New talent: Australian publishers, agents nominate their top new authors
Wednesday, 17 March 2021
In this issue of Think Australian we asked Australian publishers and literary agents to nominate their most promising new authors, whose debut or second books would appeal to an international...
Elsewhere Girls (Emily Gale & Nova Weetman, Text)
Tuesday, 16 March 2021
Acclaimed authors Emily Gale and Nova Weetman have teamed up to write this beautifully rendered time-slip narrative that delves into the personal and social struggles of young women past and...
Before You Knew My Name (Jacqueline Bublitz, A&U)
Tuesday, 16 March 2021
We know the phrase from books, from crime shows, from the news: ‘The body was found by a jogger.’ Someone is murdered and somebody else finds them, while just going...
Bear and Rat (Christopher Cheng, illus by Stephen Michael King, Puffin)
Tuesday, 16 March 2021
This picture book is a heartwarming, tender tale of the loving relationship between two friends. The elegantly simple story in Bear and Rat holds a timeless, universal appeal with themes...
PRH acquires debut romantic comedy ‘The Matchmaker’
Friday, 12 March 2021
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired ANZ rights to The Matchmaker by debut Pakistani–Australian author Saman Shad via Tara Wynne at Curtis Brown. It is the first local adult...
Byrne to adapt ‘The Geography of Friendship’ for TV
Thursday, 11 March 2021
Sally Piper's 2018 novel The Geography of Friendship (UQP) will be adapted for television as a six-part series. Dollhouse Pictures, a creative collective and independent production company founded by actress...
Can’t Say it Went to Plan (Gabrielle Tozer, HarperCollins)
Wednesday, 10 March 2021
Schoolies is revered as a holiday unlike no other, where, for the first time, teenagers are free—from school, from adults, from responsibility. Can’t Say it Went to Plan follows three...
Black Inc. sells world rights to ‘Return to Uluru’
Wednesday, 10 March 2021
Black Inc. has sold world English-language rights (ex ANZ) to Return to Uluru by Mark McKenna to Stephen Morrow at Dutton, Penguin USA. McKenna’s history–true crime hybrid addresses the actions...
Stella Prize 2021 longlist announced
Friday, 5 March 2021
The longlist for the 2021 Stella Prize, worth $50,000, has been announced. The longlisted titles are: Fathoms: The World in the Whale (Rebecca Giggs, Scribe) Revenge: Murder in Three Parts...
Common Wealth (Gregg Dreise, Scholastic)
Tuesday, 2 March 2021
In light of the recent change to the lyrics of ‘Advance Australia Fair’, as well as the ongoing debate surrounding January 26, this impassioned plea for recognition and unity from...
Pantera acquires debut thriller
Tuesday, 2 March 2021
Pantera Press has acquired world rights to The Scarlet Cross, a ‘gripping debut psychological thriller’ by Lyn McFarlane, from Jane Novak Literary Agency. McFarlane said she is ‘delighted to be...
The Shape of Sound (Fiona Murphy, Text)
Wednesday, 24 February 2021
Just like any relationship, even our relationship with our own body can be fraught with difficulty and denial. Fiona Murphy kept her deafness secret for 25 years, compensating for her...
CBCA 2021 Notable Books announced
Wednesday, 24 February 2021
The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has announced its list of Notable Books for 2021. The books in each category are: Older readers The F Team (Rawah Arja, Giramondo)...
Sunburnt Veils (Sara Haghdoosti, Wakefield)
Tuesday, 23 February 2021
Sunburnt Veils is a debut Own Voices novel that feels very relevant, and author and political activist Sara Haghdoosti’s voice is fresh and edgy. At times it is uncomfortable to...
You’ve Let Them In (Lois Murphy, Transit Lounge)
Tuesday, 23 February 2021
Scott is not happy when his hippy stepmum convinces his dad to buy a house straight out of The Amityville Horror. A far cry from their comfortingly overcrowded flat, the...
S&S acquires historical fiction debut
Tuesday, 23 February 2021
Simon & Schuster (S&S) has acquired world rights to The Understudy, a historical fiction debut by Julie Bennett. ‘The Understudy is set in 1973, the year the Opera House opened....
ABIA 2021 longlists announced
Monday, 22 February 2021
The longlists for the 2021 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) have been announced. The titles in each category are: General fiction book of the year The Bluffs (Kyle Perry, Michael...
PRH acquires Lattouf’s ‘How to Lose Friends and Influence White People’
Thursday, 18 February 2021
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired the first book by journalist and activist Antoinette Lattouf, How to Lose Friends and Influence White People. The book was acquired at auction...
No Document (Anwen Crawford, Giramondo)
Wednesday, 17 February 2021
In this arresting book, Anwen Crawford reckons with the death of a close friend and comrade. Seeking a language suitable for grief, Crawford stitches together material from a wide range...
The Katha Chest (Radhiah Chowdhury, illus by Lavanya Naidu, A&U)
Wednesday, 17 February 2021
In Radhiah Chowdhury and Lavanya Naidu’s book, elegant textile patterns are patchworked together with descriptive snapshot stories of young Asiya’s family members and their histories. Asiya delights in every one...
Meet Scholastic Australia rights manager Claire Pretyman
Wednesday, 17 February 2021
As the pandemic keeps rights sellers from meeting face-to-face, Books+Publishing is shining a regular spotlight on the work of Australian rights agents. Today, we hear from Scholastic Australia rights manager Claire Pretyman. How...
Au wins inaugural Novel Prize
Thursday, 11 February 2021
Melbourne-based writer Jessica Au has won the inaugural Novel Prize for her work Cold Enough for Snow. Au, whose novel was selected from an international field of almost 1500 submissions and...
The Prison Healer (Lynette Noni, Penguin)
Wednesday, 10 February 2021
Lynette Noni, the winner of the 2019 Gold Inky for her dystopian sci-fi novel Whisper, returns to fantasy with The Prison Healer. Kiva’s daily life as prisoner and prison healer...
‘Sorrow and Bliss’ to be adapted for screen
Wednesday, 10 February 2021
US production company New Regency has acquired the film and television rights to Meg Mason’s 2020 novel Sorrow and Bliss in a deal brokered by Casarotto Ramsay and HarperCollins Australia....
Tussaud (Belinda Lyons-Lee, Transit Lounge)
Wednesday, 10 February 2021
Madame Tussaud is synonymous with wax figures of the famous and infamous and also with the uncanny-valley discomfort that such figures evoke. This book takes the documented strange life of...
Huda and Me (H Hayek, A&U)
Wednesday, 10 February 2021
When their parents make a sudden trip back to their home country of Lebanon, Huda and Akeal find themselves left with their fellow siblings under the care of a family...
Giggs wins ALA Andrew Carnegie Medal
Tuesday, 9 February 2021
In the US, Australian writer Rebecca Giggs has won the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for nonfiction for Fathoms: The world in the whale (Scribe). The Andrew Carnegie...
S&S acquires Lyons cookbook
Friday, 29 January 2021
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired world rights to a book by Nathan Lyons, ‘the Australian TikTok sensation behind Kooking With A Koori’. Lyons, a Wiradjuri man, is a...
Return to Uluru (Mark McKenna, Black Inc.)
Thursday, 28 January 2021
‘Perspective is everything,’ writes historian Mark McKenna in Return to Uluru, his mesmeric history–true crime hybrid. When starting the book, McKenna expected to tell an expansive history of central Australia,...
The Believer (Sarah Krasnostein, Text)
Thursday, 28 January 2021
The people who populate The Believer are remarkably different from one another. There are, among others, a convicted murderer, a ‘death doula’, paranormal investigators, and Christian researchers who have dedicated...
