Queensland Literary Awards; NSW Premier’s History Awards; Melbourne Prize for Literature finalists
In what was a big week for literary awards, the winners of the Queensland Literary Awards and the NSW Premier’s History Awards were announced, with the former’s top prize—the Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance—going to Melissa Lucashenko for Edenglassie (UQP), marking the second time the author has won this award, after a win for Too Much Lip (also UQP) in 2019.
Meanwhile, in local publishing news, Murdoch Books has promoted Justin Wolfers to the newly created role of commissioning editor; Curtis Brown has announced the appointment of Alexandra Christie as an agent; and Laura Harris, former publishing director, young readers, at Penguin Random House, has launched a children’s publishing services business.
In the UK, Question 7 by Australian author Richard Flanagan (Knopf) has been longlisted for the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction. Also in awards news, finalists were announced for the Melbourne Prize for Literature; longlists were announced this week for the Richell Prize and the ARA Historical Novel Prize; and Varuna, The National Writers’ House has announced the recipients of its residential fellowships for 2025, including eight flagship fellowship recipients, while Affirm Press and Sweatshop have announced the recipients of the 2024–25 round of the Affirm Press Mentorship for Sweatshop Writers.
In the US, a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has unanimously affirmed a March 2023 lower court decision by judge John G Koetl that found the Internet Archive infringed the copyright of publishers by scanning and lending their books, as reported by Publishers Weekly, which also covered the news that Audible is testing a program that will enable narrators to create and monetise replicas of their own voices using AI-generated speech technology. In other international news, the finalists for the 2024 Cundill History Prize were announced.
In rights and acquisitions news this week, Ultimo acquired ANZ rights to Diana Reid’s third novel, Signs of Damage; Smith Street Books has acquired world rights to a new Japanese cookbook by Emiko Davies, via Lou Johnson at Key People Literary Management; and UQP sold North American rights to Sandy Bigna’s debut middle-grade verse novel, Little Bones, to Krista Vitola, executive editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers in the US, in a deal brokered by UQP rights and contracts manager Erin Sandiford.
Elsewhere in bookish news, the Conversation has followed up its list of 50 ‘best Australian books of the 21st century’ with a list for Aotearoa New Zealand, featuring 20 books. The three tied books at the top of the list, with the most picks, were Jenny Bornholdt’s The Rocky Shore (2008), Catherine Chidgey’s The Axeman’s Carnival (2022) and Tina Makereti’s The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke (2018).
Category: This week’s news
