Van Neerven receives Creative Australia Fellowship; Shawline enters liquidation; Booksellers Aotearoa NZ launches buying group
Author Ellen van Neerven is the recipient of the 2024 Creative Australia Fellowship for literature, worth $80,000; Shawline Publishing has entered liquidation, with liquidator Brooke Bird stating that ‘the master files associated with [authors’] published works … are likely owned by Shawline’; and the Age reports that Dymocks is rolling out changes to its website this week, along with a new loyalty program and changes to its flagship store.
In personnel news, the Wheeler Centre has announced the appointment of Gene Smith as head of programming ‘following an extensive search’; and Troy Lewis is leaving Hardie Grant.
Across the ditch, Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand has launched a buying group; five publishers will exhibit at the Frankfurt Book Fair as part of the Aotearoa New Zealand collective stand later this month; Mark Derby has won the 2024 Copyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ) and the New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ Inc) Writers’ Award; and poets Megan Kitching and Robyn Maree Pickens are among those shortlisted for the UK’s annual Laurel Prize.
Meanwhile, Untapped: The Australian Literary Heritage Project has released a new report on project findings; Varuna, the National Writers’ House has announced a First Peoples India–Australia exchange will take place commencing next year; and the shortlist for this year’s UNSW Press Bragg Prize for Science Writing has been announced.
In acquisitions news: Affirm Press has acquired ANZ rights to Victoria Brownlee’s foodie rom-com novel, Eat Your Heart Out; Hachette has acquired ANZ rights to Pip Harry’s middle-grade verse novel Drift; HarperCollins has acquired ANZ rights to three new books by Holly Ringland; Allen & Unwin has acquired world rights to Katrina Gorry: A Matildas Hero’s Story of Football, Motherhood and Breaking Down Barriers; and HarperCollins has acquired world rights to ‘inspirational memoir’ One Day at a Time by Jordan Ablett.
Meanwhile, in the UK, the Bookseller reported that paperback fiction sales for the 12 weeks from 30 June were up about 10% on the same period in 2023; Storymix founder Jasmine Richards told the publication’s Children’s Conference in a keynote that the championing of diverse stories in publishing amid the Black Lives Matter movement has suffered a ‘breathtakingly swift rollback’; and the shortlist for the 2024 Goldsmiths Prize has been announced; while in the US, Publishers Weekly reported that digital audio sales jumped significantly in the month of July.
Category: This week’s news
