Introducing Pink Shorts Press: recent Australian acquisitions
With Australia’s independent publisher count recently dropping significantly – thanks to the acquisitions of Pantera Press by Hardie Grant and Text Publishing by Penguin Random House following hot on the heels of Simon & Schuster’s acquisition of Affirm Press – it’s a pleasure to report the establishment of a brand-new publishing venture.
Pink Shorts Press is the creation of Margot Lloyd, who formerly worked at the University of Queensland Press with authors including Ellen van Neerven and Alison Lester, and Emily Hart, who was awarded a Rising Star award as Hardie Grant Books commissioning editor in 2022. The two founders met at Adelaide’s Wakefield Press over a decade ago and said that their new press ‘aims to take creative risks and find new paths through independent publishing’.
Pink Shorts will launch with a new edition of 1974 novel Sea Green from South Australian author and artist Barbara Hanrahan in March. ‘Many people know Barbara Hanrahan as an artist, but she also wrote some incredible books,’ said Lloyd. ‘This novel is based on her experience of leaving Adelaide to pursue creative work, which unsurprisingly spoke to us. But it’s such a universal story, and the new introduction by Laura Elizabeth Woollett makes it resonate even more.’
Subsequent acquisitions include an autofiction work from Olivia De Zilva, Plastic Budgie, and a collection of satirical short stories from Alex Cothren, Playing Nice Was Getting Me Nowhere. Both are debuts. In addition to De Zilva and Cothren’s books, Pink Shorts will publish a new edition of Hanrahan’s 1985 work Annie Magdalene, with an introduction from Farrin Foster, editor of new South Australian literary journal Splinter.
Other recent acquisitions, as reported by Think Australian’s sister publication Books+Publishing, include:
Very Impressive for Your Age (Eleanor Kirk, September 2025), ANZ rights acquired by Allen & Unwin via Grace Heifetz at a4 Literary
Said publisher Alex Craig: ‘Very Impressive for Your Age is a profoundly relatable novel about chasing your dreams and losing your ambition in your mid-twenties. In the character of Evelyn, Kirk deftly (and hilariously) embodies the single-minded focus it takes to make it to the top, and [asks] whether it’s worth it at the end of the day.’
The Season for Flying Saucers (Brendan Colley, September 2025), world rights acquired by Transit Lounge via Shaw Literary
‘I love the way Brendan Colley captures the strange in the real,’ said Transit Lounge publisher Barry Scott. ‘The author draws on Tasmania’s long history of UFO sightings in crafting the nuanced story of family and neighbourhood. Noah’s father has seemingly been abducted by aliens, and when economic pressures force the adult Grey family to live together for one season, things become both strangely strange and oddly normal. The novel is alluring and tender, signalling that we are part of something bigger and more magical than the world of our worries.’
King Tide (Luke Johnson, August 2025), ANZ rights acquired by Affirm Press via literary agent Daniel Pilkington
Said Affirm commissioning editor Ruby Ashby-Orr: ‘King Tide is one of the last books that Martin Hughes acquired for Affirm Press, and since we started working with Luke it’s become clear why Martin was so excited about this talented new writer. King Tide is a gripping, plot-driven mystery, but it’s threaded through with countless moments of beauty and insight. This is a very fresh kind of crime novel and we’re so excited to be publishing it.’
If Queers Weren’t Meant to Have Kids (Narelda Jacobs & Karina Natt, illus by Molly Hunt, October 2025), world rights acquired by UQP
Said the authors: ‘Like all expectant queer parents, we are prepared for homophobic backlash, but there’s no way the naysayers are going to ruin our baby joy. So we’ve hatched a plan to show just how natural it is for queers to have kids. Our adult picture book is a celebration of love and chosen family. We’re thrilled to be working with First Nations artist Molly Hunt to create this queer kaleidoscope. Molly’s interpretation takes the story well beyond the words.’
Unsettled: A Journey Through Time and Place (Kate Grenville, April 2025), ANZ rights acquired by Black Inc.
Said Grenville: ‘I’ve been circling this book for twenty years. Researching and writing The Secret River was the start of a long journey into the past of our country. What do we do, now that we know the shameful facts about the past? It’s a question we non-Indigenous Australians find hard to look at. But until we do, we’ll go on resisting a way forward. I wanted to find a way to think about the question, and this journey through the parts of the country that my family took was my effort to do that. What I did was small-scale, personal and individual. It was open-ended and improvised. It’s not an answer, just one person’s attempt to think about the truths we have to face.’
Pictured (L–R): Margot Lloyd and Emily Hart, co-founders of Pink Shorts Press.
Category: Think Australian rights
