Sharp steps down from SWF; new head of sales, publicity manager for Hachette

Chrissy Sharp has stepped down as the CEO of Sydney Writers’ Festival after three years with the organisation, with Brooke Webb and Michael Williams to lead next year’s festival. At Hachette, Lil Kovats has been appointed head of sales and Kate Taperell has been appointed publicity manager.

ALIA’s Online Storytime pilot program has been extended another 12 months, and online self-publishing platform Tablo is launching a new physical book imprint.

In awards news, the winners of the Aurealis Awards and Griffith Review’s Long and the Short of It competition have been announced, as has the shortlist for this year’s Text Prize. The recipients of the Varuna New Zealand residency exchange, Affirm Press Mentorships for Sweatshop Writers and the Reading Australia Fellowship were also all announced this week.

Overseas, US print book sales were up 18.5% in the first half of this year, despite reports that the supply chain is struggling with high costs and service disruptions. Meanwhile, US author Susan Choi was named winner of the £30,000 Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award.

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Category: This week’s news