Michelle de Kretser on ‘Theory & Practice’
Tuesday, 10 September 2024
Two-time Miles Franklin winner Michelle de Kretser’s latest novel, Theory & Practice (November 2024, Text), is a combination of fiction, memoir and essay set in St Kilda, Melbourne, in 1986....
‘A service we wish to recommit to and double down on’: Shant Kradjian on Booktopia’s distribution services, staffing, and plans to rebuild trust
Tuesday, 3 September 2024
Shant Kradjian, owner of digiDirect, is the new owner of Booktopia, which began trading again last week. With plans ‘to restore Booktopia with a back-to-basics strategy’, Kradjian says his team...
Alyson O’Brien on literacy and trade publishing: ‘It’s lucky for a manuscript for the very young to even make it to an acquisitions meeting’
Wednesday, 28 August 2024
A year ago, when former Bright Light publisher Alyson O'Brien moved from commercial publishing to Raising Literacy Australia, she thought her commercial experience would add value to the organisation; she...
David Dyer recommends
Tuesday, 27 August 2024
The last Australian book I read and loved was Larry Writer’s wonderful The Shipwreck (2022). It tells the dramatic story of the sailing ship Dunbar, which, in 1857, after a...
David Dyer on ‘This Kingdom of Dust’
Tuesday, 27 August 2024
David Dyer’s debut novel, The Midnight Watch (Penguin, 2016), focused on the ship that witnessed the Titanic’s distress rockets but failed to respond. His sophomore novel, This Kingdom of Dust...
Returning to BookUp in 2024
Wednesday, 21 August 2024
The annual BookUp conference for 2024, presented by the Australian Publishers Association (APA), was held at the State Library Victoria, Melbourne, on Wednesday 7 August, with wide-ranging sessions inviting participants to contemplate...
Yin on ‘The Conscious Style Guide’
Wednesday, 14 August 2024
Karen Yin is an award-winning writer and editor. She created the Conscious Style Guide, a resource website for writers, editors and others interested in conscious language, as well as the...
Rochelle Siemienowicz recommends
Wednesday, 14 August 2024
If You Go by Alice Robinson (Affirm) is an amazing book that works as both tense, speculative fiction and as a nuanced, philosophical exploration of divorce, motherhood and the moments...
Rochelle Siemienowicz on ‘Double Happiness’
Tuesday, 13 August 2024
Rochelle Siemienowicz is a Melbourne-based author, journalist and film critic. Her debut fiction novel, Double Happiness (MidnightSun, October 2024), ‘explores the intricacies, challenges and taboos surrounding polyamory and ethical non-monogamy’, according...
Jacqueline Dinan recommends
Tuesday, 6 August 2024
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 illness and ultimate death, plus...
Andrew Krakouer recommends
Tuesday, 6 August 2024
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 the fight for respect on...
Andrew Krakouer & Jacqueline Dinan on ‘My Dad’s Gone Away’
Tuesday, 6 August 2024
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 AFL player, and Jacqueline Dinan,...
Meet the Rising Stars: Tessa Feggans
Tuesday, 6 August 2024
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. In the lead-up to the...
Lauren Stewart on BookNet Canada
Wednesday, 31 July 2024
Lauren Stewart, president and CEO of BookNet Canada, will present a keynote at the Australian Publishers Association's BookUp conference in Melbourne on 7 August. Ahead of this appearance, Stewart spoke...
Meet the Rising Stars: Yasmin Smith
Wednesday, 31 July 2024
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. In the lead-up to the...
Hasib Hourani recommends
Wednesday, 31 July 2024
I keep returning to Jumaana Abdu’s Translations, which will be released in August. It’s an expertly paced work of fiction about a woman trying to build a home for herself...
Mentoring matters: Arpita Das on the myths, realities and importance of mentoring
Tuesday, 30 July 2024
Arpita Das will appear at the Australian Publishers Association's BookUp conference in Melbourne in August as a keynote speaker. Das is the founder and publisher of the New Delhi–based independent...
Hasib Hourani on ‘rock flight’
Tuesday, 30 July 2024
Hasib Hourani is a Lebanese-Palestinian writer, editor, arts worker and educator living on Wangal Country in Sydney. His debut book, rock flight (Giramondo, September 2024), is a 'structurally experimental long-form poem...
Tinsel time: Christmas 2024 children’s books
Wednesday, 24 July 2024
Books+Publishing asked publishers to highlight their key local children’s and young adult titles releasing in time for Christmas 2024. From heartfelt picture books on social issues to everything a child...
Arnold opens Ladyhawke bookshop in Ivanhoe
Wednesday, 24 July 2024
After a ‘three-year sunny accident’ in Queensland, editor and bookseller Alison Arnold sold The Junction Bookstore in Noosa Junction and returned to Melbourne. Arnold spoke to Books+Publishing about the new...
Meet the Rising Stars: Rebecca Allen
Wednesday, 24 July 2024
The Australian Publishers Association Rising Star award recognises an emerging talent in Australian publishing who has spent less than 10 years in the industry. In the lead-up to the winner announcement...
Tigest Girma recommends
Tuesday, 23 July 2024
The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni is a YA fantasy book about a girl who fights to survive in a death prison. It was my first time reading a fantasy...
Tigest Girma on ‘Immortal Dark’
Tuesday, 23 July 2024
Tigest Girma, an Ethiopian writer and teacher based in Melbourne, draws richly from East African history and cultures and blends Black stories with dark and fantastical elements. Books+Publishing reviewer Stefen...
Tinsel time: Christmas 2024 nonfiction
Wednesday, 17 July 2024
Following on from last week's life writing highlights, publishers are looking forward to a colourful range of new nonfiction books that will enliven kitchens, inform conversations, inspire reflections, and maybe...
Meet the Rising Stars: Katherine Rajwar
Wednesday, 17 July 2024
The Australian Publishers Association Rising Star award recognises an emerging talent in Australian publishing who has spent less than 10 years in the industry. In the lead-up to the winner announcement...
Christopher Cheng recommends
Tuesday, 16 July 2024
I adored Emma Quay’s Happy All Over. It’s full of joy and light and happiness. The text consists of short, simple statements. These expressions of joy for a child arise from...
Christopher Cheng on ‘Dragon Folding’
Tuesday, 16 July 2024
Christopher Cheng is a Sydney-based, award-winning children's author of over 40 fiction and nonfiction titles. His latest picture book, Dragon Folding (illus Lucia Masciullo, Puffin, September 2024), shows readers 'how...
Tinsel time: Christmas 2024 biographies and memoirs
Wednesday, 10 July 2024
From a soccer superstar to familiar faces in children's entertainment, and an equally wide range of non-celebrity (but far from ordinary) stories, Books+Publishing rounds up the local adult biography and...
Robbie Egan: ‘A centralised ecommerce platform … would be transformative’
Wednesday, 10 July 2024
Robbie Egan is CEO of BookPeople, the Australian Booksellers Association. Here, he argues that the mainstream media’s 'gloom and doom' narrative following Booktopia’s entry into voluntary administration has been 'quarantined...
Meet the Rising Stars: Riikka Dunn
Wednesday, 10 July 2024
The Australian Publishers Association Rising Star award recognises an emerging talent in Australian publishing who has spent less than 10 years in the industry. In the lead-up to the winner announcement...
