Wild Dingo launches Deadly Dingo imprint, scholarship for First Nations writers
Wild Dingo Press has launched a new imprint to publish work by First Nations writers and poets. The imprint, called Deadly Dingo Books, will publish ‘authentic, integral and powerful stories...
Harlequin announces shortlist for First Nations Fellowship
Harlequin has announced the shortlist for the 2019 First Nations Fellowship for commercial fiction. The shortlisted writers and titles are: Julie Janson for ‘Desert Lands’ Melanie Saward for ‘Barks and the City’...
Program announced for 2019 Blak & Bright festival
The program for this year’s Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival, to be held in Melbourne from 5-8 September, has been announced. More than 60 First Nations writers and...
UQP acquires Khatun, Whittaker, Elvery
UQP has announced a number of acquisitions made by publisher Aviva Tuffield across the publisher’s trade, scholarly and poetry lists. Tuffield acquired ANZ rights to Australian-Bangladeshi historian Samia Khatun’s Australianama:...
Pascoe receives Person of the Year honour at 2018 National Dreamtime Awards
Bunurong and Yuin writer Bruce Pascoe has won the Person of the Year award at the 2018 National Dreamtime Awards. The Dreamtime Person of the Year is awarded to an...
Inaugural Victorian Indigenous Literary Festival to launch in Melbourne
A new writers’ festival dedicated to Indigenous writing will be held at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne from 19-21 February. Blak & Bright, the inaugural Victorian Indigenous Literary Festival, will...
Talking points: Lesley and Tammy Williams on ‘Not Just Black and White’
Not Just Black and White (UQP, September) is a memoir that takes the form of a ‘conversation in print’ between mother and daughter Lesley and Tammy Williams. They spoke to...
Black to leave Aboriginal Studies Press
Rhonda Black has retired as publisher at Aboriginal Studies Press (ASP) after 12 years in the role. Black was instrumental in developing many resources at ASP, including the publisher’s information...
Aboriginal Studies Press releases resource for Indigenous publishing
Aboriginal Studies Press (ASP) has released a free resource to assist publishers working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors or material about their histories and cultures.Guidelines for Ethical Publishing...
Indigenous writers network to be launched at Adelaide Writers’ Week
The First Nations Australia Writers Network (FNAWN), an advocacy and resource service for Indigenous writers and storytellers, will be launched at Adelaide Writers’ Week (AWW) on 2 March.At the launch,...
Rastafarian summer: Jared Thomas on ‘Calypso Summer’
Jared Thomas is author of Calypso Summer (Magabala, April), a YA novel that charts a summer in the life of a dreadlock-wearing, reggae-loving Nukunu teen. He spoke to Heath Graham.First of...
NSLA releases guidelines to help libraries work with Indigenous communities
The Indigenous project group of the National and State Libraries Australasia (NSLA) has released a set of guidelines for libraries working with Indigenous communities. The document titled Working with Community: Guidelines...
Dreamtime tales: The collaboration of ‘More Stories from the Billabong’
Author James Vance Marshall and illustrator Francis Firebrace collaborated on More Stories from the Billabong (Walker Books, August). They spoke to Thuy On. (Read the review of More Stories from the Billabong here.) This...
A serious lack: YA books with Indigenous characters
Why are there so few YA books with Indigenous characters, asks Danielle Binks. Last year I read two wonderful Australian YA books, written by Indigenous authors and featuring Aboriginal protagonists....
Tree change: Melissa Lucashenko on ‘Mullumbimby’
Melissa Lucashenko’s novel Mullumbimby (UQP) is the story of one woman’s attempt to build a new life in country Australia. Reviewer Max Oliver describes it as ‘a modern tale of...
BlackWords fifth birthday and symposium
AustLit’s database BlackWords: Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Writers and Storytellers celebrated its fifth birthday at the Avid Reader bookshop with author readings on 19 October. The BlackWords Symposium was also held the...
Heiss wins Vic Prem’s award for Indigenous Writing
Anita Heiss has won this year’s $20,000 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing for her memoir on identity Am I Black Enough for You? (Random House). The award was...
Vic Prem’s award for Indigenous Writing shortlisted titles announced
The titles shortlisted for this year’s Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing have been announced. The announcement of the shortlist today and of the winner this afternoon are to...
Budget delivers small business tax relief, funds for small business commissioner; Indigenous literacy and numeracy funding redirected
Small businesses that are currently making losses will be able to claim losses against previously taxed income from next year as a result of the Federal Government’s tax loss carry-back...
Magabala Books celebrates 25 years
Magabala Books, Australia’s oldest independent Indigenous publisher will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year. The Broome-based publisher was founded in 1987 to restore, preserve and maintain Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander...