Crema new owner of Robinsons
Tuesday, 21 April 2026
Denis Crema is the new owner of the Robinsons Bookshop chain. Founded by Philip and Moira Robinson, the Robinsons business began as a local bookshop in the Melbourne suburb of...
Magabala, the Book Show warn of fraudulent emails
Tuesday, 21 April 2026
Radio National and publisher Magabala Books have each warned creators about fraudulent emails being sent to authors. Magabala said an email from someone claiming to be a Magabala editor had...
Saunders illustrations win at Bologna Illustrators Exhibition
Tuesday, 21 April 2026
Australian illustrator Lauren Saunders is among the winning illustrators at Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF) Illustrators Exhibition. A jury selected Saunders’s illustration set of 5 artworks as a winning entry,...
Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2026 shortlist announced
Tuesday, 21 April 2026
The shortlist for the 2026 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction has been announced, reports the Bookseller. The shortlisted titles are: Benbecula (Graeme Macrae Burnet, Text) The Matchbox Girl (Alice...
A&U acquires Jenkins’s “Bad Neighbours”
Tuesday, 21 April 2026
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to forthcoming crime novel Bad Neighbours by Joanna Jenkins via Gaby Naher of The Naher Agency. Featuring Ruth Dawson, the main character...
Publisher of Patterson memoir to be revealed in “coming weeks”
Monday, 20 April 2026
A memoir by Simon Patterson, the estranged husband of murderer Erin Patterson, has been acquired by an as-yet-unnamed publisher, reported the Guardian. Patterson’s spokesperson, Jessica O’Donnell, told Guardian Australia that...
Local authors longlisted for 2026 CWA Daggers
Monday, 20 April 2026
Local authors Sam Guthrie, Laura McCluskey, Zoë Rankin and Jennifer Trevelyan are among those whose works have been longlisted for the UK Crime Writers’ Association’s (CWA) 2026 Dagger Awards. Guthrie,...
State Library of NSW releases research showing benefits of libraries
Monday, 20 April 2026
The State Library of NSW has released new research highlighting the social value and community benefits of libraries. Key findings from the report, released in late March 2026, include: People...
Klassen wins Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award
Monday, 20 April 2026
Canadian illustrator and picture book artist Jon Klassen has won the 2026 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, worth 5 million SEK (A$761,000). Klassen’s breakout book, I Want My Hat Back (Walker...
Book Club – this month’s reads
Friday, 17 April 2026
Looking for your next great group read? Our monthly Book Club rounds up new release titles perfect for sparking conversation and perhaps even some debate. From compelling fiction to thought-provoking...
Bloomsbury reorganises its global publishing business
Thursday, 16 April 2026
Bloomsbury is reorganising its global business, with a new structure coming into effect on 1 June 2026, affecting an estimated 55 roles across the UK and US. Locally, Bloomsbury’s Asia-Pacific...
Oliver wins €6000 Moth Poetry Prize
Thursday, 16 April 2026
English poet Adam Oliver has won the €6000 (A$9900) Moth Poetry Prize for “Shazaya”. The annual international prize for a single unpublished poem, now in its 15th year, is sponsored...
HGCP acquires “Sagittarius Rising”
Thursday, 16 April 2026
Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing (HGCP) has acquired world rights to children’s chapter book Sagittarius Rising by author Maxine Beneba Clarke and illustrator Jade Goodwin. Senior publisher Chren Byng said, “For...
Ingram: “Forecasting demand has become more challenging for retailers”
Wednesday, 15 April 2026
In the lead-up to the 2026 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs), Books+Publishing is inviting the event’s major sponsors to share little-known facts about their organisations, their top tips for booksellers and publishers,...
ABIA 2026 business award shortlists announced
Wednesday, 15 April 2026
Books+Publishing, in partnership with the Australian Publishers Association, has announced the 2026 business award shortlists for the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs). The shortlistees in each category are: Bookshop of...
From an attic to a “forever home”: 50 years of Fremantle Press
Wednesday, 15 April 2026
In 1976, Fremantle Press began operations in the attic of a former asylum. Five peripatetic decades later, the Press has just moved into its forever home in Fremantle’s East End,...
Messy Press wins Bologna Prize for Oceania
Wednesday, 15 April 2026
Aotearoa New Zealand children’s publisher Messy Press has won the 2026 Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publishers of the Year in the Oceania region, announced as part of the...
Paragraph Fellowship to award two prize winners from 2026
Wednesday, 15 April 2026
The Paragraph Fellowship will extend the award to two fellows in 2026 thanks to the Dyson Bequest’s contribution to the Time to Write fund. There will be a one-off payment...
Walsh’s “God AI” sells into North America, UK, India
Wednesday, 15 April 2026
Black Inc. has sold North American, UK, Indian subcontinent and audio rights to God AI: Boom or Doom? What to Expect When Machines Outsmart Us (Toby Walsh, La Trobe University...
The Age Book of the Year 2026 shortlists announced
Wednesday, 15 April 2026
The shortlists for the 2026 Age Book of the Year awards have been announced. Shortlisted works in each category are: Fiction Fierceland (Omar Musa, Penguin) The Immigrants (Moreno Giovannoni, Black Inc.) Out of the...
Ball appointed UQP publishing director
Wednesday, 15 April 2026
University of Queensland Press (UQP) has announced the appointment of Ben Ball as publishing director “after an extensive recruitment process”. Ball takes over from Madonna Duffy who was appointed UQP...
Hans Christian Andersen Award 2026 winners announced
Wednesday, 15 April 2026
Children’s writer Michael Rosen, from the UK, and illustrator Cai Gao, from China, have been named the winners of the 2026 IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) Hans...
Mary Colussi recommends
Tuesday, 14 April 2026
Rapture by Emily Maguire is so very brilliant. I find people who write historical fiction automatically impressive – the research intimidates me, let alone the writing itself, but the ninth...
Mary Colussi on “Touch Grass”
Tuesday, 14 April 2026
Mary Colussi is a Sydney-based writer whose debut novel, Touch Grass, won the 2025 Penguin Literary Prize. Books+Publishing reviewer Danielle Bagnato described it as a “clever and incisive story that...
Weymouth wins inaugural Sherborne Prize for Travel Writing
Tuesday, 14 April 2026
In the UK, Adam Weymouth has won the inaugural £10,000 (A$19,043) Sherborne Prize for Travel Writing for Lone Wolf (Hutchinson Heinemann), reported the Bookseller. Weymouth’s account of a young wolf’s 1000-mile journey to the...
Audible adds new lower-price tier
Tuesday, 14 April 2026
Audible has launched a new standard membership tier in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and France. Priced at A$8.99 locally, the new tier offers subscribers one...
Regional shortlist released for 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize
Tuesday, 14 April 2026
One Aotearoa New Zealand writer and one Australian writer are among the finalists for the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. The works shortlisted for the Pacific region are: ‘Bitter Water...
SWF responds to bookseller criticism
Monday, 13 April 2026
In a statement responding to bookseller criticism of its approach to competing events, the Sydney Writers’ Festival (SWF) has stated that it is “supportive, on a case-by-case basis, of an...
“Magpies” magazine to cease publication of Source database
Monday, 13 April 2026
The Source, a database and subject guide to children’s literature with an emphasis on publications from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, will cease operation at the end of June 2026....
SWF non-compete clause “a disaster for independent bookshops”
Monday, 13 April 2026
The Sydney Writers’ Festival, which prides itself on being “a barometer of the world around us”, last year jointly received $1.5 million from the NSW government to expand events beyond...
