The fallout from the global coronavirus crisis continued this week, with the inevitable cancellation of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Locally, organisers pulled the pin on the ALIA national conference, the PANZ International conference was postponed, and Simon & Schuster and Nielsen Book withdrew staff from the upcoming LEB conference, which is still scheduled to run in Brisbane from 22–24 March, while SWF organisers say they are ‘cautiously proceeding’ ahead of tonight’s program launch.
The Stella Prize shortlist was the highlight of this week’s awards news, which also includes Margaret Wild’s OzCo award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature, the winners of Overland’s Judith Wright and Neilma Sidney prizes, Jane Rawson’s shortlisting for the UK’s Kitschies awards for spec fic, and the shortlist for ASA/HQ’s Commercial Fiction Prize. Meanwhile, Unity Books Auckland won the Bookstore of the Year Award at the 2020 London Book Fair International Excellence Awards.
In personnel news, Davina Bell has been appointed publisher at A&U, Marian Blythe is leaving Black Inc. and Ruby-Rose Pivet-Marsh is the new artistic director of the Emerging Writers Festival.
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