Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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Amani Haydar on ‘The Mother Wound’

Tuesday, 25 May 2021
Artist, writer and lawyer Amani Haydar's father murdered her mother in 2015, while Haydar was pregnant with her first child. The Mother Wound (Macmillan, July), Haydar's debut memoir, is an...

Meet literary agent Natasha Solomun 

Wednesday, 19 May 2021
As the pandemic keeps rights sellers from meeting face-to-face, Books+Publishing is shining a regular spotlight on the work of Australian rights agents. Today, we hear from Natasha Solomun, who worked as a rights executive...

Andrew Paterson on ‘Rainfish’

Tuesday, 11 May 2021
Andrew Paterson's debut middle-grade novel Rainfish (Text, July) won the 2020 Text Prize. Set in Far North Queensland, the book follows narrator Aaron, who breaks the law to impress an...

Sophie Overett on ‘The Rabbits’

Wednesday, 5 May 2021
Sophie Overett's debut novel The Rabbits (Vintage, July), winner the 2020 Penguin Literary Prize, is a magic realist family saga centred around Delia Rabbit, a mother dealing with trauma from her...

Cameron Nunn on ‘Echo in the Memory’

Wednesday, 28 April 2021
The historical YA novel Echo in the Memory (Walker, June) took author Cameron Nunn 10 years and a PhD in the history of child convicts to write. The book features...

Meet the ABIA Rising Stars 2021: Meg Whelan 

Monday, 26 April 2021
The Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Rising Star of the Year is awarded to an emerging talent in Australian publishing who has spent less than 10 years in the industry. In the...

Chrissy Brincat on interning at UQP 

Wednesday, 21 April 2021
Each year Vision Australia runs a 12-month graduate program for graduates who are blind or who have low vision, with a component of the program involving a three-month external placement....

Meet the ABIA Rising Stars 2021: Bianca Jafari 

Photo of Bianca Jafari Wednesday, 21 April 2021
The Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Rising Star of the Year is awarded to an emerging talent in Australian publishing who has spent less than 10 years in the industry....

Lisa Emanuel on ‘The Covered Wife’

Tuesday, 20 April 2021
Lisa Emanuel's 2019 Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award–shortlisted debut The Covered Wife (Pantera, June) centres on Sarah, a lawyer whose new relationship leads to involvement with an oppressive and...

Meet the ABIA Rising Stars 2021: Stef Italia 

Friday, 16 April 2021
The Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Rising Star of the Year is awarded to an emerging talent in Australian publishing who has spent less than 10 years in the industry. In the...

Meet literary agent Jacinta di Mase 

Wednesday, 14 April 2021
As the pandemic keeps rights sellers from meeting face-to-face, Books+Publishing is shining a regular spotlight on the work of Australian rights agents. Today, we hear from  Jacinta di Mase, the founder and lead agent...

Meet the ABIA Rising Stars 2021: Pooja Desai 

Wednesday, 14 April 2021
The Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Rising Star of the Year is awarded to an emerging talent in Australian publishing who has spent less than 10 years in the industry. In...

Alice Pung on ‘One Hundred Days’

Wednesday, 7 April 2021
One Hundred Days (Black Inc., June), Alice Pung's first novel for adults, is described as a fractured fairytale about 16-year-old Karuna, who is locked in her family's housing commission flat...

Children’s books dominate charts 

Tuesday, 6 April 2021
In the week before Easter and the start of school holidays, children's books are dominating the charts, with kids titles making up eight out of the top 10 bestsellers. At...

Shirley Marr on ‘A Glasshouse of Stars’

Wednesday, 31 March 2021
Perth author Shirley Marr's fourth children's book, A Glasshouse of Stars (Puffin, May), is a semi-autobiographical middle-grade novel inspired by Marr's experiences growing up as a first-generation Chinese–Australian migrant. Reviewer...

Meet literary agent Alex Adsett 

Wednesday, 24 March 2021
As the pandemic keeps rights sellers from meeting face-to-face, Books+Publishing is shining a regular spotlight on the work of Australian rights agents. Today, we hear from Alex Adsett, a literary agent representing authors across...

Anita Heiss on ‘Bila Yarrudangga-langdhuray’

Tuesday, 23 March 2021
Anita Heiss's new historical novel Bila Yarrudanggalangdhuray (S&S, May), the first Australian commercial fiction release to feature the title on the cover solely in an Aboriginal language, follows protagonist Wagadhaany,...

Lift-off: Non-profit Parachute Press launches in regional Vic

Wednesday, 17 March 2021
Parachute Press is a new children’s publisher based in Castlemaine, regional Victoria. Co-founded by award-winning author Martine Murray and artist, ceramicist and musician Anna Read, Parachute Press is described by...

Jacqueline Bublitz on ‘Before You Knew My Name’

Tuesday, 16 March 2021
Jacqueline Bublitz's debut novel Before You Knew My Name (A&U, May) takes the crime fiction trope of a jogger discovering a dead body and turns it on its head. Bublitz's novel...

Krissy Kneen on ‘The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen’

Wednesday, 10 March 2021
In Krissy Kneen's new memoir The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen (Text, May), the death of her beloved grandmother is the catalyst for the excavation of long-buried family history, taking Kneen—and the...

Katherine Rajwar on interning at Hachette 

Wednesday, 3 March 2021
The annual paid Hachette Australia summer internship was established in 2020 as part of a suite of activities the company has created to attract new talent into book publishing. Katherine...

How international book markets performed in 2020 

Wednesday, 24 February 2021
Through the PubMagNet initiative—a collaboration between book industry trade magazines from around the world—representatives from publications in the UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Japan, Brazil and China have shared...