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Poets’ stoush hits the headlines 

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
It's not often that a story on poetry makes the news section of the Sydney Morning Herald, but a war of words between poets John Kinsella, Anthony Lawrence and Robert...

Bestsellers this week 

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
Books Alive may have just started, but it seems to have made an impact on our reading habits already. The proof of the pudding is in the charts. Four of...

‘Age’ Book of the Year shortlist 

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
The shortlist of books nominated for this year's Age Book of the Year prize has been released. The shortlisted titles are: Nonfiction: A Trial Separation: Australia and the Decolonisation of...

Speech Pathology Australia’s Book of the Year awards 

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
The winners of this year's Speech Pathology Australia's Book of the Year 2006 are:Language development, young children--Annie's Chair (Deborah Niland, Viking)Language development, lower primary children--The Postman's Dog (Lisa Shanahan, illus...

RiP Raja Rao 

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
Indian novelist Raja Rao has died in Austin, Texas, aged 97. His book Kanthapura (Oxford University Press India), published in 1938, was the first major Indian novel to be written...

Tertiary sector magazine hangs in the balance 

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
The future of Campus Bookseller+Publisher--the only magazine to focus exclusively on Australian tertiary publishing and campus bookselling--is in the balance following confirmation that the forthcoming October issue may be its last.The magazine,...

Authors champion National Literacy and Numeracy Week 

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
Several authors including Christopher Cheng, Matthew Reilly, Hazel Edwards and Jen McVeity, have been named as literacy ‘champions' as part of this year's National Literacy and Numeracy Week (NLNW) which...

Around the World: round-up 

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
In news from our ‘Around the World' blog this week: a US-based print-on-demand publisher has lost a long-running defamation case; toy maker Fisher-Price is developing a bank of downloadable children's stories for...

Vic SocEds awards life membership to Yowell 

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
At its recent annual general meeting, the Society of Editors (Victoria) presented Jackie Yowell with an award for honorary life membership in recognition of her outstanding services to the editing...

ASA joins ‘book banning’ protests 

Tuesday, 8 August 2006
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has joined the chorus of voices protesting plans by the Attorney-general, Philip Ruddock, to tighten the classification regime for books.In a letter sent to...

Bestsellers this week 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
With Father's Day only a month away, several blokey titles have crept into this week's bestseller charts. The blokiest of them all is Conn and Hal Iggulden's The Dangerous Book...

RiP Nigel Cox 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
New Zealand writer Nigel Cox died on Friday 28 July.Victoria University Press writes: One of New Zealand's best writers, Nigel was recognised at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards on...

RiP David Gemmell 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
UK fantasy writer David Gemmell died on Friday 28 July, two weeks after undergoing heart bypass surgery, according to his publisher Random House. Gemmell was a prolific writer whose works...

MWF program released 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
The official program of the Age Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) has been released, appearing online and as a supplement in the Age newspaper on 29 July. The Festival’s traditional opening...

BWF program announcements 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
In the lead up to the release of the official festival program in the Australian newspaper on 5 August, the Brisbane Writers Festival has released details of what attendees can...

Bookwise won’t become Bluefin 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
Advanced Marketing Services (AMS), parent company of Bookwise International in Australia and New Zealand, has launched a new division, Bluefin Global Logistics, to provide ‘third-party logistics' services to clients in...

Aussie wins second romance award 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
Australian romance author Marion Lennox has won her second Rita award, with Romance Writers of America members voting her novel Princess of Convenience (Harlequin Mills & Boon) the best traditional...

Random acquisition causes job loss at BBC Worldwide 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
Following the announcement from Random House Australia that it will now represent BBC Books in Australia as part of the Random House Group portfolio, BBC Worldwide confirmed that it would...

NZ: New board of Booksellers elected 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
The 2006/07 board of Booksellers New Zealand was elected at the board's annual general meeting, held at the New Zealand Booksellers Conference in Auckland on 23 July 2006. The directors...

Industry awards 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
As announced in a WBN special bulletin last Friday, last week saw the presentation of both the inaugural Australian Book Industry Academy (ABIA) awards and the Australian Awards for Excellence...

Books Alive, alive! 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
The ABIA awards dinner last week also saw the official launch of the 2006 Books Alive campaign by Senator Rod Kemp, the Minister for Arts and Sport.The distribution of 2.5...

APA objects to A-G’s book censorship plans 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
Australian Publishers Association (APA) CEO Maree McCaskill has written to Attorney-general Philip Ruddock and to all state attorneys-general expressing ‘grave concern' about plans to tighten regulations governing the Classification Review...

Canadians seek Aussie publisher 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
The Canadian Consulate General, in conjunction with the Australia Council (OzCo), is funding the pilot of an Australian/Canadian publisher exchange as an extension of OzCo's successful Visiting International Publisher program.The...

Retail Technology Expo to showcase RFID 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
The 2006 Retail Technology Expo, to be held in Melbourne in September, will showcase radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.Visitors to the expo will be given electronic name badges incorporating RFID...

Maguire’s ‘Beast’ on Dylan Thomas Prize longlist 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
Emily Maguire's debut novel Taming the Beast (Brandl & Schlesinger) has been included on the longlist for the inaugural Dylan Thomas Prize.Named in honour of the Welsh poet, the £60,000 (A$140,000)...

DOI updates 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
The International Digital Object Identifier Foundation, which manages the worldwide Digital Object Identifier (DOI) registry, has announced a number of fresh milestones.A DOI is a unique identifier (similar to an...

Booksurge Australia closes, but welcome BookPOD 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
Print-on-demand (PoD) company BookSurge Australia has now ceased trading, but its former business development manager Michael Blair has established a new business called BookPOD.‘BookPOD will provide digital short-run printing and...

Peter Field new chief executive Penguin UK 

Tuesday, 25 July 2006
Peter Field, chief executive of Pearson Australia Group, has been appointed to the position of chief executive of Penguin UK. Field, who has been with Pearson and Penguin in Australia...

Bestsellers this week 

Tuesday, 25 July 2006
This week's top 10 bestsellers look an awful lot like last week's: same titles, different order. But it won't be long before Pirateology breaks through--surely. Hovering at number 11, the latest title in the popular...