ABDA winners, Text Prize shortlist announced, agency news for Affirm and Hardie Grant
Some agency news this week: Affirm Press will distribute titles from new UK-based publishing house Gemini Books in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand from July; and Hardie Grant has announced new distribution partnerships in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand with overseas publishers Princeton Architectural Press (PA Press), Gibbs Smith, UniPress and Canelo. Meanwhile, African Australian speculative fiction author Eugen Bacon has been named the 2024 University of Tasmania Hedberg Writer-in-Residence; the Australian Book Review announced a new fellowship, the Inglis Fellowship; and the 2024 Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki has ‘broken all attendance records’ with more than 85,000 attendees.
In awards news this week, the shortlist for the 2024 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing was announced; Who’s Afraid of the Light? (Anna McGregor, Scribble), designed by Anna McGregor, took out the book of the year award at the 2024 Australian Book Design Awards; and Indigenous, Pasifika and West Asian writer Meleika Gesa has been recognised with a Dreaming Award for young emerging artists at the 2024 First Nations Arts and Culture Awards.
Overseas, Solenoid by Romanian author Mircea Cărtărescu (Deep Vellum Publishing), translated by US translator Sean Cotter, has won the international Dublin Literary Award; Bloomsbury has reported its highest revenue and profit in its 37-year history; Spotify announced that audiobooks from Bonnier Books UK and Blackstone Publishing have been added to the platform’s Premium audiobook offering; and Headline Publishing Group is launching Headline Press, a new ‘serious’ nonfiction imprint.
In rights and acquisitions news this week, Affirm acquired world rights to Drag Queens Down Under, an anthology curated by Art Simone; Text acquired ANZ rights to Jessica Stanley’s Consider Yourself Kissed, via Lizzy Kremer at David Higham Associates; Allen & Unwin acquired world rights to Fridays with Blanche by Derek Rielly, via Jeanne Ryckmans at Key People Literary Management; and Pantera sold world rights (ex ANZ) to Work Backwards (Tim Duggan) to Wiley, in a deal brokered by Pantera rights manager Katy McEwen.
Meanwhile, the Australian Publishers Association shared a wrap of the 2024 Residential Editorial Program, which ran in Sydney earlier this month, with 15 mid-career editors attending.
To receive book industry news each weekday morning, sign up to the Books+Publishing daily newsletter here.
Category: This week’s news
