The bigger picture: Australian books respond to climate change
Wednesday, 29 September 2021
It’s hard to find a theme more urgent in publishing today—and one that unites fiction and nonfiction—than climate change. Australian independent publisher Black Inc. has been particularly active in publishing...
Meet literary agent Martin Shaw
Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Since moving from Australia to Germany in 2015, former book buyer Martin Shaw has established himself as a literary agent, first as ‘an understudy’ to Alex Adsett, and subsequently as...
Evie and Rhino
Wednesday, 29 September 2021
When Evie finds a fully-grown rhinoceros washed up on a beach, she feels an immediate connection and knows she has to help him. When Rhino wakes, he knows that the...
How We Love
Wednesday, 29 September 2021
A deeply personal exploration of love in all its forms from a feminist icon and bestselling author of Fight Like a Girl and Boys Will Be Boys. This lyrical memoir explores love in...
Gustav and Henri: Volume #1
Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Opposites attract in this humorous graphic novel series about best friends Gustav and Henri. Gustav is a goofy, optimistic and naively enthusiastic pig. Henri is a grounded, pragmatic and quietly...
Devotion (Hannah Kent, Picador)
Tuesday, 21 September 2021
When Hanne meets Thea, her life suddenly makes sense. They live in Kay, a tight-knit community of devout Lutherans who have been shunned for their beliefs. Both girls, on the...
The Boy and the Elephant (Freya Blackwood, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 21 September 2021
After almost 20 years of her books on our shelves, a new Freya Blackwood is always cause for delight. The Boy and the Elephant—Blackwood’s first wordless picture book—allows her quiet...
Danged Black Thing (Eugen Bacon, Transit Lounge)
Wednesday, 15 September 2021
Lyrical, rich, oftentimes dark and sometimes hopeful, Danged Black Thing is a speculative fiction collection that takes the reader on a journey from Africa to Australia. The cities and villages the stories are set...
Tomorrow is a Brand-New Day (Davina Bell, illus by Allison Colpoys, Scribble)
Wednesday, 8 September 2021
Tomorrow is a Brand-New Day is an ode to making a mistake and then making things right. It follows two children—friends with different styles—who come into conflict with each other...
Marcie Gill and the Caravan Park Cat (Monica McInerney, illus by Danny Snell, Puffin)
Wednesday, 8 September 2021
With a dozen adult novels under her belt, Monica McInerney is now turning her hand to children’s fiction and her first foray into middle-grade territory is just as full of heart and laughter as her...
‘Ghost Bird’ sells to UK
Thursday, 2 September 2021
UK independent publisher Old Barn Books has bought UK and Commonwealth (ex Canada and ANZ) rights to Lisa Fuller's YA novel Ghost Bird from University of Queensland Press (UQP). The...
Another Day in the Colony (Chelsea Watego, UQP)
Tuesday, 31 August 2021
Chelsea Watego’s debut essay collection Another Day in the Colony documents the sustained racism First Peoples suffer in this continent. Through critical race scholarship, memoir and archival imagery a powerful assemblage is...
Hachette acquires two Jordan novels
Tuesday, 31 August 2021
Hachette has acquired world rights for two novels by Toni Jordan, in a deal struck between head of fiction Rebecca Saunders and Jane Novak of Jane Novak Literary Agency. The...
Davitt Awards winners announced
Monday, 30 August 2021
Sisters in Crime Australia has announced the winners of the 2021 Davitt Awards for the best crime books by Australian women. The winners in each category are: Adult crime novel...
Ned Kelly Awards 2021 winners announced
Thursday, 26 August 2021
The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has announced the winners of the 2021 Ned Kelly Awards. Crime novels released by Text Publishing swept the fiction categories, with the winning titles...
How to Repaint a Life (Steven Herrick, UQP)
Tuesday, 24 August 2021
How to Repaint a Life is the latest offering from Steven Herrick, author of award-winning young adult titles including The Simple Gift and The Bogan Mondrian. This is gritty, heartbreaking prose that delves into...
Norton and the Borrowing Bear (Gabriel Evans, Berbay)
Tuesday, 24 August 2021
Gabriel Evans is fast becoming one of the most consistently delightful Australian picture book creators of recent years. With each release he adds to his oeuvre with such apparent ease,...
CBCA Book of the Year 2021 winners announced
Friday, 20 August 2021
The winners of the 2021 Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards have been announced. The winning titles and honour books in each category are: Older...
The First Scientists (Corey Tutt, illus by Blak Douglas, Hardie Grant)
Wednesday, 18 August 2021
In The First Scientists, Corey Tutt, founder of the Deadly Science charity and NSW Young Person of the Year 2020, brings us an extremely engaging, informative and at times funny account of...
My Brother Ben (Peter Carnavas, UQP)
Tuesday, 10 August 2021
Acclaimed Australian children’s writer Peter Carnavas has followed up his wonderful first novel The Elephant with another book equally full of heart. An ode to sibling relationships, growing up and the natural world, My...
Permafrost (S J Norman, UQP)
Tuesday, 10 August 2021
Permafrost is a decadent, artistic delight, full of sensory pleasure for the reader. S J Norman, a visual and performance artist who won the inaugural Kill Your Darlings Manuscript Award with this collection, makes a...
Bodies of Light (Jennifer Down, Text)
Tuesday, 10 August 2021
Bodies of Light is Jennifer Down’s third book and her best yet. It begins with fierce, ageing Maggie (now living in the US under a new identity) being prompted to revisit...
‘Still Alive’ sells to Fantagraphics
Wednesday, 4 August 2021
Melbourne graphic novel publisher Twelve Panels Press has sold world English rights (ex ANZ) to Safdar Ahmed’s Still Alive to Gary Groth at Fantagraphics, to be published under the Fantagraphics...
Pantera acquires McWilliams debut middle-grade novel
Wednesday, 4 August 2021
Pantera Press has acquired world rights to The Reindeer and the Submarine, the debut middle-grade novel by Beverly McWilliams. Inspired by the true story of a reindeer who lived aboard...
Dark Rise (C S Pacat, A&U)
Tuesday, 3 August 2021
Will is on the run from the men who killed his mother. When a terrifying artefact is unleashed on the Thames docks, Will finds himself thrust into a hidden world...
The Stoning (Peter Papathanasiou, Transit Lounge)
Tuesday, 3 August 2021
At dawn one Sunday, homicide detective George Manolis is woken with a call: a schoolteacher has been murdered in the outback town of Cobb, and the local police need his...
PRH acquires Chadderton middle-grade graphic novel
Thursday, 29 July 2021
Penguin Random House (PRH) Australia has acquired world rights to the contemporary middle-grade graphic novel Oh, Brother by Adelaide author-illustrator Georgina Chadderton. Rights were acquired in a joint deal between PRH...
Dragon Skin (Karen Foxlee, A&U)
Tuesday, 27 July 2021
Dragon Skin is the much-anticipated new novel by Karen Foxlee, author of cherished modern classics including the internationally successful Lenny’s Book of Everything. Foxlee is skilled at writing brave yet vulnerable young...
S&S acquires two McAlister rom-coms
Thursday, 22 July 2021
Simon & Schuster Australia has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to two adult novels by Jodi McAlister, author of the YA series 'Valentine', via Alex Adsett from Alex Adsett Literary....
In Moonland (Miles Allinson, Scribe)
Wednesday, 21 July 2021
Miles Allinson’s accomplished second novel—the follow-up to his moving and deeply personal 2015 debut Fever of Animals—is an ambitious and gripping story of parenthood, utopias and environmental collapse, told across several interconnected narratives. The narrator of...
