The winners of the 2015 Kibble and Dobbie Literary Awards have been announced at a ceremony at the State Library of New South Wales. The... Read more
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Jennifer Maiden’s poetry collection Drones and Phantoms (Giramondo) has won the 2015 Australian Literature Society (ALS) Gold Medal. Maiden’s book was chosen from a shortlist of... Read more
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Leading Edge Books buyer and marketing manager Galina Marinov has been promoted to national group manager of the books division. Leading Edge Group general manager... Read more
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Outgoing Readings books division manager Martin Shaw will join Alex Adsett Publishing Services this month. Shaw, who is moving to Germany, has joined the company... Read more
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The first chapter of Harper Lee’s forthcoming novel Go Set a Watchman (William Heinemann) will be published by Fairfax websites this afternoon, reports the Sydney... Read more
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The Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) has appointed author and Women of Letters founder Michaela McGuire as its new festival director and co-CEO, beginning on 20... Read more
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Book recommendation site Better Reading is launching a children’s offshoot, headed up by former Allen & Unwin (A&U) children’s book director Liz Bray. Better Reading Kids... Read more
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The annual Festival of Dangerous Ideas (FODI) has announced its 2015 program. Presented by the Sydney Opera House and the Ethics Centre, the festival invites... Read more
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Hachette Australia has cancelled a tattoo promotional campaign around the new ‘Millennium’ title, The Girl in the Spider’s Web (MacLehose Press), due to complaints that the stunt was... Read more
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Sydney independent bookselling chain Your Bookshop has closed two of its stores. The Blacktown store, which was located at the Westpoint Shopping Centre, and the Top... Read more
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Former Random House New Zealand publisher Nicola Legat has been appointed as the first publisher of Massey University Press, following the press’ launch in February... Read more
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Alan Atkinson’s The Europeans in Australia: Volume 3: Nation (UNSW Press) and Tom Brooking’s Richard Seddon, King of God’s Own: The Life and Times of... Read more
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Dick Dakeyne’s self-published book Radar Gunner has won the 2015 Chief Minister’s Northern Territory History Book Award. Radar Gunner tells of Dakeyne’s experience as a... Read more
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The Northern Territory Library has announced the finalists for the Northern Territory (NT) Literary Awards. The 2015 finalists are: Short stories ‘Stranger in Paradise’ (Barbara... Read more
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Australian authors and publishers are among those nominated for the 2015 World Fantasy Awards, for works published in 2014. Kaaron Warren is a finalist in... Read more
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Australian small publisher Colourtation’s anti-stress colouring books have found success as one of the few locally authored and published adult colouring titles in the growing... Read more
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Affirm Press has signed a 10-book deal with Australia press photographer Bruce Postle to publish a photography series reflecting on the past 50 years of... Read more
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Literacy consultant, teacher and author Jill Eggleton has won the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal for ‘outstanding contribution to New Zealand children’s literature and literacy’. As... Read more
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The Australian Book Review (ABR) and the Burdekin Readers and Writers Festival are among the recipients of Arts Queensland’s latest round of Projects and Programs... Read more
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Creative Victoria has awarded a $12,000 grant to Creative Clunes for a delegation to travel from Clunes in Victoria to Paju Book City in South... Read more
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Readers Feast Bookstore, Kay Craddock Antiquarian Bookseller and the Melbourne Athenaeum Library, who form the ‘Readers’ Walk’ alliance, will launch the new art installation Hands... Read more
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‘Although there are some regular successes in terms of rights sales of Oz titles into various territories around the world, it’s haphazard, and there are... Read more
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Sales Fiction—The Drummond Agency has sold German rights to The Trivia Man (Deborah O’Brien) in a pre-empt to Goldmann, via Annelie Geissler at Mohrbooks. Nonfiction—Black... Read more
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E L James’ Grey (Arrow) is at the top of the Australian bestsellers chart for the third consecutive week, while the rest of the top... Read more
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In the US, Authors United, a loose coalition who protested Amazon during its 2014 dispute with Hachette US, has asked members to sign a letter... Read more
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International Thriller Writers (ITW) has announced the winners of the 2015 Thriller Awards. Winning titles include: The Fever (Megan Abbott, Picador) for Best Hardcover Novel; The... Read more
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In the US, the Authors Guild is asking publishers to pay authors a net royalty rate of up to 50% for ebooks as part of its... Read more
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London- and New York-based publisher the Quarto Group has launched a consumer-facing website called QuartoKnows, which will sell direct-to-consumer titles from August, reports the Bookseller.... Read more
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Nobel laureate and activist Malala Yousafzai, author of I Am Malala (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), has launched the #BooksNotBullets campaign on social media to pressure world... Read more
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Welsh author Carys Davies has won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award—the world’s richest prize for a short-story collection, reports the Guardian. Davies won... Read more
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Booksellers New Zealand will hold its first national bookshop day on Saturday 31 October 2015. NZ Bookshop Day, which aims to celebrate and publicise local... Read more
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The National Library of Australia (NLA) and the Australian National University (ANU) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding enabling them to share digital access to... Read more
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The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) lobby group FAIR is holding a Cooking for Copyright Day on Friday 31 July to protest current copyright... Read more
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In New Zealand, Paraparaumu Library is running a series of self-publishing workshops for aspiring authors, reports Voxy. Beginning in July, the workshops cover a range... Read more
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Emily Rodda returns to the world of Deltora with a new heroine in Shadows of the Master (Scholastic, August), the first book of her new... Read more
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Leading Edge Books buyer and marketing manager Galina Marinov has been promoted to national group manager of the books division. (See news.)
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Outgoing Readings books division manager Martin Shaw has been appointed literary agent at Alex Adsett Publishing Services. (See news.)
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The Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) has appointed Michaela McGuire as its new festival director and co-CEO, replacing outgoing festival director Sam Twyford-Moore. General manager Kate Callingham has... Read more
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Former Allen & Unwin children’s book director Liz Bray has been appointed Better Reading’s children’s specialist, and will head up its new children’s offshoot Better Reading... Read more
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Former Random House New Zealand publisher Nicola Legat has been appointed as the first publisher of Massey University Press. (See news.)
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Sophie Allan has been appointed assistant prize manager for the Stella Prize. Allan is a writer and the founding editor-in-chief of publisher Chart Collective.
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The Society of Editors (NSW) Inc. will present a one-day intermediate-level ebook workshop with Sarah J H Fletcher, on Friday, 7 August from 9:30 am to... Read more
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Entries for the 2015 Asher Literary Award will close 30 July. The $12,000 biennial award is open to works by female authors that carry an... Read more
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Places are still available for the one-day copy editing workshop with Meryl Potter, presented by the Society of Editors (NSW). The workshop, which will run... Read more
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Entries close: Monday, July 20 at 5pm.
For an entry form please visit www.melbourneprize.org.
Prize pool over $100,000, open to Victorian residents only, all writing genres eligible.
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Martin Shaw is representing various Australian publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year. Please get in touch with martin@thebooksdesk.com for further information.
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Raintree Australia have been elected as the sole distributor for the new UK Publisher Hungry Tomato in Australia.
The Hungry Tomato range brings non-fiction to children through high interest, engaging, colourful and creative books. www.raintreeaust.com.au.
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