Reading Matters 2013 dates, new features announced
The State Library of Victoria will hold its 10th annual Reading Matters conference from Thursday 30 May to Saturday 1 June 2013. The conference, which focuses on children’s and YA...
SWF 2013 School Days program launched
The Sydney Writers’ Festival (SWF) has announced some of the authors and illustrators who will participate in its 2013 School Days program, to be held between 20 and 23 May 2013....
Junior book bites
A taste of forthcoming Junior books. Picture books A number of lovely board books are out later this year, including a some readalong picture books by Alison Lester: Run like...
What teenagers want
Jordi Kerr takes us behind the scenes during this year’s Inky shortlisting process. I am not a teenager. No matter how many books I read or teenagers I talk to,...
Oz, NZ authors nominated for 2013 Astrid Lindgren Award
Four Australian authors and two New Zealand authors have been nominated for the 2013 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the world’s largest prize for children’s and young adult literature. Australian authors...
HGE opens up Ampersand Project to all YA genres
Hardie Grant Egmont (HGE) has announced that its Ampersand Project will accept manuscripts across all young adult genres this year. The publisher launched the project at the end of 2011,...
Reseach says more than half of YA book buyers 18 or over
More than half (55%) of buyers of YA books (designated for readers aged 12 to 17) are 18 or older, according to an ongoing biannual study by Bowker Market Research called...
2012 Inky shortlist announced
The shortlist for this year’s Inky Awards for young adult literature, presented by the Centre for Youth Literature at the State Library of Victoria, has been announced. The shortlisted Australian...
Interview with Jaclyn Moriarty on ‘A Corner of White’
Jaclyn Moriarty, best known for her YA novels Feeling Sorry for Celia and Finding Cassie Crazy, has begun a new series for crossover readers. She spoke to Amelia Vahtrick. This...
‘Zac and Mia’ wins 2012 Text Prize
Perth writer Amanda Betts has won this year’s Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing for her manuscript Zac and Mia. Betts was presented with the prize by Text...
Text Prize 2012 shortlist announced
The shortlist for the 2012 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing has been announced. The shortlisted titles are: Zac and Mia (Amanda Betts) Heart of Brass (Louise Curtis)...
2012 Inky Awards longlists announced
The longlists for the 2012 Inky Awards for young adult literature, run by the Centre for Youth Literature at the State Library of Victoria, have been announced. The Gold Inky...
Garth Nix on ‘the most expensive and least useful marketing tool for a book ever’
Garth Nix talks to Andrea Hanke about the tie-in game for his latest novel A Confusion of Princes, admitting to having called it ‘the most expensive and least useful marketing tool for...
Penguin to accept children’s and YA submissions until July
The Books for Children and Young Adults (BCYA) division at Penguin is now accepting unsolicited manuscripts electronically, and will do so until the end of July. In a statement on...
Byron Bay Writers Festival 2012 to focus on children’s, YA and science
The 2012 Byron Bay Writers’ Festival will be run from 3-5 August, with an increased focus on young adult, science and children’s books. Festival director Jonathon Parsons told the Northern...
2012 SCBWI conference program released
The program for the 2012 Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI ) Australian & New Zealand conference has been released. The SCBWI conference will run from 29 June–1...
Love-shy (Lilli Wilkinson, A&U)
YA author Lili Wilkinson is well known for her insightful views into the teenage mind, with books such as The (Not Quite) Perfect Boyfriend and Pink. Love-shy is the next...
Love Notes from Vinegar House (Karen Tayleur, Walker Books)
Family secrets. A cursed house. Things that go bump in the night ... Freya Kramer doesn’t believe in ghosts. Not really. But spending her holidays at Vinegar House might just...
Losing It (Julia Lawrinson, Penguin)
Award-winning YA novelist Julia Lawrinson’s latest book, Losing It, is a sassy coming-of-age tale with a uniquely Australian twist: in a bid to preserve their sexual dignity and avoid the...
The Industry: The Industry Book 1 (Rose Foster, HarperCollins)
Fans of ‘The Hunger Games’ will lap up this debut YA trilogy from young Melbourne author Rose Foster. Kirra Hayward, 16, is her school’s top maths student. When she stumbles...