Winners who keep winning: Australian awards news
Tuesday, 4 March 2025
Repeat winners, internationally recognised authors and the latest winners of Australian manuscript prizes As reported in the previous edition of Think Australian, Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy (Giramondo) has already won the...
Australian bestsellers in 2024
Tuesday, 4 March 2025
Top 10 Australian adult fiction bestsellers Here One Moment (Liane Moriarty, Macmillan), 157K Lola in the Mirror (Trent Dalton, Fourth Estate), 80K Boy Swallows Universe (Trent Dalton, Fourth Estate)*, 64K...
The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson
Monday, 3 March 2025
The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson is a gothic delight. It tells the story of Robert Louis Stevenson’s friendship with the charming Eugene Chantrelle and the murder mystery that...
Crimson Light Polished Wood
Monday, 3 March 2025
Leonora, a British immigrant, falls in love with Margaret, a fellow female teacher who three years later dies of cancer. While still grieving for Margaret, Leonora meets and befriends Anna...
Vaccine Nation: Science, reason and the threat to 200 years of progress
Monday, 3 March 2025
While vaccination is arguably the greatest public health achievement in history, the disappearance of many diseases has also seen an increased focus on the side effects of vaccines and the...
Funga Obscura: Photo journeys among fungi
Monday, 3 March 2025
This book is about fungi, and the photography of fungi. The title – Funga Obscura – unites the two. Beginning in elemental landscapes of ice and rock, the book traces...
Invisible Boys
Monday, 3 March 2025
In a small town, everyone thinks they know you: Charlie is a hardcore rocker, who’s not as tough as he looks. Hammer is a footy jock with big AFL dreams,...
The Midnight Chew
Monday, 3 March 2025
When Boofa Boy Jones steals Skippy Gillespie’s very big bone, a marvellous doggy race ensues in the cold and blustery dark, down the street and through the park. But who...
Consider Yourself Kissed (Jessica Stanley, Text)
Tuesday, 18 February 2025
Consider Yourself Kissed is a romance set in London against the backdrop of the UK’s escalating political crises of the 21st century: Tory leadership struggles and re-election and Brexit, culminating...
How to Be Normal (Ange Crawford, Walker)
Tuesday, 4 February 2025
Ange Crawford’s debut novel, How to Be Normal, is a visceral and compelling read. It centres on Astrid, who is returning to high school after five years of homeschooling. She...
The Colours of Home (Sally Soweol Han, T&H)
Tuesday, 4 February 2025
As the title The Colours of Home suggests, colour plays a central role in this beautiful picture book by Korean-Australian artist Sally Soweol Han (Nightsong, Tiny Wonders). The story follows...
Washpool (Lisa Fuller, Lothian)
Tuesday, 28 January 2025
Lisa Fuller’s Washpool is a fun, heartwarming and insightful exploration of family and kinship that takes the portal fantasy genre to a new level. When Murri sisters Bella and Cienna...
This Stays Between Us (Margot McGovern, Penguin)
Tuesday, 28 January 2025
Margot McGovern’s second young adult novel, This Stays Between Us, may have taken seven years, but it’s worth the wait. This gripping thriller, set in the year 2000, is a...
Sunny at the End of the World (Steph Bowe, Text)
Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Steph Bowe’s Sunny at the End of the World, published posthumously, provides clear evidence of Bowe’s creative skills levelling up. The book is set across dual timelines in 2018 and...
Geraldine (Andrea Thompson, Fremantle)
Tuesday, 21 January 2025
In this heartwarming debut novel, spanning the 1960s to the early 2000s, music journalist and artist manager Andrea Thompson tells the story of Geraldine, a fierce protagonist who remains true...
The Last Seed Keeper (Paul Russell, EK Books)
Tuesday, 21 January 2025
In The Last Seed Keeper, the first in Paul Russell’s cli-fi (climate fiction) trilogy of the same name, not a narrative minute is wasted. Tense action, complex speculative cautionary concepts,...
Outrageous Fortunes (Megan Brown & Lucy Sussex, La Trobe)
Tuesday, 14 January 2025
‘Mary Fortune’ might sound like a pseudonym but it’s the name of one of Australia’s most prolific—if often overlooked—woman crime writers. Outrageous Fortunes is a dual biography of Fortune and...
Unhallowed Halls (Lili Wilkinson, A&U)
Tuesday, 10 December 2024
Lili Wilkinson’s latest young adult novel, Unhallowed Halls, is a dark academia fantasy about finding your inner strength and accepting who you are. After a tragic incident that ended her...
Gutsy Girls (Josie McSkimming, UQP)
Tuesday, 10 December 2024
When Dorothy Porter died in 2008, Australia lost one of its greatest contemporary poets. The author of nine poetry collections and five verse novels, Porter had a lusty, raw and...
Diary of a Marine Biologist (Anita Thomas, illus Sarah Wilkins & Anita Thomas, Walker)
Tuesday, 10 December 2024
Did you know that oysters are often called the kidneys of the ocean because they filter a bathtub’s worth of water every two days? Or that marine biologists play a...
Wonders Under the Moon (Tai Snaith, T&H)
Tuesday, 3 December 2024
When the sun goes down, weird and wonderful night-time creatures come out to play. Tai Snaith’s new reference picture book, Wonders Under the Moon: A Collection of Night-Time Creatures, features...
All the Colours of the Rainbow (Rae White, illus Sha’an d’Anthes, Lothian)
Tuesday, 3 December 2024
In All the Colours of the Rainbow, Jem sometimes wants to wear their yellow dress with blue sandals and sometimes blue jeans with orange sneakers. The story invites readers into...
Those Opulent Days (Jacquie Pham, Ultimo)
Tuesday, 3 December 2024
At first glance, Jacquie Pham’s debut novel, Those Opulent Days, might appear to be a classic whodunit murder mystery, except the true ‘villain’ is far from the usual suspect. Set...
A Piece of Red Cloth (Leonie Norrington, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Djawa Burarrwanga & Djawundil Maymuru, A&U)
Tuesday, 3 December 2024
The best fiction allows the reader to enter times, cultures and places otherwise inaccessible. Children’s fiction writer Leonie Norrington was commissioned by her adoptive mother, Yolŋu woman Clare Bush, to...
Figuring Out Thirty: Decoding the Decisive Decade (And What Really Matters) (Bridget Hustwaite, Penguin)
Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Bridget Hustwaite (How to Endo) is well known as an author and podcaster for her valuable insights into women’s health. Her latest book, Figuring Out Thirty: Decoding the Decisive Decade...
Lexie Moon and the Word Burgling Bungle (Melissa Garside, illus Lauren Mullinder, Riveted Press)
Tuesday, 5 November 2024
Lexie Moon and the Word Burgling Bungle is debut author Melissa Garside’s exciting junior novel about a creative and prolific 10-year-old inventor. Lexie has been mentored by her grandfather, but...
Yayoi Kusama (ed by Wayne Crothers & Miranda Wallace, NGV)
Tuesday, 22 October 2024
The book Yayoi Kusama from the National Gallery of Victoria captures the extraordinary 80-year legacy of the enigmatic artist, as showcased in the titular exhibition. This tribute to one of...
Thunderhead (Sophie Beer, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 1 October 2024
Thunderhead is the debut middle-grade novel by award-winning author and illustrator Sophie Beer. Thunderhead (the titular character’s online username—their name isn’t revealed until the end of the book) is an...
Australian market news: Publishers welcome survival of key online bookseller
Thursday, 26 September 2024
As the Australian book trade approaches the crucial Christmas bookselling period, publishers do so with some relief that a key local channel to market has survived to sell books in...
Australian fiction and poetry at Frankfurt
Thursday, 26 September 2024
Australian publishers are excited to pitch a wide range of fiction titles this year, including major award winners, debuts and follow-ups, in genres ranging from complex literary works to page-turning...
