Cumberland City Council, in Western Sydney, has passed a motion to remove same-sex parenting books from its library shelves, reports the ABC. In what the... Read more

Varuna, The National Writers’ House has announced a new fellowship program—the Roderick Centre Fellowship for Regional and Remote Writers. Described by Varuna as ‘the only... Read more

Sydney author Julia Levitina has been shortlisted for the UK Historical Novel Society’s (HNS) First Chapters Competition. Levitina was shortlisted in the 20th-century historical fiction... Read more

In the US, the winners of the 2024 Pulitzer Prizes have been announced. The winners in the book categories were: Fiction Night Watch (Jayne Anne... Read more

Last Thursday Alexis Wright became the first author to win the Stella Prize twice, with her fourth novel, Praiseworthy (Giramondo), named the winner of the $60,000 award in a ceremony in Melbourne. In what was a big week for awards news, shortlists for the WA Premier’s Book Awards and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards were also revealed.

In other awards news, Aotearoa New Zealand writer Tracey Slaughter has won the 2024 ABR Calibre Essay Prize for the essay ‘why your hair is long & your stories short’; the shortlist for the 2024 ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize for an unpublished manuscript has been announced; and the longlist for the Book Links 2024 Award for Children’s Historical Fiction has also been announced.

In other local news, Red Room Poetry will present the UK poetry and spoken word festival Contains Strong Language at venues across Gadigal and Dharug lands in Sydney in late August; Hachette Australia has been included for the second year running in the Best Places to Work list published annually by the Australian Financial Review and BOSS magazine; Fremantle Press’s early reading program, Bookaburras, will launch a regional tour featuring Bookaburras Ambassadors across Western Australia; and, in Aotearoa New Zealand, PANZ has announced the first guests for its international conference, to be held in Auckland on 1 and 2 August, as well as the appointment of Courtney Sina Meredith as its new association director.

Overseas, the shortlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction has been announced in the UK, while in the US, the American Booksellers Association is seeking to add independent bookstores to the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust complaint against Amazon, and Simon & Schuster has announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Netherlands publisher Veen Bosch & Keuning.

A new report from Creative Australia, Artists as Workers: An economic study of professional artists in Australia by David Throsby and Katya Petetskaya, ‘shows it... Read more

Michelle See-Tho is a freelance writer and copywriter whose debut novel, Jade and Emerald (Vintage, July 2024), won the 2023 Penguin Literary Prize. The novel is... Read more

There are so many to choose from! I might go with The Body Country by Susie Anderson (full disclosure/humblebrag: we are friends). It launched in... Read more

Sales Fiction Bold Type Agency has sold North American rights to The Paris Cooking School (Sophie Beaumont, Ultimo); Portugal rights to Bound to Happen (Jonathan Shannon,... Read more

Top 10 bestsellers Funny Story (Emily Henry, Viking) My Favourite Mistake (Marian Keyes, Michael Joseph) The Scarlet Shedder (Dog Man #12) (Dav Pilkey, Scholastic) Powerful... Read more

Isabella G Mead’s debut collection, The Infant Vine, speaks to the deeply elemental nature of motherhood. In these poems, the line between what is human... Read more

Winner of the 2023 Penguin Literary Prize, Jade and Emerald is a portrait of what it means to grow up caught between two cultures. Lei... Read more

Dylin Hardcastle’s tender and steamy third novel, A Language of Limbs, follows two sapphic young women (Limb One and Limb Two) on different paths through... Read more

Living Hot by Clive Hamilton (Silent Invasion) and independent energy consultant George Wilkenfeld, provides a stark assessment of Australia’s response to climate change, emphasising that the... Read more

Nine-year-old Hazel Bird loves to explore her local area and collect little treasures. When her baby sister is born, she can no longer bring home... Read more

This beautiful book is written in dual languages: Dhuwal, also known as Djambarrpuyŋu (widely understood in north-east Arnhem Land), and English. The artworks/illustrations by author... Read more

A historical letter-writing mystery and searching for the missing ‘Adder Stone’ are two of the many compelling story arcs in this highly engaging, fast-paced contemporary... Read more

Executive director of IVE Geoff Selig has died. Print21 writes: The print community is reeling, as it mourns the passing of industry titan Geoff Selig,... 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

Voting is now open for this year’s University of Sydney People’s Choice Award as a part of the 2024 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.

Cast your vote now to go in the draw to win one of two packs of all 12 shortlisted books.

Voting closes Wednesday 15 May.

www.sl.nsw.gov.au/pla

Smith Street Books are delighted to announce that Emiko Davies’ Gohan has won the prestigious Fortnum & Mason Cookbook of the Year, as well as the André Simon Special Commendation at ceremonies in London last week.

‘An exquisite but refreshingly down-to-earth guide to everyday Japanese and Yoshoku (think East meets West) cooking, with recipes that inspire and invite.’
—Nigella Lawson

‘A lovely book, sincere, personal, and full of grace and beauty. It also makes Japanese cooking accessible.’
—Diana Henry

Publisher Paul McNally says: ‘We are absolutely thrilled that Gohan has been recognised and rewarded. It’s a great testament to such a brilliantly talented author as Emiko Davies—and the incredible team who put this beautiful, heartfelt book together.’

Author Emiko Davies comments: ‘Gohan means so much to me and, more than anything, I hoped it would mean something to other people. I wanted Gohan to become part of their everyday cooking. This is a dream come true.’

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