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2019 VIPs program highlights US market, inclusivity and creating buzz

Wednesday, 15 May 2019
This year’s annual Visiting International Publishers (VIPs) program was held alongside the Sydney Writers’ Festival and ran from Tuesday, 30 April through to Friday, 3 May. The 2019 program was...

Australian Reading Hour ambassadors’ books covers revealed

Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Australian Reading Hour (ARH) has revealed the covers of the five books by its children’s ambassadors being published for this year’s event on 19 September. The Wiggles Love Books! (Five...

SWF 2019: paid attendance figures, book sales up in second year at Carriageworks

Wednesday, 15 May 2019
This year's Sydney Writers' Festival (SWF) had the third highest paid attendance in the festival's 22-year history, with more than 52,500 ticket sales bringing in over $1.2 million in revenue....

‘Trace’ longlisted for CWA Gold Dagger for nonfiction

Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Rachael Brown’s Trace (Scribe) has been longlisted for the UK Crime Writers Association’s (CWA) Gold Dagger for nonfiction. Brown’s true crime book based on the podcast of the same name...

Dymocks celebrates 140th anniversary

Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Dymocks is celebrating its 140th anniversary this year with an anniversary party instore at Dymocks Sydney on 27 May. William Dymock opened the first Dymock's Book Arcade in Market Street,...

Giramondo acquires artist Carment’s ‘Womerah Lane’

Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Giramondo has acquired world rights to award-winning artist Tom Carment’s illustrated title, Womerah Lane, to be published in October. In Womerah Lane, Carment ‘offers a reportage on his life, as...

Kidman wins 2019 New Zealand Book Award for fiction

Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Fiona Kidman has won the NZ$53,000 (A$50,200) fiction prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for her novel This Mortal Boy (Vintage). Judges said that This Mortal Boy, which...

Shortlist announced for inaugural Fogarty Literary Award

Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Fremantle Press has announced the shortlist for the inaugural Fogarty Literary Award, an unpublished manuscript award for young writers in Western Australia, worth $20,000. The shortlisted manuscripts are: ‘Where the...

Mary Gilmore Award 2019 shortlist announced

Wednesday, 15 May 2019
The shortlist for the 2019 Mary Gilmore Award, presented by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) for the best first book of poetry published in the past...

Sinclair, Castrique win Nature Writing Prize 2019

Tuesday, 14 May 2019
Jenny Sinclair and Sue Castrique have been named joint winners of the $10,000 Nature Writing Prize 2019, awarded biennially by the Nature Conservancy. Sinclair’s essay An Orchard for my Father...

No Vogel to be awarded this year

Tuesday, 14 May 2019
The judges for this year’s Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award have announced they will not award the prize this year, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. For the third time in the award’s...

Writers, literary orgs among latest OzCo funding recipients

Tuesday, 14 May 2019
Twenty-five writers and literary organisations are among the recipients of the latest Australia Council grants round, which awarded $5.8 million to 192 projects. Grants in the literature category were worth...

Woollahra Digital Literary Awards 2019 shortlists announced

Monday, 13 May 2019
The shortlists for the 2019 Woollahra Digital Literary Awards, for writing first published online or electronically, have been announced. Fiction ‘Toot toot’ (Rachel Ang, Going Down Swinging) ‘Osaka’ (Alexander Bennetts,...

Levy steps down at LEG; redundancy announced

Monday, 13 May 2019
The Leading Edge Group (LEG) has announced several changes to its staff, including a redundancy. In an email to suppliers, director of business services Kate Levy announced she would step...

Peter Carey Short Story Award 2019 longlist announced

Monday, 13 May 2019
The longlist for the 2019 Peter Carey Short Story Award has been announced. The 14 longlisted stories are: ‘Elisabeth Kubler Ross’ (Paige Clark) ‘Mother’s Arbour’ (Jessica Andretta) ‘Beasley’s Corner’ (Jessica...

Coleman shortlisted for Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards for speculative fiction

Monday, 13 May 2019
Claire G Coleman has been shortlisted in the debut category of the US-based Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award for speculative fiction, for her novel Terra Nullius (Hachette). The award is...

‘Pink Mountain on Locust Island’ sells to US publisher Coffee House Press

Friday, 10 May 2019
Brow Books has sold North American rights to Jamie Marina Lau's debut novel Pink Mountain on Locust Island to Coffee House Press, via the Barbara J Zitwer Agency. ‘Pink Mountain...

Carlomagno wins 2019 Rosie Award

Friday, 10 May 2019
Julia Carlomagno has won the 2019 Rosanne Fitzgibbon Editorial Award, known as the ‘Rosie’, for her work on Adult Fantasy (Briohny Doyle, Scribe). Judges described Adult Fantasy as ‘a brilliant blend...

Lost in Books to host IBBY Honour Books exhibition

Friday, 10 May 2019
Multilingual children’s bookshop Lost in Books, situated in the Sydney suburb of Fairfield, is hosting the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Best Books of the World Exhibition,...

Gould steps down as Booksellers NZ CEO

Friday, 10 May 2019
Booksellers NZ CEO Lincoln Gould is stepping down after 10 years in the role. Gould will work through to October, with the board aiming to choose a new CEO by...

NZ writer Harley Hern named Commonwealth Short Story Prize regional winner

Thursday, 9 May 2019
New Zealand writer Harley Hern has been named the regional winner for the Pacific in the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, for her story ‘Screaming’. Hern’s story, about two friends...

black&write! Writing Fellowship 2019 winners announced

Wednesday, 8 May 2019
The 2019 black&write! Fellowships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers have been awarded to Adelaide-based writer Tania Crampton-Larking and Canberra-based writer Lisa Fuller. Crampton-Larking, who returned to her birthplace...