Today’s Weekly Book Newsletter is the last for 2020 and the newsletter will return on Wednesday, 13 January. The final Daily newsletter for 2020 is this... Read more

Leading Edge Books has announced the longlists for the 2021 Indie Book Awards. The longlisted titles in each category are: Fiction The Tolstoy Estate (Steven... Read more

Australian publishers can opt to have new or backlist titles included in an Online Storytime pilot being run by the Australian Library and Information Association... Read more

A new paid internship aimed at increasing cultural diversity in the Australian publishing workforce will launch in 2021 with funding support from the Australia Council... Read more

Former UWA Publishing director Terri-ann White has launched a new not-for-profit imprint, Upswell, to be distributed within the Black Inc. list.

In other news from the past week, online bookseller Booktopia has completed its ASX listing, Sydney Writers’ Festival has announced a new two-day January event and the first guests have been announced for Adelaide Writers’ Week 2021. In industry news, Tom Langshaw has joined Pantera Press as commissioning editor, and PRH publishing manager Louise Ryan has resigned after 16 years with the company.

The shortlists for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards were announced this week, as were the winners of the Deborah Cass Prize, the inaugural Spark Prize and the ABA’s NSW and Victorian reps of the year.

The UK Booksellers Association and Bookshop.org have responded to criticism from booksellers about the online store’s UK rollout and what it means for the industry. Also overseas this week, winners were announced for the Cundill History Prize and the Waterstones book of the year.

For all the latest local, international and rights news, sign up to our Daily newsletter here.

In her final column for Books+Publishing, Veronica Sullivan looks at the positive changes towards diversity and inclusion brought by 2020, and how publishers can ethically... Read more

For all those readers who spent this year’s lockdowns catching up on classics or re-reading comforting favourites, never fear—Australia’s independent booksellers have voted for the... Read more

Dearest bookshops of Europe, This time last year I was sitting on the train in the dark en route to the cosiest place in London.... Read more

Looking ahead to February 2021, two forthcoming crime novels, The Silent Listener (Lynn Yeowart, Viking) and The Second Son (Loraine Peck, Text), garnered glowing reviews... Read more

Sales Fiction Natasha Solomun has sold French rights to The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree (Shokoofeh Azar, Wild Dingo Press) on behalf of The Newman... Read more

Barack Obama’s memoir A Promised Land is spending its second week at the top of the Australian bestsellers chart after debuting at number one last week, while... Read more

Sam van Zweden’s Eating With My Mouth Open is at once an expressive memoir and a cultural commentary on the role of food in our... Read more

This young adult thriller starts as a post-collapse story and then takes a supernatural turn. It begins with ‘the pulse’, a solar flare that shuts... Read more

‘Having First Nations editors in mainstream publishing houses, especially for those that are putting out a lot of work by our mob, it goes without saying. If they’re publishing books by us then they definitely need to be employing us, and having pathways at both ends.’—Merinda Dutton, co-founder of the Blackfulla Bookclub Instagram community, on the necessity of involving First Nations writers and staff at all stages of the publishing process.

Josie Wowolla Boyle, Wonghi storyteller and artist, died peacefully on 7 December 2020, surrounded by family. Boyle was a Wongutha Elder, acclaimed storyteller, singer and... Read more

Children’s author and editor Barbara Ker Wilson died in September 2020, aged 90. Margaret Hamilton AM writes: ‘Vale Barbara Ker Wilson AM 1929–2020. Barbara Ker... Read more

Books+Publishing is partnering with US trade news magazine Publishers Weekly to provide our subscribers with exclusive access to the weekly digital edition of PW magazine.... Read more

Writers Danielle Clode, Sophie Cunningham, Kelly Gardiner and Melissa Lucashenko have joined the Australian Society of Authors as board directors.

Ellen Cregan has been appointed manager of Melbourne bookshop Brunswick Bound, replacing Megan O’Brien in the role. Currently marketing and events coordinator at Readings, Cregan’s... Read more

Byron Writers Festival’s free creative writing program for school children StoryBoard is broadening their team of workshop facilitators.

If you are a published children’s author or illustrator and local to Northern NSW, have some experience creating and delivering workshops either at festivals or in schools, have an interest in being part of the dynamic StoryBoard program and have a passion for fostering the next generation of young readers and writers, please get in touch via email.

NewSouth Books is delighted to announce that they will be distributing Bodleian Library Publishing titles in Australia and New Zealand from 1 December 2020.

Bodleian Library Publishing has a diverse list of beautiful children’s, gift, general interest and scholarly books on a wide range of subjects drawn from or related to the Library’s rich collections of manuscripts, rare books, maps, postcards, and other printed ephemera.

The list focuses on literature, history, and the arts, and titles range from Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth to How to Be a Good Husband.

From 1 December 2020, all orders for Bodleian Library titles should be sent to ADS (adscs@alliancedist.com.au) or please contact your NewSouth Books account manager.