ABIA 2026 photos available
Wednesday, 27 May 2026
Books+Publishing hopes you enjoyed the 2026 Australian Book Industry Awards. Photos of the award ceremony on 21 May are now available for download. Access photos by Peanut Productions on...
Funny Fairytales (Tim Harris, illus Christopher Nielsen, Penguin)
Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Funny Fairytales by Tim Harris, illustrated by Christopher Nielsen, sees the creator of the Mr Bambuckle’s Remarkables series turn his trademark humour to fractured fairytales. He reworks 5 familiar stories...
Rat Daniels (Alex Sawyer, Hachette)
Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Rat Daniels, the debut novel by Alex Sawyer and winner of the 2023 Richell Prize, is a coming-of-age story of loyalty and friendship. Jimmy never quite belonged until he moved...
Parramatta: A Dictionary of Place and Memory (Yumna Kassab, Giramondo)
Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Written during her time as the inaugural Parramatta Laureate in Literature, Yumna Kassab (Politica, The Lovers) turns her eye to nonfiction with Parramatta: A Dictionary of Place and Memory, though...
Neighbours: Australia and the Pacific (Joanne Wallis & Jack Corbett, La Trobe)
Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Neighbours: Australia and the Pacific by Joanne Wallis (Girt by Sea) and Jack Corbett examines Australia’s relationship with the Pacific Islands, a region that may not be front of mind...
Tight Lines (Allee Richards, Summit)
Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Set in a small coastal town in regional Victoria, Allee Richards’s Tight Lines is a literary coming-of-age novel steeped in nostalgia and shaped by loss. On the cusp of adulthood,...
My Dad Makes the World Go Around and Around (Maddy Mara, illus Andrew Joyner, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 26 May 2026
My Dad Makes the World Go Around and Around by Maddy Mara – the pen name for Hilary Rogers and Meredith Badger – is an uplifting story celebrating all the...
SWF 2026 “the most successful” ever
Tuesday, 26 May 2026
The 2026 Sydney Writers’ Festival (SWF), which this year ran 17 to 24 May, recorded a second consecutive year of record-breaking attendance and ticket sales, making it “the most successful...
Allen & Unwin acquires James’s “The Wreck”
Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to crime novel The Wreck by Riley James in a deal brokered by Caitlan Cooper-Trent of Curtis Brown Australia. In 1998, researchers...
“Hoods Landing” sells to Pushkin Press
Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Āporo Press has announced the sale of world all language rights (ex Aotearoa NZ in English and te reo Māori) to Hoods Landing by Laura Vincent to Pushkin Press, in...
RWAG acquires “The Weight of Witness”
Monday, 25 May 2026
Readers and Writers Against the Genocide (RWAG) has acquired the anthology The Weight of Witness: The experiences of Australian and New Zealand medics in Gaza. The collection of essays about...
MWF 2026: Almost 60% of audiences were first-time attendees
Monday, 25 May 2026
Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) reported attendance at its 2026 festival, which ran from 7 to 10 May, was up 16% on the previous year. MWF said more than half of...
AWF26 breaks box office, bookstall records
Monday, 25 May 2026
Ticket sales for the 2026 Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki (AWF26), held in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland from 12 to 17 May, were up 15% on the previous year, representing...
Sworder wins ABIA Book of the Year
Thursday, 21 May 2026
The winners of the 2026 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) have been announced, with Once I Was a Giant by Zeno Sworder (Thames & Hudson) taking out the overall Book...
Christmas Press acquires Brett’s “The Medusa Problem”
Thursday, 21 May 2026
Christmas Press has acquired world rights to The Medusa Problem, a middle-grade novel by Doris Brett, via Debbie Golvan of Golvan Arts Management. The Medusa Problem is a fantasy adventure...
“I can almost hear the em-dashes”: Impressions from MWF opening night
Wednesday, 20 May 2026
Nonie Trainor is completing their Work Integrated Learning at Books+Publishing as a second-year student of the Master of Writing and Publishing program at RMIT University. Trainor attended the Athenaeum theatre...
“Taiwan Travelogue” wins 2026 International Booker Prize
Wednesday, 20 May 2026
Taiwanese author Yáng Shuāng-zǐ has won the 2026 International Booker Prize, worth £50,000 (A$94,300) for Taiwan Travelogue (translated by Lin King, Scribe), reported the Bookseller. The International Booker Prize is awarded...
NSW Literary Awards; Stella winner; Heiss resigns from UQ
Wednesday, 20 May 2026
Anita Heiss has announced her resignation from the University of Queensland; Penguin Random House marketing and publicity director Dot Tonkin has left the publishing house; Better Reading has appointed Natika...
Rights round-up
Wednesday, 20 May 2026
Sales Fiction The Jane Novak Literary Agency has sold Portuguese rights (Brazil) to Prima Facie (Suzie Miller) to Planeta. Nonfiction Black Inc. has sold North American rights to The Experiment and...
Miles Franklin 2026 longlist announced
Wednesday, 20 May 2026
The longlist for the 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award has been announced. Longlisted titles for the $60,000 prize are: Discipline (Randa Abdel-Fattah, University of Queensland Press) I Want Everything (Dominic...
Macdonald wins 2026 Pixie O’Harris Award
Wednesday, 20 May 2026
Paul Macdonald has been named as the recipient of the 2026 Pixie O’Harris Award in the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA). The outgoing president of the Children’s Book Council of...
Fox wins 2026 Lloyd O’Neil Award
Wednesday, 20 May 2026
Mem Fox has been named as the recipient of the 2026 Lloyd O’Neil Award in the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA). Fox has written more than 40 books for children,...
Read the latest Publishers Weekly
Wednesday, 20 May 2026
Books+Publishing partners with US trade news magazine Publishers Weekly to provide our subscribers with exclusive access to the weekly digital edition of PW magazine. View the current edition.
I Wrote My Own Eulogy: The Art of Appreciating Your Own Life (Bradley Dryburgh, S&S)
Tuesday, 19 May 2026
Bradley Dryburgh has done more than write his own eulogy: he has created a memento mori – a reminder of mortality – despite being one of the last people who...
Joey and the Junjardy (Allison Rocca, illus Brenton E McKenna, UQP)
Tuesday, 19 May 2026
Wakka Wakka and Kaanju author Allison Rocca’s debut middle-grade novel, Joey and the Junjardy, is a fast-moving, vibrant comedy-drama. Joey is an 11-year-old, well-meaning yet misjudged prankster who has just...
Lovesick (Lillian Telford, HQ Fiction)
Tuesday, 19 May 2026
Lillian Telford’s debut novel, Lovesick, explores love, obsession, abandonment, addiction and heartbreak, exposing the emotional fractures of characters shaped by trauma. When the lives of two lonely young people collide...
An Ocean and a Day (Hannah Richell, 4th Estate)
Tuesday, 19 May 2026
Hannah Richell’s profoundly moving memoir, An Ocean and a Day, is both a tender love letter and a study of loss and hope, shaped by a devastating voyage through grief...
The Mortons (Scott Westerfeld & Justine Larbalestier, Penguin)
Tuesday, 19 May 2026
Justine Larbalestier (My Sister Rosa) and Scott Westerfeld (the Leviathan series) join forces for the crime-family thriller The Mortons, which delivers plenty of grit and dark academia charm. Jessica Morton...
I Made This Just for You (Chris Ames, Ultimo)
Tuesday, 19 May 2026
Chris Ames’s short story collection, I Made This Just for You, is an astonishing debut and a highly anticipated one after winning the 2025 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished...
The Mushroom and the Flower (Sally Soweol Han, T&H)
Tuesday, 19 May 2026
In The Mushroom and the Flower, written and illustrated by Sally Soweol Han (The Colours of Home), a small forest community is centred around a striking pink-and-white mushroom who is...
