Bologna postponed due to coronavirus, CBCA & ABDA longlists, screen adaptations and more

Bologna Children’s Book Fair organisers have postponed the event for a month due to the coronavirus outbreak in Italy. Originally scheduled for 30 March–2 April, the fair will now run from 4–7 May. The news comes after the Taipei International Book Exhibition was postponed (from early February until 7–12 May) and Australian publishers warned of possible delays to book supply, both as a result of the coronavirus epidemic.

Among the awards news this week, the CBCA’s Notable books for 2020 and ABDA longlists were announced, Karen Wyld won UWAP’s Dorothy Hewett Award, Sienna Brown was named winner of the MUD Literary Prize, and three Australians were longlisted for the UK’s Carnegie and Greenaway medals.

In other news, film and TV adaptions of books by Melanie Cheng, Maxine Beneba Clarke and Behrouz Boochani have been announced, the City of Melbourne has relaunched the Lord Mayor’s Creative Writing Awards, Bethany Patch has left Penguin Random House, and the National Library of Australia has made cuts to its publishing imprint.

Overseas, revenue and profit was down at Simon & Schuster in 2019, and the shortlist for this year’s Folio Prize was announced.

This week we also welcome a new columnist, Veronica Sullivan. In her first piece for the year, Sullivan explores how bookstores decide what books to stock, in the wake of the controversy surrounding Jeanine Cummins’ novel American Dirt. Each month we’ll be alternating between an op-ed from Sullivan and our Junior columnist—look out for their first column on the children’s book industry, coming late March.

For all the latest local, international and rights news, sign up to our Daily newsletter here.

Category: This week’s news