Vale Michael Webster; Bundyi announces new prize; BookPeople reveals new websites; regional, trans, genre literary festival programs released
Publisher, editor and academic Michael Webster has died, and friends and former colleagues in the industry have paid tribute.
An array of new and returning literary festivals and events have been announced for the coming months, including the Clunes Booktown Festival (22 to 23 March), the Trans Book Festival (8 February), GenreCon (28 February to 2 March), the Australian Romance Readers Association’s A Romantic Rendezvous (across dates in March) and the Douglas Shire Book Festival (2 to 3 August).
BookPeople has updated the organisation’s web presence with a dedicated membership website and a new consumer-facing site.
Some new opportunities for creators were revealed this week, with Simon & Schuster imprint Bundyi Publishing announcing the Bundyi Writing Prize, for an outstanding unpublished manuscript of adult fiction by an emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writer; Mascara Literary Review announcing it will edit a forthcoming anthology of creative writing on disability and neurodivergence, to be published by NewSouth; and the Little Book Press, the publishing arm of Raising Literacy Australia, relaunching its mentorship program for picture book authors and illustrators.
Melbourne-based illustrator, artist and book maker Marc Martin has been selected for the 2025 Illustrators Exhibition at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Still in Bologna, the Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publishers of the Year shortlist has been announced.
New publisher Pink Shorts Press acquired two works,both by SA writers, to be published in August.
In news from the US, Sean Manning, publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship imprint, has announced that authors will no longer be required to obtain endorsements for their books; and Bookshop.org has celebrated its fifth anniversary by introducing an ebook platform, available now.
And, over in the UK, Mick Herron, author of the Slough House series (adapted for Apple TV+ as Slow Horses), has been awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger.
In Ukraine, four winners of the Chytomo Awards have been recognised.
Elsewhere in literary news, the commentary on Text Publishing’s acquisition by Penguin Random House continued this week, with Catriona Menzies-Pike writing for Crikey: ‘No one could begrudge [Text Publishing’s] [Michael] Heyward and [Penny] Hueston doing this deal after decades of hard work, or wonder why they did so. Even so, it’s grim to stand by as another piece of Australian cultural infrastructure gets dismantled.’
And Hannah Story reported for the ABC on the Save Our Arts campaign, with supporters including Christos Tsiolkas, Tim Winton and Charlotte Wood forming a group that ‘hopes to put arts policy and funding onto the agenda ahead of the upcoming federal election’.
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Category: This week’s news
