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‘Message in a Sock’ wins children’s book award

Monday, 21 October 2019
Picture book Message in a Sock (Kaye Baillie, illus by Narelda Joy, MidnightSun) has won a Northern Lights Book Award for children’s books that ‘excel in aesthetic and literary qualities...

Benson’s ‘Vertigo & Ghost’ wins Forward Poetry Prize

Monday, 21 October 2019
Fiona Benson’s poetry collection Vertigo & Ghost (Cape Poetry) has won the £10,000 (A$18,846) Forward Prize for best poetry collection, reports the Guardian. Vertigo & Ghost explores vulnerability and rage,...

LEB to hold 2020 conference in Brisbane

Monday, 21 October 2019
Leading Edge Books (LEB) will hold its annual conference on 22–24 March at the Sofitel Brisbane Central. The conference program for Sunday, 22 March includes member forums, a keynote presentation,...

US$75k Cundill History Prize 2019 finalists announced

Friday, 18 October 2019
The three finalists for the Cundill History Prize have been announced. Chosen from a shortlist of eight, the finalists are: Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi persecution and the quest for justice (Mary...

Walkley Book Award 2019 longlist announced

Friday, 18 October 2019
The Walkley Book Award longlist for 2019 has been announced. The longlisted titles are: Rusted Off: Why country Australia is fed up (Gabrielle Chan, Vintage) Banking Bad (Adele Ferguson, ABC Books) The Hunt...

‘Dark Emu’ to be adapted for TV documentary series

Friday, 18 October 2019
Bruce Pascoe’s book Dark Emu (Magabala) will be adapted as a television documentary series by Blackfella Films, a Sydney-based documentary production company founded by Rachel Perkins. Screen Australia has announced...

S&S to reissue Trioli’s ‘Generation F’ 

Thursday, 17 October 2019
Simon & Schuster (S&S) will reissue journalist Virginia Trioli’s Generation F in November, with a new foreword and afterword by the author. Originally published by Heinemann imprint Minerva in 1996, Generation...

Noni moves to PRH after eight-way auction

Thursday, 17 October 2019
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired ANZ rights to a new series from YA author Lynette Noni titled 'The Prison Healer'. Rights were acquired in an eight-way auction via...

Self-published books in the US grew by 40% in 2018

Thursday, 17 October 2019
Self-publishing in the US grew by 40% in 2018, according to a report published by Bowker. In total 1.68 million print and ebooks were self-published in 2018, up from 1.19...

‘Supper Club’ wins 2019 Not the Booker

Thursday, 17 October 2019
English writer Lara Williams has won the Guardian’s 2019 Not the Booker Prize for her debut novel Supper Club (Hamish Hamilton). For the second year running, the judges overruled the public...

Owners of The Hobart Bookshop to retire

Wednesday, 16 October 2019
The owners of The Hobart Bookshop, Christopher Pearce and Janet Grecian, have decided to retire after almost 30 years of owning the business. In the early 1970s, after graduating with...

Brisbane libraries ban Extinction Rebellion protestors

Wednesday, 16 October 2019
Brisbane's LNP City Council has banned Extinction Rebellion activists from using the city's libraries to plan protests, reports the Brisbane Times. Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner put forward an 'urgency motion'...

Scribe acquires book on Hong Kong protest movement

Wednesday, 16 October 2019
Scribe publisher Henry Rosenbloom has acquired world rights to City on Fire: The fight for Hong Kong by Antony Dapiran, an Australian writer and lawyer who has lived in Hong...

UK governments to give £250m funding boost to libraries

Wednesday, 16 October 2019
In the UK, the government has announced £250 million (A$464.7m) in funding for libraries, museums and other cultural projects, reports the Arts Newspaper. The funding injection comes after years of...

Jan Richards to receive ALIA’s H C L Anderson Award

Wednesday, 16 October 2019
The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) will present the H C L Anderson award to Central West Libraries NSW manager Jan Richards. Richards will be presented with the award...

Oz, NZ authors and illustrators on 2019 White Ravens list

Wednesday, 16 October 2019
Several books by Australian and New Zealand authors and illustrators have been included in the 2019 White Ravens list for international children’s and youth literature. The Australian titles on the...

Lawyer Stewart Levitt launches $20,000 poetry prize 

Wednesday, 16 October 2019
Human rights lawyer Stewart Levitt has launched the biennial $20,000 Levitt Indigenous Poetry Prize for poems that ‘reflect Indigenous social, personal and political issues’. Entrants need not be Indigenous or...

Shortlist for India’s JCB Prize for Literature announced

Wednesday, 16 October 2019
The shortlist for India's richest literary award, the Rs 2.5 million (A$51,800) JCB Prize for Literature, has been announced. The shortlisted works of fiction are: Ib’s Endless Search for Satisfaction...

Scrivenor wins 2019 Ray Koppe Residency

Wednesday, 16 October 2019
Hayley Scrivenor has won the Australian Society of Authors (ASA)’s 2019 Ray Koppe Young Writers’ Residency for her manuscript ‘The Push Back’. Scrivenor’s manuscript tells the story of a young...

Taking stock: Hachette’s Next Stock Date system 

Tuesday, 15 October 2019
Hachette’s Next Stock Date system aims to provide booksellers with timely, accurate data. After spending more than two years developing it, Hachette has offered to share what they’ve learned with...

Book designer spotlight: Imogen Stubbs

Tuesday, 15 October 2019
A love of publishing sparked by the Professional Writing and Editing course at RMIT led to studying graphic design, eventually landing Imogen Stubbs a job at Text Publishing, where she...

Full program announced for SPN conference 2019

Tuesday, 15 October 2019
The Small Press Network (SPN) has announced the full program for its 2019 Independent Publishing Conference, which will run at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne from 21–23 November. It will...