Inaugural Australian Fiction Prize shortlist announced
Wednesday, 4 December 2024
The shortlist for the inaugural Australian Fiction Prize, presented by HarperCollins and the Australian, has been announced. The shortlisted manuscripts, chosen from almost 500 entries, are: ‘Blackswansong’ by Michael Burrows...
Affirm acquires Valentish self-help book
Wednesday, 4 December 2024
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to self-help book The Introvert’s Guide to Leaving the House by Jenny Valentish. A Melbourne-based journalist and author, Valentish wrote the addiction memoir Woman...
Ang appointed as Hachette x MDA Trainee
Tuesday, 3 December 2024
Wen Yee Ang has been appointed as the inaugural Hachette x Media Diversity Australia (MDA) Trainee. Launched in August, the traineeship was created ‘to promote diversity and inclusivity within the...
Phillips wins 2024 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize
Tuesday, 3 December 2024
The Queensland Writers Centre (QWC) has announced that Eva Phillips has won the 2024 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize for the manuscript Borrow-or-rob. Phillips receives $2250 and a publishing contract with UQP,...
A&U acquires ‘History’s Strangest Deaths’
Tuesday, 3 December 2024
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to History’s Strangest Deaths by Riley Knight, in a deal brokered by Florence Dodd at WME Agency, UK. ‘[History’s Strangest Deaths] highlights the...
Wright wins 2024 Voss Literary Prize
Tuesday, 3 December 2024
Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy (Giramondo) was announced as the winner of the 2024 Voss Literary Prize by the Australian University Heads of English (AUHE). The prize judges said: ‘Praiseworthy is a work...
HarperCollins acquires Guthrie debut novel
Tuesday, 3 December 2024
HarperCollins has acquired ANZ rights to Sam Guthrie’s debut novel, The Compromised. HarperCollins Australia head of fiction Catherine Milne acquired the book from Tom Gilliatt at a4 Literary. UK rights...
Comic Arts Awards of Australia winners announced
Monday, 2 December 2024
The winners of the 2024 Comic Arts Awards of Australia have been announced. The recipients in each category are: Gold Ledger Deadsheet (Benji Bajorek, self published) Eventually Everything Connects (Sarah Firth, A&U)...
Funder wins Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger
Monday, 2 December 2024
Anna Funder has won the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger in the nonfiction category for the French translation of Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life (Hamish Hamilton). The book was translated to French...
Transit Lounge acquires Colley’s second novel
Monday, 2 December 2024
Transit Lounge has acquired world rights to Brendan Colley’s second novel, The Season for Flying Saucers, via Martin Shaw at Shaw Literary. ‘I love the way Brendan Colley captures the strange in...
Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship 2024 shortlist announced
Thursday, 28 November 2024
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced the shortlist for the 2024 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship. The shortlisted authors and their works are: Meg Caddy for ‘Dross Magic’, which ‘reimagines...
Copyright Agency, ASA, APA welcome Parliamentary report AI recommendations
Thursday, 28 November 2024
The Federal Government’s Select Committee on Adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) has released its final report. The Committee was established to ‘inquire into and report on the opportunities and impacts for Australia arising out...
UWA Publishing acquires Inak children’s series
Thursday, 28 November 2024
UWA Publishing has acquired ANZ rights to children’s series The Cockatoo Crew by Lora Inak, in a four-book deal, via Danielle Binks at Jacinta Dimase Management. Illustrated by Kruti Desai,...
Lucashenko wins 2024 Nib Literary Award
Thursday, 28 November 2024
Melissa Lucashenko has won the Waverley Council’s 2024 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award, worth $40,000, for her novel Edenglassie (UQP). The judging panel, comprising publisher Julia Carlomagno, poet Jamie...
Bavyka awarded 2025 Peter Blazey Fellowship
Thursday, 28 November 2024
Writer, visual artist, museum worker and community organiser Ju Bavyka has won the 2025 Peter Blazey Fellowship. Bavyka will use the fellowship to work on their debut work ‘Just a...
McGuire wins 2024 Richell Prize
Thursday, 28 November 2024
Myles McGuire has won the 2024 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers for his story Stroke. Prize judges, who selected the manuscript from a shortlist of seven, were ‘impressed by McGuire’s...
Report finds acute shortage of skilled workers in publishing roles
Wednesday, 27 November 2024
A new report into skills shortages in the creative industries has identified an acute shortage of skilled workers in editorial, production, and management roles in the publishing industry. Prepared by...
Affirm Press acquires Louise picture-book series
Wednesday, 27 November 2024
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to six books in the picture-book series Handbooks for Little Humans by Zanni Louise, in a deal between Simon & Schuster and Affirm children’s...
Summit Books acquires Nelson short fiction collection
Wednesday, 27 November 2024
Simon & Schuster imprint Summit Books has acquired ANZ rights to the debut short fiction collection Wait Here by Lucy Nelson, via Martin Shaw Literary. Each of the stories in...
BWF announces new venue, timing and bookseller
Wednesday, 27 November 2024
The Brisbane Writers Festival (BWF) will next year take place at the Brisbane Powerhouse and has announced it will move to a later time of year. In a statement, BWF...
Wheelers to match Wheeler Centre donations
Tuesday, 26 November 2024
Lonely Planet co-founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler have pledged to match all donations to the Wheeler Centre (TWC) for the next three years, up to $1 million. TWC—a key component...
Hardie Grant acquires Baker-Finch biography
Tuesday, 26 November 2024
Hardie Grant Books has acquired world print, ebook and audiobook rights to the authorised biography Ian Baker-Finch: To Hell and Back by Geoff Saunders. In the book, Saunders has charted the...
Bloomsbury audiobook catalogue added to Spotify
Tuesday, 26 November 2024
Bloomsbury had announced its catalogue of audiobook titles will be available through Spotify’s ‘Audiobooks in Premium’ limited-streaming offer. Spotify’s Premium subscribers in the UK, US, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and...
Taylor wins first prize in 2024 Scarlet Stiletto Awards
Monday, 25 November 2024
Sisters in Crime Australia announced the winners of the 2024 Scarlet Stiletto Awards at an event in South Melbourne on Saturday night. Newcastle author Nikki Lee Taylor won the $2000...
Writers receive Arts Tasmania funding
Monday, 25 November 2024
Three writers have received grants in the 2024 round of Arts Tasmania’s individuals and groups 2024-25 funding program. A total of $377,562 was awarded for 20 activities. Recipients with book-related...
Hepworth’s ‘The Family Next Door’ adaptation currently in production
Monday, 25 November 2024
A screen adaptation of Sally Hepworth’s novel The Family Next Door (Macmillan) will be produced as a television series for ABC TV. The six-part drama series follows a stranger as...
‘The Ministry of Time’ named Dymocks Book of the Year
Monday, 25 November 2024
Kaliane Bradley’s novel, The Ministry of Time (Sceptre), has been named the 2024 Dymocks Book of the Year. On accepting the award, Bradley said: ‘There isn’t a vote of confidence...
‘Praiseworthy’ longlisted for Climate Fiction Prize
Monday, 25 November 2024
Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy (Giramondo) has been longlisted for the inaugural Climate Fiction Prize. Chair of judges Madeleine Bunting said Praiseworthy ‘makes you giddy, plunging you into a distinctive form of...
Dymocks returns to Penrith
Thursday, 21 November 2024
Dymocks will return to Sydney’s western suburbs with a new franchise store in Westfield Penrith opening on Friday, 22 November. In a statement, Dymocks said new franchisee Farshid Kamal, a...
Australian bookshops sign up for Global Book Crawl initiative
Thursday, 21 November 2024
Local booksellers in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania are planning to take part in the Global Book Crawl, ‘a dynamic, community-centred event’ planned for the last week of...
