Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

Image. Advertisement:

News sections >

Nigerian publisher Masobe Books acquires 5 books by Bacon

Tuesday, 31 March 2026
Othuke Ominiabohs, founder and publisher of Masobe Books, has acquired Nigerian rights for five books by African-Australian author Eugen Bacon, in a deal brokered in partnership with Bacon’s US publisher...

Upswell acquires Nowra’s “My Grandfather’s Ghost”

Louis Nowra Tuesday, 31 March 2026
Upswell Publishing has acquired world rights to My Grandfather’s Ghost, a narrative nonfiction title by Louis Nowra, via Natalie Stewart, HLA Management. Describing My Grandfather’s Ghost, Nowra said, “On 12...

Aaron wins 2026 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize

Monday, 30 March 2026
In the UK, Huw Aaron has won the 2026 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, worth £5000 (A$9657), for Sleep Tight, Disgusting Blob (Puffin), reports the Bookseller. Aaron’s is the second picture book...

S&S acquires Rogers’s “The Damned”

Photograph of Matt Rogers in front of a window, arms folded Monday, 30 March 2026
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired The Damned by Matt Rogers. Described as a “heart-pounding new thriller”, The Damned follows the author’s 2025 thriller The Forsaken and again features ex-assassin Logan...

Newcastle Writers Festival kicks off tomorrow

Newcastle Writers Festival Thursday, 26 March 2026
Newcastle Writers Festival (NWF) runs from 27 to 29 March, with an opening night event featuring London-based Australian author Kathy Lette, who will reflect on “her writing career, resilience, and...

ABA 2026 conference program announced

Thursday, 26 March 2026
The Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) has released the program for its 2026 conference, to run from 13 to 15 June at in Canberra at the QT hotel (pictured). Sessions at...

Bakers Lane acquires Jones’s “Swimming Backwards”

Photograph of Helen Jones Thursday, 26 March 2026
Bakers Lane Books has acquired world rights to the novel Swimming Backwards by Helen Jones. Swimming Backwards, which was shortlisted for the publisher’s inaugural Fearless Prize, tells the story of grieving...

Women’s Prize for Nonfiction 2026 shortlist announced

The 2026 Women’s Prize for Nonfiction Judging Panel Thursday, 26 March 2026
In the UK, the shortlist for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Nonfiction, worth  £30,000 (A$57,702) has been announced. The six shortlisted titles are: The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History...

Rights round-up 

Wednesday, 25 March 2026
Sales Fiction Jane Novak Literary Agency has sold various rights to Prima Facie (Suzie Miller, Picador), with Greek rights to Antipodes, Estonian rights to Hea Lugu and Japanese rights to...

Text acquires Szubanski memoir

Photograph of Magda Szubanski Wednesday, 25 March 2026
Text Publishing has announced the acquisition of the memoir I Can’t Tell You But I Will by Magda Szubanski. Szubanski is a comedian, actor and LGBT rights advocate. Her previous memoir,...

HGCP acquires “The Everywhere Train”

Writer Deborah Frenkel and illustrator Danny Snell Wednesday, 25 March 2026
Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing (HGCP) has acquired world rights to The Everywhere Train by author Deborah Frenkel and illustrator Danny Snell. From the creators of 2025 National Simultaneous Storytime book The...

BookUp conference and research day dates announced 

Wednesday, 25 March 2026
The 2026 BookUp publishing conference will run in Melbourne on 22 July, the Australian Publishers Association (APA) has announced. Now in its sixth year, BookUp in 2026 “will focus on...

Local bookshop numbers double for 2026 “crawl” 

logo for Global Book Crawl Wednesday, 25 March 2026
Following the inaugural Global Book Crawl (GBC) in 2025, 140 Australian bookshops have signed up for this year’s event. In 2026, 12 separate book crawls will take place in Australia,...

Read the latest Publishers Weekly 

Wednesday, 25 March 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.

Periodic Bitch (Emma Hardy, A&U) 

Tuesday, 24 March 2026
In Periodic Bitch, Emma Hardy delivers a memoir that is both intellectually rigorous and literary in style, interrogating the cultural construction of the “female monster” alongside her lived experience of premenstrual...

Capture (Amanda Lohrey, Text) 

The cover of "Capture" by Amanda Lohrey. Tuesday, 24 March 2026
In Amanda Lohrey’s Capture, ageing psychiatrist James Mather is commissioned to research psychological explanations for alien capture experiences. His interviews with “experiencers” – whose stories he quickly finds to be...

Silvia (Maya Caruso, Echo) 

Tuesday, 24 March 2026
Midlife awakening lies at the heart of Maya Caruso’s impressive debut novel, Silvia. This character-driven novel follows 42-year-old Silvia, a divorced daughter of a widowed Italian matriarch, Silvia Senior, whose...

A Little Unwell (Kerry Jewell, Hachette) 

Tuesday, 24 March 2026
Kerry Jewell’s debut novel, A Little Unwell, is a candid medical drama that draws back the privacy curtain on the life of a young resident doctor working rotations at an...

Dylan Thomas Prize 2026 shortlist announced

Tuesday, 24 March 2026
In the UK, the shortlist for Swansea University's Dylan Thomas Prize has been announced. This year, the shortlist is composed of 4 novels and 2 poetry collections. The shortlisted titles...

Thom wins 2025 Judith Wright Poetry Prize

Photograph of Mia Thom in a hat in front of some green vegetation Tuesday, 24 March 2026
Overland has announced Mia Thom as the winner of the 2025 Judith Wright Poetry Prize, worth $6000, for their poem “go raging”. Thom’s poem, chosen from a shortlist of 8, will...

Campos wins inaugural Kat Muscat Award

Tuesday, 24 March 2026
The inaugural winner of the $1000 Kat Muscat Award is Paula Campos for “Palm Trees, Piercings and a More Lowkey, Chill Place to Live”, which appeared in Voiceworks #136 “Quits!”. This year, the...

A&U acquires Jeff Apter’s “Reckless”

Photograph of Jeff Apter Tuesday, 24 March 2026
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired world rights to the nonfiction title Reckless by music writer Jeff Apter. Reckless is the inside story of Australian Crawl, the band behind tracks...

 

 

 

« Previous page 1 2 3 4 Next page »