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UQP acquires second novel from Siang Lu 

An author photograph of Siang Lu, who is looking directly at the camera, while standing in front of some trees. Wednesday, 30 August 2023
UQP has acquired world rights to Siang Lu’s second novel, Ghost Cities, via Brendan Fredericks of BFredericksPR. Ghost Cities is ‘inspired by the vacant, uninhabited megacities of China’. Described by...

A Life Song (Jane Godwin, illus Anna Walker, Puffin) 

Tuesday, 29 August 2023
The latest masterpiece by dream team Jane Godwin and Anna Walker, A Life Song is a gentle rhyming picture book that ponders growing up and finding your place in the world. ‘When you are...

The Vanishing Point (Andrea Hotere, Ultimo) 

Tuesday, 29 August 2023
Journalist and researcher Andrea Hotere has put her investigative skills to work in The Vanishing Point: a dual-timeline historical mystery novel concerning Diego Velázquez’s 1656 royal portrait, Las Meninas. In 17th-century...

The Things We Live With (Gemma Nisbet, Upswell) 

Tuesday, 29 August 2023
Gemma Nisbet is a writer and journalist who holds onto things, but this book isn’t about hoarding. It’s not even a self-help antidote to ‘Marie Kondo-ing’ your stuff. In this...

UQP sells North American rights to ‘Personal Score’ 

A cover image of Personal Score by Ellen van Neerven, featuring the book's title and author over a hexagonal patterned background Monday, 28 August 2023
University of Queensland Press (UQP) has sold North American rights to Ellen van Neerven’s nonfiction book Personal Score: Sport. Culture. Identity to Eric Obenauf at Ohio publisher Two Dollar Radio....

Zhan wins 2023 KYD Creative Nonfiction Essay Prize

On the left of this combined image is a blue square containing the text ‘Kill Your Darlings Creative Non-Fiction Essay Prize’. On the right is an author photograph of Xiaole Zhan. Monday, 28 August 2023
Kill Your Darlings (KYD) has announced Xiaole Zhan as the winner of the 2023 KYD Creative Nonfiction Essay Prize for their essay ‘Think an Empty Room, Moonly with Phone Glow’....

Winn awarded Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2023

Monday, 28 August 2023
In the UK, Alice Winn has won the £5000 (A$9815) Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize for In Memoriam (Viking), reports the Bookseller. In Memoriam traces a love story between two First World...

Read the latest Publishers Weekly 

Monday, 28 August 2023
Books+Publishing is partnering with US trade news magazine Publishers Weekly to provide our subscribers with exclusive access to the weekly digital edition of PW magazine. View the edition here.

Transit Lounge acquires Hooper’s debut novel 

Friday, 25 August 2023
Transit Lounge has acquired world rights to Matthew Hooper’s debut novel A Cold Season. ‘This pitch-perfect novel is rich in voice, character and landscape and unlike anything I have read...

Readings Young Adult Prize 2023 shortlist announced

Thursday, 24 August 2023
Readings has announced the shortlist for the 2023 Readings Young Adult Book Prize. This year’s six shortlisted books are: Dancing Barefoot (Alice Boyle, Text) Spice Road (Maiya Ibrahim, Hodderscape) Completely...

NewSouth acquires Clift autobiographical novel 

Thursday, 24 August 2023
NewSouth Publishing has acquired world rights to Charmian Clift’s unfinished novel The End of the Morning, via Jane Novak Literary Agency. The autobiographical novel about a young woman coming of...

Readings Children’s Book Prize 2023 shortlist announced

Wednesday, 23 August 2023
The shortlist for the 2023 Readings Children’s Book Prize has been announced. This year’s six shortlisted books are: The Bookseller’s Apprentice (Amelia Mellor, Affirm) The Eerie Excavation (An Alice England...

Rights round-up 

Wednesday, 23 August 2023
Sales Fiction/poetry Giramondo has sold Spanish language rights to Last Letter to a Reader (Gerald Murnane) to Gris Tormenta for publication in Latin America, and to Minúscula for publication in...

Hachette acquires Terakes short story collection 

A black-and-white author photo of Zoe Terakes. They have their hands on their head and are looking into the camera. Wednesday, 23 August 2023
Hachette Australia has acquired world rights to a debut short story collection from Australian actor Zoe Terakes, to be titled Eros: Queer myths for lovers. The collection, which will feature...

The Rust Red Land (Robyn Bishop, Spinifex) 

Tuesday, 22 August 2023
Set in country New South Wales beginning in 1890, The Rust Red Land follows Matilda as she comes of age through to the 1930s. She does all that is expected of her as...

Gunflower (Laura Jean McKay, Scribe) 

Tuesday, 22 August 2023
Laura Jean McKay’s Gunflower is a vivid and tantalising short story collection where animals are as seamlessly anthropomorphised as humans are animalised. McKay asks readers to suspend their narrative expectations and blurs...