Simpson wins 2021 ALS Gold Medal for ‘Song of the Crocodile’
Wednesday, 21 July 2021
Nardi Simpson has won the 2021 Australian Literature Society (ALS) Gold Medal for Song of the Crocodile (Hachette). Song of the Crocodile is Simpson's debut novel, and was the winner...
Lohrey wins 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award for ‘The Labyrinth’
Thursday, 15 July 2021
Amanda Lohrey has won the $60,000 Miles Franklin Literary Award for her seventh novel, The Labyrinth (Text). Lohrey, the second Tasmanian writer to win the Miles Franklin in its 64-year...
UQP sells ‘The White Girl’ to HarperVia
Wednesday, 14 July 2021
UQP has sold world English rights (ex ANZ) for The White Girl by Tony Birch to HarperCollins imprint HarperVia. The deal was handled by UQP rights manager Kate McCormack in...
My Friend Fox (Heidi Everett, Ultimo Press)
Tuesday, 13 July 2021
This memoir from mental health recovery advocate Heidi Everett is a thoroughly real and stunningly evocative retelling of her life as a person with diagnosed mental illness. Everett tells the...
Robotham wins CWA Steel Dagger
Friday, 2 July 2021
Michael Robotham has won the UK Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award for best thriller for his novel When She Was Good (Hachette). The judges praised Robotham’s...
The Things We See in the Light (Amal Awad, Pantera Press)
Wednesday, 30 June 2021
This book opens with Sahar arriving on her best friend Lara’s doorstep in Newtown, and it’s apparent Sahar has changed a lot since Lara last saw her. Once a shy,...
Hachette acquires Yarwood debut in two-book deal
Wednesday, 30 June 2021
Hachette Australia has acquired ANZ rights to Sydney author Dianne Yarwood’s debut novel The Wakes in a 'hotly contested' international auction. The six-figure, two-book deal was struck with Catherine Drayton...
An Insider’s Plague Year (Peter Doherty, MUP)
Tuesday, 29 June 2021
Laureate Professor Peter Doherty is one of the most well placed individuals to write a walk-through of the past year and a half of pandemic life. A Nobel Prize-winning immunologist...
Affirm acquires Berry’s ‘Fearlessly Failing’
Monday, 28 June 2021
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to nutritionist and podcast host Lola Berry’s new personal development book Fearlessly Failing. Affirm said Fearlessly Failing is ‘a guide to embracing challenges and...
‘Fight Like a Girl’ to be adapted for TV
Tuesday, 22 June 2021
Aquarius Films has acquired all development and production rights to Clementine Ford’s nonfiction book Fight Like a Girl (A&U), in a deal negotiated by Jacinta Dimase at Jacinta Dimase Management....
Lui wins Russell Prize for Humour Writing, Bunting wins inaugural writing for young people award
Friday, 18 June 2021
Nakkiah Lui has won the $10,000 biennial Russell Prize for Humour Writing for Black is the New White (A&U), the book of her play of the same name. Judges Mark...
Miles Franklin 2021 shortlist announced
Wednesday, 16 June 2021
The shortlist for the 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award has been announced. The six shortlisted novels, chosen from a longlist of 12, are: Amnesty (Aravind Adiga, Picador) The Rain Heron (Robbie Arnott,...
Diverse voices among recent fiction acquisitions
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired ANZ rights to The Matchmaker (2023), a romantic comedy from debut Pakistani–Australian author Saman Shad, via Tara Wynne at Curtis Brown. The novel...
The Happiness Jar
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
Losing her battle with cystic fibrosis, Rachel administers a dose of her notorious wanderlust. She asks her family for one last request: a journey to the exotic and the unknown....
Ocean Warriors: The Rise of Robo-Shark
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
Being sent to a submarine to help restore extinct sea creatures for summer camp is not exactly Kai’s idea of fun. Then he discovers a cyborg great white shark in...
All About Yves – Notes from a Transition
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
Was I always trans, part boy beneath my skin, or was it that I landed in a place where 'girl' was a container so small it could break your bones?...
Music Maker of Auschwitz IV
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
The inspirational true story of an Allied POW appointed Kapellmeister (man in charge of music) to the Nazis in Auschwitz. In May 1940, he was captured at Dunkirk and interned...
The Riddle of Tanglewood Manor
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
When their parents opt for a tree-change, 150-year-old Tanglewood Manor becomes Sam and Harry’s ‘new’ home in the country. As their parents set about renovating the ruin, the brothers cautiously...
Two debut novels picked up in US, UK
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
Two debut novels—Ella Baxter’s New Animal and Peter Papathanasiou’s forthcoming crime fiction The Stoning—have recently been acquired by publishers in the US and UK. US rights to Ella Baxter’s New...
‘Explosive’ poetry collection scoops major lit awards
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
Throat, the second poetry collection by First Nations writer Ellen van Neerven (UQP), has been named book of the year at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, also picking up prizes...
‘The Yield’ among numerous novels optioned for screen
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
Tara June Winch’s 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award-winning novel The Yield (Penguin) has been optioned for the screen. The Yield centres on Albert ‘Poppy’ Gondiwindi and his granddaughter August, who...
‘Body inclusive wellbeing guide’ among nonfiction acquisitions
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
Simon & Schuster Australia has acquired world rights to a body inclusive wellbeing guide by Shreen El Masry, a non-diet, body inclusive personal trainer and the owner of the Sydney-based...
Williams, Pape top Australian fiction, nonfiction charts YTD
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
Pip Williams’s lockdown bestseller The Dictionary of Lost Words—which was number six on the Australian fiction bestsellers chart in 2020—has risen to number one in the chart for the year-to-date....
Meet literary agent Natasha Solomun
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
Natasha Solomun worked as a rights executive at Penguin Random House Australia and Five Mile Press before launching The Rights Hive, a literary rights agency that represents mostly independent Australian...
Secrets and Showgirls
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
Everyone is being watched, and some of Le Prix’s colourful performers are hiding dangerous secrets. Monsieur Maurice manages Le Prix d’Amour, a successful Parisian cabaret, which boasts glitzy performers and...
Amplifying First Nations voices: Magabala, UQP and Thames & Hudson share their latest titles
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
From exciting new releases to major international rights sales, First Nations publishing in Australia continues to go from strength to strength. Australian Indigenous publisher Magabala Books has had a stellar...
Independent and international: Spinifex Press, Big Sky and Exisle on their latest titles and rights successes
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
Spinifex Press, Big Sky Publishing and Exisle Publishing are three Australian independents with a strong international focus. Australian feminist publisher Spinifex Press has had a presence on the international scene—selling...
A closer look at First Nations publishing
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
In this London Book Fair preview edition of Think Australian we take a closer look at Australian First Nations publishing. While a handful of Australian publishers have been publishing Indigenous...
The Spectacular Suit (Kat Patrick, illus by Hayley Wells, Scribble)
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
Parties can be extremely important for children. Especially for Frankie, the protagonist of The Spectacular Suit, who has never asked for a party before. With everyone in her class coming,...
Sugar Town Queens (Malla Nunn, A&U)
Tuesday, 8 June 2021
Sugar Town Queens is a young adult coming-of-age novel by Malla Nunn, author of When the Ground is Hard. Her latest book follows 15-year-old Amandla, who is mixed-raced and growing...
