Miles Franklin 2024 shortlist, Booktopia appoints administrators, PLR/ELR payments up $3.3m
Booktopia has appointed McGrathNicol as voluntary administrators of the company and its subsidiaries. This follows news late last week that the company requested a further extension to its voluntary trading suspension, while its previously announced funding was terminated.
Also headlining this week’s news, the Miles Franklin 2024 shortlist was revealed this week, with the winner to be announced on 1 August.
In other local news, Campion Group has appointed Tom Bradley as its CEO; and Jane Harrison has stepped down from her role as artistic director and CEO of Blak & Bright. Meanwhile, the total value of payments made to Australian creators through the Public and Educational Lending Right (PLR/ELR) schemes for the 2023–24 period totalled $26.6 million, an increase of $3.3 million on the previous year, following the inclusion of digital lending in the scheme for the first time.
In awards news, John Merkel has won the 2024 Hope Prize, presented by Simon & Schuster Australia, for the story ‘Shadows Cast by the Moon’; André Dao has won the 2024 Pascall Prize for Cultural Criticism; Kathryn Heyman and Dominic Hoey are the recipients of the 2024 New Zealand–Australia Residency Exchange, an international residency program held by Varuna, The National Writers’ House in collaboration with the Michael King Writers’ Centre in Auckland; and Creative Australia announced the recipients of grants through its international programs.
In international awards news, Indian writer Sanjana Thakur has won the 2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for her story ‘Aishwarya Rai’; and Hisham Matar and Matthew Longo have won the 2024 Orwell Prizes.
And, in the US, Publishers Weekly reported that a group of writers, illustrators and creators in both the children’s and adult sectors has officially launched the Authors Against Book Bans (AABB) organisation.
Finally, in acquisitions news this week, Affirm acquired world rights to Marny Lishman’s self-help book Crisis to Contentment, via The Lifestyle Suite; Hachette Australia acquired ANZ rights to Geraldine Brooks’ memoir Memorial Days; PRH Australia acquired rights to Bindi Irwin’s debut picture book, titled You Are a Wildlife Warrior! Saving animals & the planet, illustrated by Ramona Kaulitzki; Scribe acquired world rights to Time Together, a new novel from Luke Horton, via Grace Heifetz at Left Bank Literary; UQP acquired world rights to a debut novel from screenwriter and author Thomas Vowles, titled The End of Everything; and Transit Lounge acquired world rights to No Dancing in the Lift, a memoir from author Mandy Sayer, via Jeanne Ryckmans at Key People Literary Management.
Category: This week’s news
