WBN feature | Books+Publishing

Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

Tuesday, 5 November 2024
I recently read Lights Out, Little Dragon by Debra Tidball and illustrated by Rae Tan. Debra and Rae have created a delightfully humorous and beautifully illustrated picture book. I was...

Melissa Garside on ‘Lexie Moon and the Word Burgling Bungle’

Tuesday, 5 November 2024
Melissa Garside, a primary school teacher and author with a passion for language, showcases her love for words and science in a story about a 10-year-old inventor in her debut...

Ali Gripper recommends

Tuesday, 29 October 2024
I am completely enthralled by Nadia Wheatley’s The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift. It’s a true labour of love, brilliantly written and researched, and introduces new generations of readers...

Ali Gripper on ‘Saltwater Cure’

Tuesday, 29 October 2024
Sydney-based, award-winning journalist Ali Gripper has contributed features to some of Australia's leading newspapers and magazines. Her first biography, The Barefoot Surgeon (A&U, 2018), told the story of Nepalese eye...

Teens and the ‘book slump’: Why we should diagnose a situation rather than an identity

Wednesday, 23 October 2024
With multiple reports pointing to a decline in reading for pleasure among young people, school library and research professional Gabrielle Mace argues a change in language could help teens avoid...

Jackie French recommends

Tuesday, 15 October 2024
Living Art: Indonesian Artists Engage Politics, Society and History edited by Virginia Hooker [along with Elly Kent and Caroline Turner]—we are having tomorrow’s lunch together. I’m reading it because I’m...

Jackie French on ‘Tigg and the Bandicoot Bushranger’

Tuesday, 15 October 2024
With a career spanning about 30 years and over 140 books for children and adults, Jackie French loves to incorporate Australian history and nature into her work. Her latest novel,...

Sally Rippin on children’s literature, literacy and gatekeeping

Wednesday, 9 October 2024
Sally Rippin is the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2024–25, the latest step in a career that has also included writing over 100 books for children and young adults, including the series...

Sophie Beer recommends

Tuesday, 1 October 2024
Oh, this is too difficult! Can I break it down into different genres? Adult: Because I’m Not Myself, You See by Ariane Beeston is a heartbreaking, unputdownable story of Ariane’s...

Sophie Beer on ‘Thunderhead’

Tuesday, 1 October 2024
Prolific illustrator Sophie Beer’s debut middle-grade novel, Thunderhead (November, A&U Children’s), was inspired by her own experience with a brain tumour that resulted in hearing loss. Books+Publishing reviewer Clare Millar...

Inga Simpson recommends

Tuesday, 24 September 2024
Dusk by Robbie Arnott. I admire his capacity to embed characters in the landscape and the way he evokes Tasmania’s central highlands as such wild, strange places where humans can...

Inga Simpson on ‘The Thinning’

Tuesday, 24 September 2024
Novelist and nature writer Inga Simpson's sixth novel, The Thinning (November 2024, Hachette), imagines a potential future through an astronomical lens. Books+Publishing reviewer Ana Brawls describes the book as 'an...

Shannon Martinez recommends

Wednesday, 18 September 2024
The book I still have on my table that I can’t stop looking at is Chae: Korean Slow Food for a Better Life. It’s just so incredibly beautiful, and Melbourne...

Shannon Martinez on ‘Vegan Italian Food’

Tuesday, 17 September 2024
Chef and restaurateur Shannon Martinez is a pioneer in her industry, bringing vegan cooking to the masses through her books and restaurants, including Smith + Daughters. Her latest cookbook, Vegan...

Michelle de Kretser recommends

Tuesday, 10 September 2024
Fiona McFarlane’s Highway 13 is a stupendous collection of stories that imagines the fallout from the crimes committed by a serial killer. It’s a dazzling refraction of the backpacker murders...

Michelle de Kretser on ‘Theory & Practice’

Tuesday, 10 September 2024
Two-time Miles Franklin winner Michelle de Kretser’s latest novel, Theory & Practice (November 2024, Text), is a combination of fiction, memoir and essay set in St Kilda, Melbourne, in 1986....

‘A service we wish to recommit to and double down on’: Shant Kradjian on Booktopia’s distribution services, staffing, and plans to rebuild trust

Tuesday, 3 September 2024
Shant Kradjian, owner of digiDirect, is the new owner of Booktopia, which began trading again last week. With plans ‘to restore Booktopia with a back-to-basics strategy’, Kradjian says his team...

Alyson O’Brien on literacy and trade publishing: ‘It’s lucky for a manuscript for the very young to even make it to an acquisitions meeting’

Wednesday, 28 August 2024
A year ago, when former Bright Light publisher Alyson O'Brien moved from commercial publishing to Raising Literacy Australia, she thought her commercial experience would add value to the organisation; she...

David Dyer recommends

Tuesday, 27 August 2024
The last Australian book I read and loved was Larry Writer’s wonderful The Shipwreck (2022). It tells the dramatic story of the sailing ship Dunbar, which, in 1857, after a...

David Dyer on ‘This Kingdom of Dust’

Tuesday, 27 August 2024
David Dyer’s debut novel, The Midnight Watch (Penguin, 2016), focused on the ship that witnessed the Titanic’s distress rockets but failed to respond. His sophomore novel, This Kingdom of Dust...

Returning to BookUp in 2024

Wednesday, 21 August 2024
The annual BookUp conference for 2024, presented by the Australian Publishers Association (APA), was held at the State Library Victoria, Melbourne, on Wednesday 7 August, with wide-ranging sessions inviting participants to contemplate...

Yin on ‘The Conscious Style Guide’

Wednesday, 14 August 2024
Karen Yin is an award-winning writer and editor. She created the Conscious Style Guide, a resource website for writers, editors and others interested in conscious language, as well as the...

Rochelle Siemienowicz recommends

Wednesday, 14 August 2024
If You Go by Alice Robinson (Affirm) is an amazing book that works as both tense, speculative fiction and as a nuanced, philosophical exploration of divorce, motherhood and the moments...

Rochelle Siemienowicz on ‘Double Happiness’

Tuesday, 13 August 2024
Rochelle Siemienowicz is a Melbourne-based author, journalist and film critic. Her debut fiction novel, Double Happiness (MidnightSun, October 2024), ‘explores the intricacies, challenges and taboos surrounding polyamory and ethical non-monogamy’, according...