Paul appointed A&U head of operations, ASA ‘deeply concerned’ about T&F AI deal, Wood longlisted for Booker Prize
Following on from last week’s news about its AI deal with Microsoft, Taylor & Francis parent company Informa has confirmed it is ‘partnering with two leading AI technology companies’; the Australian Society of Authors is ‘deeply concerned’ about the development, and Wellett Potter wrote about the ethics of the situation for the Conversation.
In other news, a Federal Court judge has ordered a three-month extension to the deadline before the next meeting of Booktopia creditors is due; Jessica Paul is starting in the new role of head of operations at Allen & Unwin, while author Pip Smith has joined the publisher as manager of the Faber Writing Academy; a new research project, led by ANU lecturer Millicent Weber, will investigate the impact of audiobooks on Australian book culture; the Indigenous Literacy Foundation has announced the board appointments of Jillian Bowie, Julie Burland and Helene Byfield; and Veronica Sullivan will become festival director at Melbourne Writers Festival. Meanwhile, following a proposal from the State Library of Victoria asking authors engaged to present workshops to agree to sign the Victorian Public Service Code of Conduct, the ASA has stated its position that it inappropriate for the State Library of Victoria to ask authors to sign up to the code, and in ArtsHub David Burton writes that the explosion of the romantasy genre is threatening to leave some Australian writers behind.
In awards news, Charlotte Wood has been longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize; The Shape of Dust (Lamisse Hamouda with Hazem Hamouda, Pantera) has won the 2024 National Biography Award; the winner of the 2024 Chief Minister’s NT History Book Award is Jakarda Wuka (Too Many Stories) (li-Yanyuwa li-Wirdiwalangu [Yanyuwa Elders], Liam M Brady, John Bradley & Amanda Kearney, Sydney University Press); Kathryn Lomer has won the $15,000 first prize in the 2024 Furphy Literary Award; the shortlist for the 2024 Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize has been announced; Varuna has announced Anna Hickey-Moody, Jennifer Martin and Patricia Pender are the 2024 Ann Moyal Nonfiction Fellowship recipients and the Queensland Writers Centre has announced Sharlene Allsopp and Laura Jean McKay are the recipients of its 2024 Varuna residencies; and Sisters in Crime has announced the shortlists for the 2024 Davitt Awards for the best crime books by Australian women.
Meanwhile, in the US, distributor Ingram Content Group has announced a ‘collaboration with streaming giant Spotify to bring audiobooks of independent publishers to the subscribers of Spotify Premium’; and in the UK the Bookseller reports Ferdia Lennon has won the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize for Glorious Exploits (Fig Tree), and Catherine Taylor has won the 2024 Ackerley Prize for The Stirrings (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), while the Bookseller also reported recent research suggesting half of UK adults are not reading regularly and almost a quarter of young people (aged 16 to 24 years) have never been readers.
In acquisitions news this week, Hardie Grant acquired world rights to AFL star and Norm Smith medallist Christian Petracca’s debut cookbook; Affirm acquired world rights to three further books by author-illustrator Brentos; and Pantera Press has acquired ANZ rights for Holden Sheppard’s first novel for adults, Two Kings.
Category: This week’s news
