Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

Image. Advertisement:

News sections >

The Shot (Naima Brown, Macmillan) 

Tuesday, 9 May 2023
Kristy Shaw wants to win back her first true love, Max. Desperately. She will go to any lengths, including unwittingly signing up to appear on the new reality TV show...

Pulitzer Prize winners announced

Tuesday, 9 May 2023
In the US, the winners of this year’s Pulitzer Prizes have been announced. The Pulitzer Prize for fiction was jointly awarded to Hernan Diaz and Barbara Kingsolver for Trust (Picador)...

Fogarty Literary Award shortlist announced

Monday, 8 May 2023
Fremantle Press has announced the shortlist for the $20,000 Fogarty Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. The shortlisted manuscripts are: Katherine Allum for ‘The Skeleton House’ Prema Arasu for ‘The Anatomy of...

Michael Gifkins Prize 2023 shortlist announced

Monday, 8 May 2023
Text Publishing and the New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ Inc) have announced the shortlist for the 2023 Michael Gifkins Prize for an unpublished...

Dorothy Hewett 2023 shortlist announced

Monday, 8 May 2023
UWA Publishing (UWAP) has announced the shortlist for the 2023 Dorothy Hewett Award for an unpublished manuscript. The winner receives $10,000 prize money, as well as manuscript development and a...

Mary Gilmore Award 2023 shortlist announced

the ASAL logo Monday, 8 May 2023
The Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) has announced the shortlist for the annual Mary Gilmore Award for the best first book of poetry. The shortlisted collections are:...

Read the latest Publishers Weekly 

Monday, 8 May 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.

Arnott, Mahood win Age Book of the Year awards

Friday, 5 May 2023
The winners of the 2023 Age Book of the Year Award have been announced. Robbie Arnott won the fiction award for Limberlost (Text) and Kim Mahood won the nonfiction prize for...

New Draper YA to Pan Mac, HarperTeen 

Friday, 5 May 2023
Pan Macmillan Australia has acquired ANZ rights to a new YA novel by Lauren Draper via literary agent Annabel Barker, with world English rights (ex ANZ) going to HarperTeen US,...

Vallance wins 2023 Rosie Award

Thursday, 4 May 2023
University of Queensland Press (UQP) senior editor Cathy Vallance has won the Rosanne Fitzgibbon Editorial Award, known as the Rosie, for her editorial work on Zana Fraillon’s middle-grade verse novel...

Rights round-up 

Wednesday, 3 May 2023
Sales Nonfiction Blank Inc. has sold Swedish translation rights and Arabic rights to The Shortest History of the Soviet Union (Sheila Fitzpatrick) to Lind & Co and Jarir Bookstore respectively....

Upswell acquires Boland essay collection 

Wednesday, 3 May 2023
Upswell Publishing has acquired world rights to Brooke Boland’s first collection of essays.   Gulp, Swallow reflects on the uncertainty of identity in a young woman’s life, ‘when who we...

Vale John Tranter

Wednesday, 3 May 2023
Poet, editor and critic John Tranter has died, aged 79. The Copyright Agency writes: 'We’re saddened to hear of the passing of John Tranter, renowned Australian poet, editor, critic, reviewer,...

Local authors on Daggers longlist

Wednesday, 3 May 2023
In the UK, the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) has announced the longlists for its Dagger Awards. Authors from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand are among those longlisted for the annual...

Vale Jock Zonfrillo

Wednesday, 3 May 2023
Scottish-born chef and MasterChef host Jock Zonfrillo has died, aged 46. Simon & Schuster published Zonfrillo's autobiography Last Shot in 2021. S&S commercial nonfiction publisher Emma Nolan writers: 'Jock was...

Vale Barry Humphries

Wednesday, 3 May 2023
Australian comedian, actor, and author Barry Humphries has died. He was the author of numerous books, including two autobiographies and two novels. Hachette Australia said staff are saddened to hear...

The Drowning Girls (Veronica Lando, HarperCollins) 

Tuesday, 2 May 2023
As the summer holidays draw to a close, disgraced teacher Nate Bass arrives in an impoverished northern Queensland fishing town, begrudgingly ready for a job teaching all of Port Flinders’...

New York City Glow (Rachel Coad, Upswell) 

Tuesday, 2 May 2023
The first book by Margaret River-based artist and comic maker Rachel Coad, New York City Glow is an old-school action-packed romp through 1970s American counterculture. Mixing fact and fiction, the...

Business Chickens (Jess McGeachin, Puffin) 

Tuesday, 2 May 2023
Business Chickens is the latest picture book from Melbourne-based writer/illustrator/designer Jess McGeachin. Known for his CBCA-recognised titles such as Fly and Frankie and the Fossil, McGeachin has produced a new...

Tissue (Madison Griffiths, Ultimo) 

Tuesday, 2 May 2023
In 2021, during one of Victoria’s most arduous Covid-19 lockdowns, essayist and podcaster Madison Griffiths underwent the termination of a pregnancy. So begins Tissue, an insightful and perceptive critical analysis...

Dale wins 2023 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize

Tuesday, 2 May 2023
Queensland Poetry has announced that Madeleine Dale has won the 2023 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize for her manuscript The Water-Bearers. Dale receives $2000 and a publishing contract with UQP. Judges...

Scribe acquires Wallman, Sparrow collaboration 

Monday, 1 May 2023
Scribe has acquired world rights to 12 Rules for Strife, a new graphic nonfiction work by Jeff Sparrow and Sam Wallman.  Described by Scribe as a ‘radical gift book’ that will...

Read the latest Publishers Weekly 

Monday, 1 May 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.

Ellis wins 2023 Calibre Essay Prize

Friday, 28 April 2023
Sydney writer Tracy Ellis has won the 2023 Australian Book Review (ABR) Calibre Essay Prize for her essay ‘Flow States’.   Ellis, who won the ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story...

Shapiro named Baillie Gifford Winner of Winners

Friday, 28 April 2023
In the UK, James Shapiro has won the Baillie Gifford Winner of Winners Award—being held to celebrate the prize’s 25th anniversary—for his book 1599: A year in the life of...

De Kretser shortlisted for Ondaatje Prize

Friday, 28 April 2023
In the UK, Michelle de Kretser has been shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s (RSL) Ondaatje Prize, for her novel Scary Monsters (A&U). Scary Monsters is one of five books shortlisted...