, Puffin Graphics, reports the Bookseller. The new imprint is aimed at...

NYWF called off for 2024

8 April 2024
The National Young Writers’ Festival, held annually in Newcastle, NSW, will not go ahead this year. Organisers said they are pausing its annual programming to ‘plan, reassess and re-design the...

Affirm acquires rights to Welgemoed cookbook

8 April 2024
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to Cooking with Fire by chef and founder of Adelaide restaurant Africola, Duncan Welgemoed. Welgemoed, who was born in South Africa, was head chef...

Keeperton to acquire print rights to works by ‘established digital-first authors’

8 April 2024
Australian author T L Swan has announced the launch of new publishing venture Keeperton, to be distributed worldwide by Simon & Schuster. With staff based in the US, Australia and...

HarperCollins hopes to announce new date for Wilson memoir ‘in coming weeks’

8 April 2024
Publication of Rebel Rising, a memoir by actor Rebel Wilson to be published by HarperCollins, has been delayed in Australia, where it was originally due to be published last week....

The ‘Australian’ announces new fiction prize as Vogel ends

8 April 2024
The winner of this year’s Australian/Vogel’s Award, to be announced in June, will be the last, with the Australian’s literary editor Caroline Overington stating the newspaper will ‘honour [the Vogel’s]...

Stager, Godwin to be inducted into ABIA Hall of Fame; business, publisher shortlists announced

4 April 2024
Bookseller Fiona Stager and children’s author and publisher Jane Godwin will be inducted into the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Hall of Fame at the 2024 ABIAs ceremony on 9...

China: book market up 4.72%; e-commerce, short-video platforms drive growth

4 April 2024
The value of the book market in China increased by 4.72% in 2023, with sales revenue at list price of 91.2 billion yuan (A$19.3 billion), according to Beijing OpenBook, reports...

UWAP acquires On’s third poetry collection

4 April 2024
UWA Publishing (UWAP) has acquired world rights to Essence, Thuy On’s third collection of poetry. On said the collection is titled Essence ‘because essentially that’s what poetry is about, stripping...

Stella Prize 2024 shortlist announced

4 April 2024
The shortlist for the $60,000 Stella Prize for women and non-binary writers has been announced. The shortlisted books are: Praiseworthy (Alexis Wright, Giramondo) Feast (Emily O’Grady, A&U) Abandon Every Hope: Essays for...

Ultimo acquires Clement nonfiction ‘Desire Paths’

3 April 2024
Ultimo Press has acquired ANZ rights to the nonfiction work Desire Paths by journalist Megan Clement, via Martin Shaw at Shaw Literary. The book is partly based on Clement’s essay...

S&S Aus launches Summit Books, appoints Palfreyman publishing director

3 April 2024
Simon & Schuster (S&S) Australia has announced that it will introduce imprint Summit Books in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, following the announcement late last year that the imprint would...

Bleedthrough: censorship and book banning in Australia

3 April 2024
When Australian writers, publishers, and librarians look at the state of US book banning, we are shocked at the violence and scale of book banning groups. Could attempts to fire...

Windham-Campbell Prizes 2024 recipients announced

3 April 2024
In the US, the recipients of the 2024 Windham-Campbell Prizes, worth US$175,000 (A$268,500) each, have been announced. For fiction, the prize recognised Irish author Deirdre Madden, whose work—including Molly Fox’s Birthday...

Spotify extends audiobook streaming to Aotearoa New Zealand

3 April 2024
Spotify has announced that its audiobook limited-streaming offer has been extended to Premium subscribers in Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as Canada and Ireland. As previously reported by Books+Publishing, the...

Creative Australia announces 2024 VIPs

2 April 2024
Creative Australia has announced the ten international publishers, editors and agents participating in the 2024 Visiting International Publishers (VIPs) program. This year’s participants are: Tamar Brazis (vice president and publisher,...