Lonely Planet shutters Melbourne office, industry adapts to lockdown and more

The economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic made itself known this week, with the news Lonely Planet reduced its publishing operations with immediate effect, including essentially shuttering its Melbourne and London offices.

Elsewhere, booksellers and publishers are continuing to adapt to business under lockdown—as is the Melbourne Writers Festival, which will deliver a smaller online program this year. Meanwhile, Covid-19 hastened the permanent closure of Andrew’s Bookshop in Melbourne.

Jess Hill was named the winner of this year’s Stella Prize for See What You Made Me Do, her investigation of domestic violence, Jack Heath won the IBBY Ena Noël award, and Adrian McKinty and Dervla McTiernan were shortlisted for an overseas thriller award.

In other overseas awards news, the shortlist for the Jhalak Prize and the winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction were announced. Also internationally, HarperCollins UK was the latest major publisher to furlough staff, while in Spain Penguin Random House introduced an online direct sales platform in response to Covid-19.

Category: This week’s news