Grattan Street Press shortlisted for higher education award
9 September 2020
Grattan Street Press (GSP), the University of Melbourne's teaching press, has been named a finalist in the Learning Experience category of the Australian Financial Review's (AFR) 2020 Higher Education Awards....
PANZ Book Design Awards 2020 shortlists announced
2 September 2020
The shortlists for the 2020 Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ) Book Design Awards have been announced. The shortlisted titles in each category are: Best illustrated book Crafting Aotearoa (ed...
APA Books From Australia website to promote titles at Frankfurt
2 September 2020
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) will promote members’ titles to international publishers on a new export-focused website. According to the APA, the Books from Australia website will be ‘coordinated free...
Inaugural Write North residency recipients announced
2 September 2020
Create NSW and Byron Writers Festival have announced the recipients of the inaugural Write North Writers’ Group Residency, worth almost $40,000. The successful mid-career and established NSW writers' group comprises...
New parliamentary inquiry into Covid-19 impact on arts
2 September 2020
The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts will report on Australia’s cultural and creative industries and the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the sector in...
HarperCollins acquires four Hawkins novels
2 September 2020
HarperCollins Australia has acquired ANZ rights to two adult novels and world rights to two children’s novels by Kelli Hawkins via Melanie Ostell at Melanie Ostell Literary. Hawkins' debut Other...
Scribner acquires new Falconer nonfiction work
2 September 2020
Scribner Australia has acquired ANZ rights to Delia Falconer’s new nonfiction work Signs and Wonders from Jane Novak at the Jane Novak Literary Agency. Building on Falconer’s essays ‘Signs and Wonders’...
Ned Kelly Awards 2020 shortlists announced
26 August 2020
The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has announced the shortlists for this year’s Ned Kelly Awards for Australian crime writing. The shortlisted works in each category are: Best crime fiction...
OzCo report: more Australians reading for pleasure
26 August 2020
The number of Australians reading for pleasure has increased over the three years to 2019, according to the Australia Council’s fourth National Arts Participation Survey, while a Covid-19-specific survey commissioned...
Hardie Grant, RMIT announce new narrative nonfiction prize
26 August 2020
Hardie Grant Books and RMIT Writing and Publishing have established a new biennial developmental prize for narrative nonfiction. Open to published and unpublished Australian writers, the Spark Prize offers $2000...
RWA awards 2020 winners announced
26 August 2020
The winners of the 2020 Romance Writers of Australia (RWA) Romantic Book of the Year awards, known as the Ruby Awards, have been announced. The winners include: Contemporary romance The...
Synchronicity Australia options FitzGerald’s ‘Ash Mountain’ for screen
19 August 2020
Synchronicity Australia, the new Melbourne-based arm of Glasgow production company Synchronicity Films, has acquired screen rights to Helen FitzGerald's forthcoming novel Ash Mountain (Affirm, March 2021). Affirm Press described Ash Mountain...
Hachette announces paid summer internship program
19 August 2020
Hachette Australia has announced it will run a new annual paid internship program ‘for anyone interested in a career in publishing’. The Hachette Australia Summer Internship Program will run for...
Report finds people reading more books due to Covid-19
19 August 2020
A new research report from GlobalWebIndex (GWI) has found 20% of Australians and 26% of New Zealanders surveyed are reading more books due to Covid-19. The coronavirus-focused market research report...
Transit Lounge acquires Papathanasiou’s ‘The Stoning’
19 August 2020
Transit Lounge has acquired world English rights to debut crime fiction novel The Stoning by Peter Papathanasiou, via Martin Shaw from Shaw Literary. Canberra-based Papathanasiou, who published his memoir Little...
Auckland booksellers enter stage three lockdown
12 August 2020
In New Zealand, Auckland bookshops have entered stage three lockdown for at least three days as the country responds to four new cases of Covid-19 contracted from an unknown source....
CBCA Book Week 2020 postponed to October
12 August 2020
This year's CBCA Book Week, which usually runs in late August during term three, will now take place in term four, from October 17–23. The rescheduled dates are due to...
Shortlists for 2020 NSW Premier’s History Awards announced
5 August 2020
The State Library of NSW (SLNSW) has announced the shortlists for the 2020 NSW Premier’s History Awards, worth $15,000 each. The shortlisted works in each category are: Australian history prize...
Queensland Literary Awards 2020 shortlists announced
5 August 2020
The shortlists for the 2020 Queensland Literary Awards have been announced. The shortlisted titles in each category are: Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance ($25,000) Heartland:...
HarperCollins acquires Mattinson’s ‘We Were Not Men’
5 August 2020
HarperCollins has acquired ANZ rights to Campbell Mattinson's debut novel We Were Not Men, from Tara Wynne at Curtis Brown. ‘It only took the first 22 pages of this novel—which...
Byron Writers Fest releases digital program, Langton delivers 2020 Thea Astley Address
5 August 2020
The annual Byron Writers Festival (BWF) Thea Astley Address, presented by Marcia Langton this year, will be available as a podcast, and the festival is offering free digital sessions in...
Wakefield acquires Parker’s ‘Endo Days’
5 August 2020
Wakefield Press has acquired world rights to journalist Libby Trainor Parker’s debut nonfiction book, which has the working title Endo Days: Life, love and laughs with endometriosis. Endo Days is...
A&U, THA staff return to full-time hours
29 July 2020
Allen & Unwin (A&U) and Thames & Hudson Australia (THA) have confirmed their staff have returned to full-time hours. In early April A&U announced its ‘precautionary’ decision to temporarily reduce...
Furphy Literary Award 2020 winners announced
29 July 2020
The winners of the inaugural Furphy Literary Award have been announced. Ruby Todd won the $15,000 open category for her short story ‘Awakening’, chosen from a shortlist announced in early...
Aurealis Awards 2019 winners announced
29 July 2020
The winners of the 2019 Aurealis Awards, presented for science fiction, fantasy and horror writing in Australia, have been announced. The winners in each category are: Best science fiction novel...
Transit Lounge acquires Jach’s ‘Travelling Companions’
29 July 2020
Transit Lounge has acquired world English-language rights to Antoni Jach’s fourth novel, Travelling Companions. Publisher Barry Scott said the novel is ‘charming, amusing and philosophical. Solitary travellers and a couple...
Federal government extends JobKeeper, cuts rate
22 July 2020
The federal government has revealed changes to its JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme, with the program to be extended beyond its original September end-date—albeit at a lower rate. From 28 September,...
Shortlist for inaugural Matilda Children’s Literature Prize announced
22 July 2020
HarperCollins Australia has announced the shortlist for the inaugural Matilda Children’s Literature Prize. The three shortlisted manuscripts are: 'Exposed' by Sandy Bigna, about a teenager who starts having strange flashbacks...
Fuller, Woods win 2020 Readings YA, children’s book prizes
22 July 2020
Readings has announced the winners of its YA and children's book prizes for 2020. Lisa Fuller was named the winner of the Readings Young Adult Book Prize for her debut...
Wakefield to publish #LoveOzYA horror anthology
22 July 2020
Wakefield Press will publish YA fiction anthology Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales, described as ‘the brainchild of acclaimed YA author and Wakefield Press staff member Poppy Nwosu, who will curate...
