UQP acquires new Prosser novel
Tuesday, 21 October 2025
University of Queensland Press (UQP) has acquired world rights for Blue Giant by writer and filmmaker Jordan Prosser. The novel centres on disillusioned Melburnian millennial Abby Horne. “Abby once believed...
Create NSW announces literature strategy
Tuesday, 21 October 2025
The New South Wales government has launched Stories Matter: A Writing and Literature Strategy for NSW to support writers and readers across the state and beyond. The strategy, developed in...
Manawatu wins 2025 Keri Hulme Award
Monday, 20 October 2025
Becky Manawatu (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Māmoe, Waitaha) has been awarded the 2025 Keri Hulme Award for Kataraina (The Cube Press) as part of the biennial Pikihuia awards. The Keri Hulme...
Boy Swallows Universe takes top spot in ABC Radio National top 100
Monday, 20 October 2025
Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton (Fourth Estate, 2018) took first place in ABC Radio National’s Top 100 Books of the 21st Century poll. The results were announced on air...
Varnish lit mag, prize launches
Monday, 20 October 2025
Varnish, a new Australian literary journal that aims to publish “evocative written art with timeless beauty”, has launched. “Motivated by the desire to see a broadening space for literary culture,...
Murdoch acquires King nonfiction
Monday, 20 October 2025
Murdoch Books has acquired world rights to Screen Wise by Madonna King. Screen Wise will address screen time and online safety, “the biggest issue facing parents today”, said the publisher....
Hachette to host panel on LGBTQ+ support and allyship in the workplace
Monday, 20 October 2025
Hachette Australia has announced an OutWOMAN+ panel discussion in collaboration with Out Leadership, a global platform aiming to promote LGBTQ+ equality. The panel, which will take place 21 October between...
Australian Short Story Festival 2025 program announced
Monday, 20 October 2025
The Australian Short Story Festival (ASSF) has announced its 2025 program. The festival will be held in Adelaide from 21 to 23 November 2025 under the theme “Good Things Come...
David Brooks wins 2025 Patrick White Literary Award
Monday, 20 October 2025
Poet, writer, and academic David Brooks has won the $20,000 Patrick White Literary Award for 2025. Award trustee Perpetual described the award as “a richly deserved recognition of [Brooks’s] profound...
Walkley Book Award 2025 longlist announced
Monday, 20 October 2025
The Walkley Foundation has announced the finalists for the 70th annual Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism. The works longlisted for the Walkley Book Award are: All Women Want (Alyx...
Tan announced as managing editor for Overland
Monday, 20 October 2025
Overland has announced Cher Tan will step into the role of managing editor. An essayist, editor and critic, Tan takes over from Natasha Seymour, who is leaving the journal after seven...
Arnott, Walton, Leal win 2025 ARA Historical Novel Prize
Thursday, 16 October 2025
Robbie Arnott and Tasma Walton will share the $100,000 ARA Historical Novel Prize in the adult category for their works Dusk (Picador) and I Am Nannertgarrook (Bundyi) respectively, while Suzanne Leal has...
Ventura Press acquires Fitzsimmons’s debut crime novel
Thursday, 16 October 2025
Ventura Press has acquired world rights to The Rising, a gripping police procedural crime novel by journalist Whitney Fitzsimmons. The Rising follows journalist Bec Carter, who finds the bones of...
2025 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers shortlist
Thursday, 16 October 2025
Hachette Australia and the Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) have announced the shortlist for the 2025 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers. Chosen from the longlist announced last month, the 5 shortlisted writers...
Wombat Books acquires Ahola’s debut middle-grade novel
Thursday, 16 October 2025
Wombat Books has acquired world rights to Miles Thorne and the Forbidden Magic by Rebecca Ahola. After being kicked out of Nox Wizarding Academy, Miles Thorne is terrified of his...
Jenner wins 2025 Kathleen Grattan Poetry Award
Thursday, 16 October 2025
In Aotearoa New Zealand, Lynn Jenner has been announced as the winner of the 2025 Kathleen Grattan Poetry Award for her manuscript The Gum Trees of Kerikeri. The collection is...
Prichard wins 2025 Landfall Tauraka Essay Prize
Thursday, 16 October 2025
In Aotearoa New Zealand, literary journal Landfall Tauraka has announced Tasmin Prichard as the winner of this year’s Landfall Tauraka Essay Prize for their essay “Four Hours in the Dark,...
Magabala Books acquires van Neerven’s middle-grade novel
Thursday, 16 October 2025
Magabala Books has acquired world rights to Ruby’s Web, a middle-grade novel by Ellen van Neerven. Beginning year 7, Ruby finds herself facing online bullying every day. Even her former...
A&U acquires Legge’s memoir
Thursday, 16 October 2025
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired world English rights to Delicious, a memoir “celebrating food and friendship” by author and journalist Kate Legge. According to the publisher, Delicious: Stories of Cooking, Love...
Bayt Al-Hikma: the first library in the Islamic world
Thursday, 16 October 2025
With libraries, their work, and free access to information under increasing threat around the world, B+P and the Melbourne UNESCO City of Literature Office reached out to libraries in other designated cities of...
Murray awarded 2025 ASA Medal
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced Kirsty Murray is the recipient of the 2025 ASA Medal. The ASA board noted Murray’s contribution to young people’s literature, including “her...
Bowen named incoming BookPeople CEO
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
BookPeople, the Australian booksellers association, has announced Susannah Bowen as incoming CEO, starting “in the coming weeks”. Bowen takes over from current CEO Robbie Egan, who began the role in...
Australian library visits surge
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
Australians are turning to their local libraries in record numbers, according to a new industry report. The Australian Public Libraries Statistical Report 2023–2024, released this week by the National and State...
O’Malley wins 2025 CLNZ/NZSA Writers’ Award
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
Vincent O’Malley has won the 2025 Copyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ) and the New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ Inc) Writers’ Award, worth...
IPA launches Defender Award
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
The International Publishers Association (IPA) has launched the IPA Freedom of Expression Defenders Award. “The freedom to publish sits alongside the freedom of expression and the freedom to read as...
Tse named 2025 Malouf poet-in-residence
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
Aotearoa New Zealand poet and editor Chris Tse has been named the 2025 Arts Queensland Malouf poet-in-residence. Based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington), Tse was Aotearoa New Zealand’s Poet Laureate from...
‘17 Years Later’ to be adapted for TV
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
Bruna Papandera and Made Up Stories have acquired television rights to JP Pomare’s novel 17 Years Later (Hachette, 2024). The adaptation will be directed and executive-produced by John Polson (Elementary),...
Voss Literary Prize 2025 longlist announced
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
The longlist for the 2025 Voss Literary Prize, awarded to the best novel published in Australia in the previous year, has been announced. The longlisted titles are: The Burrow (Melanie...
Transit Lounge acquires Hawthorn’s next novel
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
Transit Lounge has acquired world rights to High Land, a novel by Sarah Hawthorn, via Sally Bird at Calidris Literary Agency. According to the publisher, High Land follows Annie, who...
Scribe acquires Woollett nonfiction debut
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
Scribe has acquired world rights to Hell Days, Laura Elizabeth Woollett’s nonfiction debut. Blending memoir, true crime, medical research, interviews, and cultural analysis, Hell Days investigates premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a hormonal...




