Best of the best books of 2024
Friday, 13 December 2024
Across five major ‘best books of 2024’ articles published this December, we counted the most-mentioned Australian books. From end-of-year lists published by the Age/Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Book Review, Guardian...
Osborne-Crowley longlisted on Gordon Burn Prize
Friday, 13 December 2024
In the UK, British–Australian author Lucia Osborne-Crowley has been longlisted for the £10,000 (A$20,011) Gordon Burn Prize. Osborne-Crowley was longlisted for her book The Lasting Harm: Witnessing the Trail of...
Indie Book Awards 2025 longlists announced
Friday, 13 December 2024
The longlist for the 2025 Indie Book Awards has been announced. The longlisted titles in each category are: Fiction Dusk (Robbie Arnott, Picador) Safe Haven (Shankari Chandran, Ultimo) The Valley...
Literature orgs, writers among latest Creative Aus grant recipients
Thursday, 12 December 2024
Literature organisations and writers are among the recipients of the latest round of Creative Australia funding, worth $12 million. Among the successful recipients are: Arts Projects for Organisations Overland magazine...
Hardie Grant Books acquires ‘Silk Silver Opium’
Thursday, 12 December 2024
Hardie Grant Books has acquired world print, ebook and audio rights to Silk Silver Opium: The Trade with China that Changed History by writer and historian Michael Pembroke, in a...
UQP acquires Jacobs, Natt picture book for adults
Thursday, 12 December 2024
UQP has acquired world rights to a satirical picture book for adults, titled If Queers Weren’t Meant to Have Kids, by Narelda Jacobs and Karina Natt, to be illustrated by...
Juchau wins 2024 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship
Thursday, 12 December 2024
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced Mireille Juchau as recipient of the $35,000 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship. Assessors Amal Awad and Kate Ryan said that in Juchau’s autofictional detective...
Inaugural WestWords Prize shortlist announced
Thursday, 12 December 2024
WestWords has announced the shortlist for its inaugural WestWords Prize. The shortlisted writers (and their manuscripts) are: Amy Anshaw-Nye for ‘The Maydown Girls’ Philip Barker for ‘Burning Good Samaritans’ Vahida...
Hollier appointed chair of new SPN board
Thursday, 12 December 2024
A new board has been elected at the Small Press Network (SPN) annual general meeting, held on 9 December. Nathan Hollier, a former CEO of Melbourne University Publishing and more...
Leigh responds to petition on fixed-price book laws
Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh has responded to a petition asking for Federal Parliament to introduce fixed-price laws for books in Australia. The petition, which attracted...
WeirDo, Wolf Girl to be adapted to screen
Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Two Anh Do series, WeirDo (Scholastic) and Wolf Girl (A&U), are being adapted to screen, reports the Age. The WeirDo series is being turned into a television series in partnership...
CLNZ Contestable Fund Grants 2024 recipients announced
Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Copyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ) has announced recipients of its Contestable Fund Grants, totalling NZ$75,000. The recipients are: Georgina Tuari Stewart (NZ$8220): for the publishing project ‘Ngā Kararehe o Aotearoa—he Mātauranga, he Matatika, development...
UQP sells world English rights to ‘Someone Like Me’
Wednesday, 11 December 2024
University of Queensland Press (UQP) has sold world English (ex ANZ) rights to Someone Like Me: An Anthology of Nonfiction by Autistic Writers (co-edited by Clem Bastow & Jo Case)...
Tu awarded 2025 BR Whiting Studio Residency
Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Jessie Tu has been awarded Creative Australia’s 2025 BR Whiting Studio Residency in Rome. Tu’s debut novel, A Lonely Girl Is a Dangerous Thing (A&U), was named literary fiction book...
Debenham wins 2024 Ampersand Prize
Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Michael Debenham’s Drowning for Beginners has won the 2024 Ampersand Prize for children’s and YA debut fiction. Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing (HGCP) publishing director Marisa Pintado said: ‘Michael’s compulsively readable...
IPEd announces Rosie longlist
Tuesday, 10 December 2024
The Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd) has announced the longlist for the 2025 Rosanne Fitzgibbon Editorial Award, known as the Rosie. Longlisted editors—and their projects—include: Kristy Bushnell (UQP), for Love,...
UQP sells Sakr, Ahmed poetry to US and UK
Tuesday, 10 December 2024
University of Queensland Press (UQP) has sold North American and UK rights to The Nightmare Sequence, a collection of illustrated poetry by Omar Sakr and Safdar Ahmed, to Nightboat Books...
SLQ announces UQP as new black&write! publisher partner
Tuesday, 10 December 2024
The State Library of Queensland (SLQ) has announced a new agreement with the University of Queensland Press (UQP) to publish titles from its black&write! First Nations–led writing and editing program...
A&U acquires Starford novel
Tuesday, 10 December 2024
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to Rebecca Starford’s novel The Visitor, in a deal brokered by Pippa Masson at Curtis Brown Australia. In The Visitor, ‘a woman returns...
Varuna announces 2025 Affirm Press Fellowship recipients
Tuesday, 10 December 2024
Varuna, the National Writers’ House has announced the recipients of the 2025 Affirm Press Fellowship. The fellowship recipients and their manuscripts are: Zoe Deleuil, for ‘Kita Karamel’ Kerry Munnery, for...
Fremantle Australia options Jennings works for new series
Monday, 9 December 2024
Fremantle Australia has optioned the rights to a range of works from local author Paul Jennings for development of a ‘deliciously frightful’ television series. In a writing career spanning about...
Johnson wins Australian Fiction Prize
Monday, 9 December 2024
Katherine Johnson has won the inaugural Australian Fiction Prize for her unpublished manuscript A Wild Heart, receiving $20,000 in prize money and a $15,000 advance. ‘A Wild Heart is the story of...
Rose to depart ABR
Monday, 9 December 2024
Peter Rose, editor and CEO of the Australian Book Review, is set to step down from the role in 2025, the publication has announced. Rose has served in the role...
Black Friday sales up 4% on last year
Thursday, 5 December 2024
Nielsen BookData reports that Black Friday–week sales in 2024 ‘saw volume sales in the Australian book market 40% higher than the average weekly sales in the four weeks prior’, with...
Storm acquires seven McIntosh novels
Thursday, 5 December 2024
Digital-first publishing house Storm has acquired world English language rights (ex ANZ) to seven novels by Fiona McIntosh, via Lisa Highton at Jenny Brown Associates. Acquired titles include The Orphans,...
S&S acquires Gould memoir
Thursday, 5 December 2024
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired world rights to a memoir by paramedic Sally Gould, with the working title Frog: A Memoir of Life and Death on the Frontline,...
ABR offers new science writing fellowship
Thursday, 5 December 2024
The Australian Book Review (ABR) has announced a new fellowship ‘to advance the careers of science writers and to augment ABR’s coverage of science and the history of science’. The...
ASA to fund mentorship program after Copyright Agency funding ends
Thursday, 5 December 2024
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced it will fund ‘a smaller iteration’ of its Award Mentorship Program until it is able to source alternative ongoing funding. In 2025,...
Ampersand Prize 2024 shortlist announced
Wednesday, 4 December 2024
Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing (HGCP) has announced the shortlist for the 2024 Ampersand Prize. The shortlisted titles are: ‘I Love a Good Murder’ by Rahnia Collins, a YA crime novel...
Pung awarded 2024 Alice Literary Award
Wednesday, 4 December 2024
Alice Pung has won the Alice Literary Award, presented by the Society of Women Writers in Australia. In Pung’s acceptance speech, the author said: ‘What an honour it is, to...
