Gatekeepers, gender and ‘new adult’ debated at 2013 Reading Matters conference
Keith Gray, Raina Telgemeir and Libba Bray were among the popular international guests at this year’s Reading Matters conference, which ran from 30 May to 1 June. The biennial event, based...
2013 BWF schools program announced
The schools program for this year’s Brisbane Writers Festival (BWF) has been announced. The Word Play program, which runs from 4 to 6 September, offers places for 10,000 students from grades 4...
‘The Minnow’ wins 2013 Text Prize; Text acquires second shortlisted book
Diana Sweeney has won this year’s Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing for her manuscript The Minnow. Sweeney was presented with the prize by Text publisher Michael Heyward...
Text Prize 2013 shortlist announced
The shortlist for the 2013 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing has been announced. The shortlisted authors and their manuscripts are: Meg Caddy for Waer, a ‘fantasy novel...
Bloomsbury to launch digital-first YA imprint
Bloomsbury will launch a digital-first imprint for young adult, teen and new adult fiction in the second half of this year. Bloomsbury Spark is currently accepting unsolicited submissions for a...
Australian writer wins ‘Guardian’ Hot Key Books Young Writers Prize
Australian writer Joe Ducie has won the inaugural Guardian Hot Key Books Young Writers Prize. Ducie, 24, from Perth, Western Australia, was named one of two joint winners of the...
Away with the faeries: Allyse Near on ‘Fairytales for Wilde Girls’
In her review of Fairytales for Wilde Girls (Random House), Bec Kavanagh describes Allyse Near’s literary debut as ‘a cobbled path leading deep into a forest, where the reader is...
A sporting chance: Nicole Hayes on ‘The Whole of My World’
In reviewer Carody Culver’s words, Nicole Hayes’ debut YA novel The Whole of My World (Woolshed Press) ‘combines the heady world of AFL with a healthy dose of teenage angst...
Zondervan to launch general YA imprint
In the US, Zondervan, a division of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, will launch a new YA imprint aimed at the general trade market called Blink, reports Publishers Weekly. The imprint, which...
Oz, NZ authors and illustrators on 2013 White Ravens list
Australian and New Zealand authors and illustrators are among those who have been acknowledged on the 2013 White Ravens list for international children’s and youth literature. The following Australian authors and illustrators...
Random House launches digital-first teen romance imprint
Random House has launched a digital-first romance imprint for teen readers and is currently inviting submissions. Called Hooked, the imprint will publish stories for readers aged 15-plus that are ‘full of...
Line-up for Reading Matters conference announced
The full line-up for the 2013 Reading Matters conference, run by the State Library of Victoria’s Centre for Youth Literature, has been announced. International guests attending the YA books event, which runs from 30 May...
Adele Walsh: YA through a US lens
The Centre for Youth Literature’s Adele Walsh travelled to YALSA’s YA Lit Symposium in Missouri and YALLFest in South Carolina last year with the hope of picking up some ideas...
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....
A year in children’s books: publishers’ top junior picks for 2013
From a Pride and Prejudice-inspired picture book set in an Australian farmyard to a YA thriller that explores the dangers of online communication, publishers tell us their top children’s and...
Murder they wrote: Marion Roberts and Kim Kane on ‘Cry Blue Murder’
Marion Roberts and Kim Kane collaborated on the YA thriller Cry Blue Murder (UQP, May). They spoke to Meredith Lewin. Cry Blue Murder is a contemporary YA thriller that comes...
2012 ALA Awards: Caldecott, Newbery, Printz and Morris
The American Library Association (ALA) has announced its 2013 awards for children’s and young adult literature, including the Caldecott, Newbery, Printz and Morris awards. The winner of this year’s Caldecott...
Scholastic report finds preference for print among kids
A new report from Scholastic has found that the number of children who have read an ebook has almost doubled since 2010, but the majority of children still prefer reading...
Buzo a finalist for Morris Award
Australian YA author Laura Buzo has been selected as a finalist for the 2013 William C Morris Award for her 2010 debut novel Good Oil (A&U), published in the US...
HarperCollins launches digital YA imprint in US
HarperCollins is launching a new digital imprint for YA short stories and novellas in a range of genres, reports the New York Times. To be called HarperTeen Impulse, the imprint...