Johnson and Ryckmans create new agency; Vincent appointed TWC CEO; new diverse children’s book award

Lou Johnson and Jeanne Ryckmans have set up a new literary agency; the Wheeler Centre has appointed ABC journalist and producer Erin Vincent as its new CEO, replacing Caro Llewellyn; the Australian Society of Authors has raised concerns of authors and illustrators on the risk posed by generative AI; a new First Nations Australia Writers Network (FNAWN) Varuna Fellowship Program has been announced; and several graphic novelists will appear at the biennial Papercuts Comics Festival.

In awards news, the new biennial DANZ (Diversity in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand) Children’s Book Award has been established ‘to recognise, award, and celebrate diverse children’s fiction’; the winners of the 2023 Furphy Literary Award have been announced; ABR has announced the shortlist for the 2023 Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize; and the longlist for the $40,000 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award has been announced.

Overseas, private equity firm KKR is selling the audiobook publisher RBmedia to investment firm H.I.G Capital; Hachette parent company Lagardère Publishing’s sales grew 2.5% in the first six months of 2023, while higher costs pushed profits down; and Barbara Kingsolver and Darryl Pinckney have been awarded the James Tait Black Prizes for fiction and biography respectively.

Category: This week’s news