A Cold Season is rich in voice, character and landscape. The novel tells the story of fourteen-year-old Beth. Her brother Sam and her father, Owens,... Read more

The winners of the 2024 Aotearoa New Zealand Book Industry Awards have been announced. Moa Press, an imprint of Hachette, was named publisher of the... Read more

Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to One Hundred Years of Betty by Debra Oswald, in a deal brokered by Anthony Blair at... Read more

In the UK, Scottish writer Martin MacInnes has won this year’s Arthur C Clarke award for In Ascension (Atlantic), reports the Guardian. MacInnes’s third novel,... Read more

Alexis Wright has won the 2024 Miles Franklin Literary Award, worth $60,000, for her novel Praiseworthy (Giramondo), becoming a two-time winner; former Hachette Australia group publishing director Fiona Hazard has joined new publishing venture Keeperton; UQP director Ben James is stepping down; United Book Distributors has announced it will rebrand to Penguin Random House Distribution; Hachette and Media Diversity Australia have partnered on new traineeship; Australian Geographic and Hardie Grant are partnering on a new publishing program; and the Blues Point Bookshop in Sydney will remain in business—across the road.

The Copyright Agency has named Maya Mulhall, a teacher from Blackburn High School in Victoria, the 2024 Reading Australia Fellow, and the projects to be funded through its 2024 Cultural Fund program; and Creative Australia has announced the 2024 recipients of grants from several funds supporting Australian literature.

In addition to the Miles Franklin, the following awards news was announced this week: the winners of the Aotearoa New Zealand Book Industry Awards were announced; Robbie Arnott won the $25,000 Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History for Limberlost; the shortlists for the 2024 Queensland Literary Awards were announced, as were the shortlists for the 2024 Danger Awards; and Australian author Amanda Hildebrandt was a runner up in the 2024 Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize which went to London-based writer Sukie Wilson.

Looking overseas, in the UK the Bookseller reports that academic publishers Wiley and Oxford University Press have confirmed AI partnerships, and that United Independent Distributors has entered administration, and Martin MacInnes has won the Arthur C Clarke award with In Ascension, while in the US, a new report from Circana BookScan shows print sales of middle-grade books fell 5% in the first half of 2024 from the comparable period in 2023, with 1.8 million fewer copies sold, reports Publishers Weekly.

In acquisitions news this week, UQP has acquired two new books by Omar Sakr, and Allen & Unwin has acquired One Hundred Years of Betty by Debra Oswald.

The Australian Publishers Association (APA) Rising Star award recognises an emerging talent in Australian publishing who has spent less than 10 years in the industry.... Read more

In the unique new picture book My Dad’s Gone Away (Magabala, October 2024), authors Andrew Krakouer, a Minang (Nyoongar) and Inggarda (Yamatji) man and former... Read more

I have just finished reading Nova Weetman’s Love, Death & Other Scenes, in which she so rawly yet beautifully explores her journey through her husband’s... Read more

I am fascinated by Always Was, Always Will Be by Aunty Fay Muir and Sue Lawson, also published by Magabala Books. I have always appreciated... Read more

Sales Nonfiction Allen & Unwin has sold Thai rights to Good with Money (Emma Edwards) to B2S and Chinese simplified rights to the same title to... Read more

Top 10 bestsellers It Ends with Us (Colleen Hoover, S&S)* Storm Child (Michael Robotham, Hachette) A Thousand Broken Pieces (Tillie Cole, Michael Joseph) Reckless (Lauren... Read more

In his fourth novel, Dusk, Robbie Arnott returns to familiar terrain. ‘Dusk’ is the name the highland graziers have given to a puma who has... Read more

When reading author and screenwriter Christian White’s fourth novel, The Ledge, it’s worth remembering the adage: ‘When you assume, you make an ass of u... Read more

Emily Tsokos Purtill’s debut novel, Matia, is a generational story that follows the lives of four Greek women in Australia over 125 years. Sia emigrated... Read more

In UQP’s new First Nations anthology, Shapeshifting, Daniel Browning meditates on the significance of the fact that there is no Bundjalung word for queer; Alison... Read more

Deep in a quiet scrap heap on the edge of a forest live the junkyard fairies: Fur, Tip and Nug. Dig Deep is the first... Read more

My Dad’s Gone Away by Minang (Nyoongar) and Inggarda (Yamatji) author Andrew Krakouer and former foster carer Jacqueline Dinan is a sensitive exploration of a... Read more

Sabina and the Cats of Rome, a light fantasy chapter book for readers aged 6 to 9, packs adventure, action, mystery, love and fun into... Read more

To Stir with Love by Kate Mildenhall (The Hummingbird Effect, The Mother Fault) and illustrator Jess Racklyeft (Tree, Australia: Country of Colour) is a beautiful... 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

At the Publishers Association of New Zealand Te Rau o Tākupu (PANZ), Graeme Cosslett has been appointed president, taking over from outgoing president Claire Murdoch. Also... Read more

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A young horse named Duke has moved to a new home. He has to open his heart and find acceptance and a mummy who will... Read more

This simple little story teaches all of us the importance of being willing to challenge our beliefs about one another, so that the world will... Read more