‘Against Disappearance’ wins SPN 2023 Book of the Year
Monday, 27 November 2023
The Small Press Network (SPN) 2023 Book of the Year (BOTY) has been awarded to Against Disappearance: Essays on memory, edited by Leah Jing Mcintosh and Adolfo Aranjuez, and published...
Lynch wins 2023 Booker Prize for ‘Prophet Song’, Aus reprint available from Friday
Monday, 27 November 2023
In the UK, Paul Lynch has won the 2023 Booker Prize, worth £50,000 (A$95,670), for Prophet Song (Oneworld). Prophet Song follows scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack as she tries to protect...
Fourth Wing wins 2023 Dymocks Book of the Year
Friday, 24 November 2023
Fourth Wing (Rebecca Yarros, Hachette Australia) has been named Dymocks 2023 Book of the Year, and Come Together: Things every Aussie kid should know about the First Peoples (Isaiah Firebrace,...
The Palestine Laboratory wins 2023 Walkley Book Award
Friday, 24 November 2023
Antony Loewenstein has won the 2023 Walkley Book Award for The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel exports the technology of occupation around the world (Antony Loewenstein, Scribe). Loewenstein's book beat shortlisted works Ghosts of...
Yong wins Royal Society Science Book Prize
Thursday, 23 November 2023
In the UK, Ed Yong has won the 2023 Royal Society Science Book Prize, worth £25,000 (A$47,740) for An Immense World: How animal senses reveal the hidden realms around us (Vintage), reports...
Woollahra Digital Literary Award 2023 winners announced
Thursday, 23 November 2023
The winners of the 2023 Woollahra Digital Literary Awards have been announced. The winning works in each category are: Fiction ($2500) 'The Life of a Folk Devil' (Michael Mohammed Ahmad,...
Victoria Carless recommends
Wednesday, 22 November 2023
I read and loved Limberlost by Robbie Arnott earlier this year. It is a quiet novel, ostensibly about a boy called Ned, who hunts rabbits for their pelts to buy a boat...
Catton shortlisted for UK’s inaugural Nero Book Awards
Wednesday, 22 November 2023
In the UK, Eleanor Catton has been shortlisted in the fiction category of the inaugural Nero Book Awards for her novel Birnam Wood (Granta). The other titles shortlisted for the...
2023 Australian Business Book Award winners announced
Wednesday, 22 November 2023
The winners of the Australian Business Book Awards 2023 have been announced. The winners are: Book of the year Time Magic (Melissa Ambrosini & Nick Broadhurst, HarperCollins) Communications and sales...
Hachette acquires Klim memoir
Wednesday, 22 November 2023
Hachette Australia has acquired the memoir of Australian Olympic swimming champion Michael Klim. Klim, to be published by Hachette senior nonfiction publisher Scott Henderson, charts the life of the Polish-born...
Prime Minister’s Literary Award winners, Baillie Gifford Prize winner, inaugural Hope Prize calls for submissions
Wednesday, 22 November 2023
The 2023 Prime Minister's Literary Award winners were announced this week. Meanwhile, the Australian Society of Authors (ASA) presented the ASA Medal and the O'Donnell Essay Prize during the Colin...
Ingram’s David Taylor on POD
Wednesday, 22 November 2023
David Taylor is senior vice president at Ingram Content Group and has responsibility for Ingram’s print-on-demand (POD) activities outside Ingram’s US base. These include the Ingram-owned Lightning Source businesses in...
Unmaking Angas Downs
Wednesday, 22 November 2023
Some stories dominate how we see and interpret a place, while others are obscured from view. Angas Downs is a pastoral station in Central Australia, but pastoralism is only a...
Vaillant wins Baillie Gifford Prize
Tuesday, 21 November 2023
In the UK, John Vaillant has won the £50,000 (A$95,350) Baillie Gifford Prize for Fire Weather: A true story from a hotter world (Sceptre). Judges said Fire Weather is a ‘meticulously researched,...
Inaugural Hope Prize seeks submissions
Tuesday, 21 November 2023
A new Australia-based international writing prize, The Hope Prize, is seeking ‘stories of hope, courage, and resilience’. Fiction and nonfiction submissions between 2000 and 5000 words are sought, responding to...
National Book Awards 2023 winners announced
Monday, 20 November 2023
In the US, the winners of the 2023 National Book Awards have been announced. The winning titles in each category are: Fiction Blackouts (Justin Torres, FSG) Nonfiction The Rediscovery of America:...
A&U acquires Rodda junior fiction
Monday, 20 November 2023
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to Landovel, a three-part junior fantasy adventure story from Emily Rodda. Publisher Eva Mills described the work as ‘compulsive and engaging’, and...
Newcastle Poetry Prize 2023 winners announced
Monday, 20 November 2023
The Hunter Writers’ Centre has announced the winners of the 2023 Newcastle Poetry Prize. The prize-winning pieces are: First prize ($15,000) ‘The Crossing’ by Kevin Smith Second prize ($5000) ‘Lines...
Prime Minister’s Literary Awards 2023 winners announced
Thursday, 16 November 2023
The recipients of the 2023 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards (PMLAs) have been announced. The winners in each category receive $80,000, and the shortlisted writers each receive $5000. All prizes are...
Colin Simpson Keynote, ASA Medal presented, O’Donnell Essay Prize announced
Thursday, 16 November 2023
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) held the Colin Simpson Memorial Keynote on 14 November at State Library Victoria, where it awarded the ASA Medal, and the Australian Copyright Council...
2023 Storylines Notable Book Award winners announced
Thursday, 16 November 2023
Storylines Children’s Literature Trust Te Whare Waituhi Tamariki o Aotearoa has announced the 2023 Storylines Notable Book Award winners. This year’s winners are: Nonfiction Critters of Aotearoa: 50 bizarre but...
Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship 2023 shortlist announced
Thursday, 16 November 2023
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced the 2023 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship shortlist. The shortlisted applicants, chosen by authors Mirandi Riwoe and Anna Spargo-Ryan, are: Emily Bitto for ‘Reasons...
Vivendi closes Editis sale
Thursday, 16 November 2023
French media company Vivendi has closed the sale of publishing house Editis to International Media Invest for €653 million (A$1.1b), reports the Bookseller. The sale price is less than the...
The Next Chapter 2024 recipients announced
Wednesday, 15 November 2023
The Wheeler Centre has announced the 2024 recipients of The Next Chapter writing development program. This year's five recipients are Raqiya Ahmed, Claire Cao, Jake Corvus, Laniyuk, and Maria van Neerven. The...
Booksellers sign statement of solidarity with Palestine
Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Local and international booksellers have signed an open letter in solidarity with Palestine. Published on Overland and attributed to Booksellers for Palestine, the letter states: ‘We stand against the collective...
Vale Kevin Weldon
Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Australian book publisher and philanthropist Kevin Ernest Weldon has died in Sydney, aged 89. Ventura director and publisher Jane Curry writes: 'Kevin started his career as a colour etcher at Brisbane's Truth newspaper...
Shelley to lead Hachette in UK and US
Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Hachette Book Group (HBG) in the US and Hachette UK (HUK) will be reorganised under ‘a new English-language management structure’ that will see HUK CEO David Shelley take on the...
SPN conference program, consistent Black Friday sales boost, Bashford wins Nib Literary Award
Wednesday, 15 November 2023
The Small Press Network 2023 Independent Publishing Conference is on next week (23–25 November), and Nielsen BookData has reported a five-year pattern of boosted print book sales during Black Friday...
‘I wanted to make a meaningful impact’: Reflections from the 2023 Open Book interns
Wednesday, 15 November 2023
First run as a pilot program offering two internships in 2022, the Open Book paid internship program is a joint sector initiative that aims to foster cultural and linguistic diversity...
Unmaking Angas Downs
Wednesday, 15 November 2023
A new work of history that seeks to unmake mythologies of pioneers, pastoralism and possession in the Northern Territory Some stories dominate how we see and interpret a place, while...