Han Kang wins Nobel Prize; McGregor, Sakr, Apolonio awarded Copyright Agency fellowships; bookshops celebrate LYBD 2024
South Korean author Han Kang has won the 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature ‘for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life’.
Also among awards news this week, the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund has announced the three recipients of its 2024 writing fellowships—Fiona Kelly McGregor (Author Fellowship; $80,000), Omar Sakr (Fellowship for Nonfiction Writing; $80,000), and Bryant Apolonio (Frank Moorhouse Fellowship for Young Writers; $10,000); Richard Flanagan’s Question 7 (Knopf) is on the shortlist for the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction; and Time to Write has announced the inaugural shortlist for the Paragraph Fellowship for literary fiction writers.
Simon & Schuster has announced promotions of three staff members in the editorial team and one staff member in the finance team, effective this month.
Meanwhile, bookshops across the country celebrated Love Your Bookshop Day last Saturday, 12 October, with a range of special events, discounts, and activities designed under this year’s theme, ‘Giving the Gift of Imagination’; two book adaptations are among the latest recipients of Screen Australia funding; fantasy and speculative fiction publisher New Dawn has formed an ‘exclusive partnership’ with Bolinda Audio for the audiobook company to publish New Dawn’s titles into the trade and library audio markets; and the Byron Writers Festival and the Sydney Rare Book Fair announced details of forthcoming events.
The Wilderness Society this week announced the winners of the 2024 Environment Award for Children’s Literature and the Karajia Award for First Nations children’s storytelling; and Writing NSW awarded its 2024 Varuna fellowship to J Marahuyo for her poetry manuscript ‘Disclosure of Violence’.
Over in the UK, four women were announced as winners of the 2024 Forward Prizes for Poetry, with Victoria Chang’s poetry collection with my back to the world (Corsair) winning the major prize.
And, in acquisitions news, Allen & Unwin acquired ANZ rights to Runt and the Diabolical Dognapping, Craig Silvey’s sequel to Runt, via Lesley Thorne at Aitken Alexander Associates, and ANZ rights to Broke Road, the second novel from Matthew Spencer, via Catherine Drayton at InkWell Management Literary Agency; University of Western Australia Publishing acquired world rights to Julianne Negri’s young adult verse novel Hunting Bears, via Danielle Binks of Jacinta di Mase Management; UQP acquired world rights to J M Field’s book The Eagle and the Crow, which ‘records and provides important insights into Indigenous ways of knowing and being, most notably the Gamilaraay kinship system’; and Pan Macmillan Australia acquired ANZ rights to Kay Kerr’s as yet untitled adult fiction debut, via Binks.
Category: This week’s news
