ABIA shortlists announced; New graphic novel publisher; BookPeople’s top 100; Festival programs
The ABIA shortlists have been announced! Also in industry news, Wombat Books founder Rochelle Stephens and teacher and author Bethany Loveridge announced the establishment of new publishing venture Perentie Press, which will focus on graphic novels for young people, and BookPeople released ‘100 Best Australian Books of the 21st Century’, a reading guide featuring titles selected by member booksellers – with Tim Winton and Anna Funder each featuring three times. In Melbourne, QBD Books will open a new store at Greensborough Plaza in the city’s northwest towards the end of this month.
Vale Jeannine Fowler. The former publicity director at Pan Macmillan Australia has died, and is remembered by Pan Macmillan publicity and marketing director Tracey Cheetham: ‘Her gigantic smile and iconic red lipstick – Neen was an incredible presence and a wonderful mentor.’
In a big week for events, the Sydney Writers’ Festival, Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi O Tāmaki, Woollahra Writers’ Festival and Storyfest announced their 2025 programs; while further south, Tasmania Reads will take place later this month.
Local authors Madeleine Gray, Oliver Jeffers and Sarah A Parker were shortlisted as part of the 35th British Book Awards; Adalya Nash Hussein was named the 10th and final Kat Muscat Fellow; and Penguin Random House Australia announced the shortlist for its 2025 Penguin Literary Prize; while, in the UK, Jenni Fagan won the 2025 Gordon Burn Prize for Ootlin (Hutchinson Heinemann).
Over in the US, an emergency arbitrator has ‘temporarily prohibited Meta’s former director of global public policy and author of the memoir Careless People, Sarah Wynn-Williams, from promoting or further distributing copies of her book’, reported the Bookseller, while the New York Times noted that the ‘filing does not limit the publisher, Flatiron Books, or its parent company, Macmillan, from continuing publication of the memoir’. Also in international news, a report released at the London Book Fair reveals that ‘fiction sales are growing in global book markets, while nonfiction continues to struggle in most territories‘, reported Publishers Weekly.
In local acquisitions news, Macmillan signed Aaron Blabey for two new middle-grade series in an eight-figure deal. Meanwhile, Simon & Schuster imprint Bundyi acquired world rights to two novels by Judi Morison; Text Publishing acquired world rights to Snake Talk: How the World’s Ancient Serpent Stories Can Guide Us by Tyson Yunkaporta and Megan Kelleher; Larrikin House acquired world English rights to Rainbow Street by RWR McDonald, illustrated by Kelly Canby; MidnightSun acquired world rights to Dirt Trap by Michael Burge; Murdoch Books acquired world rights to a ‘satirical red-carpet fashion bible’ from anonymous social media influencer and comedian Fashion Critical; Allen & Unwin Aotearoa New Zealand acquired world rights to the historical novel My Name Is Elli from author Doug Gold; Allen & Unwin acquired world English (ex NZ) rights to debut novel Ash by Louise Wallace, in a deal brokered by Martin Shaw at Shaw Literary; HarperCollins Australia acquired ANZ rights to The Heir Apparent by Rebecca Armitage; Penguin Random House Australia acquired world rights to The Number One Insta Detectives Agency and The Love Bomber by co-writers Rachael Johns and Mercedes Mercier. Larrikin House acquired world rights to Otto’s INKcredible First Day of School by Rory H Mather, with illustrations by Rebel Challenger.
Meanwhile, Deadline reported that Candice Fox’s 2024 thriller Fire with Fire (Penguin) is being adapted for television by US television studio NBC; and Thunderhead (Sophie Beer, A&U) has been optioned by LateNite films, in a film and television deal negotiated by Annabel Barker Agency.
Elsewhere in bookish news, Nina Culley wrote for Kill Your Darlings on ‘cosy Asian fiction’: ‘But today, as I observe how crowded the bookshop shelves are with these titles, I can’t help feeling a bit suspicious. As heartening as it is to see diverse voices celebrated, I wonder if their initial charm morphed into something aggressively commodified?’ And, as part of the ongoing discourse on a metafictional short story created by an Open AI model, Lincoln Michel wrote for Counter Craft on the question of whether the work is ‘actually good’: ‘No one would call this text moving or beautiful or even pay any attention to it at all if it wasn’t in the context of a new much-hyped technology and posted online by a billionaire CEO.’
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Category: This week’s news
