Amelia Mellor recommends
Tuesday, 17 June 2025
An in-joke with my sister recently led me to revisit Odo Hirsch’s Bartlett and the Ice Voyage, an audiobook we once listened to on a road trip as kids. The...
RWA announces Ruby Award 2025 finalists
Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Romance Writers of Australia (RWA) has announced the finalists for the 2025 Romantic Book of the Year (Ruby) Awards. The shortlisted titles in each category are: Historical The Duke Says...
Words on the Waves report ‘record number of attendees’
Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Words on the Waves, the Central Coast’s writers festival, reported ‘a record number of attendees’ at this year's festival. Representing a 20% increase from 2024, the festival reported 6084 festival...
Clan Destine Press acquires Gordon Thompson novel
Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Clan Destine Press has acquired the world rights to Kill Will: Nightbird in Sunlight by Gordon Thompson. According to the publisher, Kill Will: Nightbird in Sunlight follows as ‘a young...
Wilderness Society announces Environment Awards, Karajia Awards shortlists
Tuesday, 17 June 2025
The Wilderness Society has announced the shortlists for the 2025 Environment Award for Children’s Literature and Karajia Award for First Nations Children’s Storytelling. The shortlisted titles in each category are:...
Affirm Press acquires MinOn picture book
Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to the picture book Make Them Say Poo by Steve MinOn under the pen name Stephen, via literary agent Martin Shaw of Shaw Literacy....
Powerhouse announces Shakthidharan memoir as first literary acquisition
Monday, 16 June 2025
Powerhouse has acquired ANZ rights for Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath, the debut memoir by S Shakthidharan, via Anthony Blair, Cameron’s Management. Gather Up Your World in...
Taylor’s ‘Ruins’ to be adapted for film
Monday, 16 June 2025
Miramax president of film group Alexandra Loewy has acquired film rights to the forthcoming novel Ruins (A&U, July) by Melbourne-based author Amy Taylor. The novel will be adapted into a...
TitlePage announces plans for upgraded search, new functionality
Monday, 16 June 2025
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) has announced a suite of upgrades to TitlePage, with a focus on improving access and use of TitlePage data. TitlePage launched in 2004 with eight...
Perentie Press acquires first YA graphic novel
Monday, 16 June 2025
Perentie Press has acquired world rights to The Curator, a YA graphic novel by author/illustrator Wendy Tyrer, the first YA graphic novel acquisition for the new press. The novel asks,...
BookPeople 2025 Book of the Year, Bookseller of the Year winners announced
Monday, 16 June 2025
BookPeople has announced the winners of the 2025 Book of the Year Awards, and the Bookseller of the Year awards. Adult fiction Dusk (Robbie Arnott, Picador) Adult nonfiction The Season (Helen...
Hachette acquires Chloe Fisher memoir
Monday, 16 June 2025
Hachette Australia has acquired Always You, a memoir from Chloe Fisher with Alley Pascoe. Always You follows Fisher’s life story as she meets and marries pro-surfer Paul Fisher, said the...
Inaugural New Voices of Aotearoa winners announced
Monday, 16 June 2025
The Coalition for Books has announced the winners of the inaugural New Voices of Aotearoa competition. Chosen from over 30 nominations, the winners are: Wellington essayist Una Cruickshank Raglan journalist,...
Sharp acquires Marshall short story film rights
Monday, 16 June 2025
Melbourne-based filmmaker Tim Sharp has acquired the film option to Wayne Marshall’s short story ‘A Night Out’ from Marshall’s debut collection Shirl (Affirm Press), via Martin Shaw at Shaw Literary. Sharp...
van der Wouden, Clarke win 2025 Women’s Prizes
Friday, 13 June 2025
In the UK, the 2025 Women’s Prizes have been announced. The SafeKeep by Dutch author Yael van der Wouden (Penguin) has won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, while The Story...
Book Club – this month’s reads
Friday, 13 June 2025
Looking for your next great group read? Our monthly Book Club rounds up new release titles that are perfect for sparking conversation and perhaps even some debate. From compelling fiction...
ACT Literary Awards 2025 shortlist announced
Thursday, 12 June 2025
MARION ACT has announced the shortlists for the 2025 ACT Literary Awards. The shortlisted titles are: Children’s literature shortlist (younger readers) Alphabetter (Maura Pierlot, illus by Jorge Garcia Redondo, Affirm Kids)...
Colussi wins 2025 Penguin Literary Prize
Thursday, 12 June 2025
Penguin Random House (PRH) Australia has announced Touch Grass by Mary Colussi as the winner of the 2025 Penguin Literary Prize. Chosen from a shortlist of six, Touch Grass is...
UK AI Bill passes House of Commons
Thursday, 12 June 2025
In the UK, the Data Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday afternoon with MPs voting 304 vs 189 in favour, reported BookBrunch. Notably for the creative industries...
UQP acquires Lucashenko’s first nonfiction title
Thursday, 12 June 2025
The University of Queensland Press (UQP) has acquired ANZ rights to Not Quite White in the Head, a collection of essays and journalism by Melissa Lucashenko, via Alex Adsett of...
First events announced for Red Room Poetry Month 2025
Thursday, 12 June 2025
Red Room Poetry has announced the first events for the 2025 program for the annual Poetry Month, set to run 30 July – 3 September 2025. Originally launched in 2021,...
What’s so special about special editions?
Wednesday, 11 June 2025
The book as a collectible item seems to wax and wane as a trend. On noticing a distinct waxing interest lately, Books+Publishing (B+P) decided to reach out to some industry...
Byron Writers Festival announces 2025 program
Wednesday, 11 June 2025
The program for the Byron Writers Festival, running 8–10 August on Bundjalung Country, has been announced. With the theme Passion and Purpose, the 2025 program features over 160 writers from...
Creative Australia launches Creative Workplaces
Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Creative Australia has launched the Creative Workplaces website, a ‘free online hub of resources about pay, safety and respect, to help everyone working in the creative industries understand their rights...
Atria acquires Hortinela debut
Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Atria Books Australia has acquired world rights to Hate You to Love You by bookseller Joshua Hortinela in a two-book deal through Daniel Pilkington at The Pilkington Agency. ‘Hate You...
Kirshner wins 2025 Fitzcarraldo Editions/Mahler & LeWitt Studios Essay Prize
Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Sarai Kirshner has won the 2025 Fitzcarraldo Editions/Mahler & LeWitt Studios Essay Prize with her proposal for On Refusal. 'Taking its roots in the space between two walls – The Wailing Wall, a...
Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund round 13 recipients announced
Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Writers Victoria has announced the recipients of the 13th round of the Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund. The eight recipients – who will share the $50,595 in funding – are:...
Creative Australia announces Marten Bequest, Dal Stivens, Kathleen Mitchell recipients
Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Creative Australia has announced the recipients of the Marten Bequest Scholarships and the Dal Stivens and Kathleen Mitchell awards. The Marten Bequest Scholarships enable artists ‘to explore, study and develop...
Olivia De Zilva on ‘Plastic Budgie’
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Tarndanya/Adelaide-based writer Olivia De Zilva’s debut, Plastic Budgie (Pink Shorts Press, August), is described as a ‘sharply funny, sad and sentimental reflection on the people, places and cultural forces that...
Olivia De Zilva recommends
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Cher Tan’s Peripathetic: Notes on (Un)belonging. I’ve worked with Cher before and have been a fan of her writing for a long time. Cher was really one of the first...
