Prime Minister’s Literary Awards shortlists, CBCA winners announced; McGrathNicol confirms Booktopia sale
Last Thursday, Creative Australia announced the titles shortlisted for the 2024 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, with winners to be revealed on 12 September.
Headlining other local news this week, the administrators of online bookseller Booktopia have confirmed the sale of Booktopia’s business and related assets to the owner of Australian consumer electronics retailer digiDirect, a development that was welcomed by local publishers. And Age and Sydney Morning Herald books editor Jason Steger is among dozens of journalists leaving the newspapers, according to the Guardian.
Elsewhere in the book industry, First Nations literature festival Blak & Bright appointed Bebe Oliver as its new artistic director and CEO; the APA selected 26 editors to participate in the Children’s Editorial Program’s inaugural initiative, the Picture Book Editing Intensive; Jason Lake and Katherine Woehlert, former owners of Adelaide bookstore Imprints Booksellers, have sold the business to Amelia Eitel; and QBD will open a new store in Orion Springfield Central in Ipswich, Queensland.
Meanwhile, in other awards news, the CBCA announced the winners of its 2024 Book of the Year Awards; Readings announced the shortlist for the 2024 Readings Young Adult and New Australian Fiction book prizes; and Romance Writers of Australia announced the winners of the 2024 Ruby Awards. In Aotearoa New Zealand, Stacy Gregg (Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Pūkeko, Ngāti Maru Hauraki) won the overall Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award at the 2024 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults for Nine Girls (Penguin); and the CLNZ and NZSA Research Grants have been awarded to four writers.
Overseas, the Bookseller reported this week that Weltbild, once one of Germany’s largest bookselling operations, is closing down on 31 August, while the German book trade paper BuchMarkt will close on 31 December after 59 years of operation, and in Paris, booksellers reported significant sales drops during the 2024 Olympic Games.
In acquisitions news this week, Simon & Schuster acquired ANZ rights to I Want Everything, a debut novel by Dominic Amerena, in a pre-emptive offer, via agent Grace Heifetz at Left Bank Literary; Transit Lounge acquired world rights to The Maskeys, a new novel from Stuart Everly-Wilson; and Allen & Unwin acquired world rights to Living a Life of Greatness by podcaster Sarah Grynberg, and ANZ rights to Lyrebird, the second adult novel by Jane Caro, in a deal brokered by Jacinta di Mase Management.
In other literary news, the Guardian reported that US-based journalist and Russia critic Masha Gessen claimed Australia had ‘functionally denied’ them a visa, after a delay in the processing of their visa by the Department of Home Affairs, which initially requested a police check from Russia and then from the US, according to organisers of the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney, where the writer is due to speak this weekend.
Category: This week’s news
