ACT Notable Book Awards 2023 winners
The winners of the ACT Notable Book Awards, which highlight and celebrate the excellence and talent of writers in and around the ACT region, have been announced.
Each category features two winning titles: one published by a traditional publisher, and the other self-published. The winning self-published titles were:
Fiction
- Then Eve (Tanya Davies)
Nonfiction
- Neither King nor Saint (Helen Topor)
Poetry
- Translating Loss: a haiku collection (Maurice Nevile)
Children’s
- Charles the Gallery Dog (Barbie Robinson & Ian Robertson)
The winners were announced at an event at Canberra Contemporary Arts Space on 29 June.
The ACT Notable Book Awards are administered by Marion, formerly the ACT Writers Centre. For more information about the awards, visit the website here.
Big W pulls ‘Welcome to Sex’ from physical stores
Big W will stop selling the book Welcome to Sex: Your no-silly-questions guide to sexuality, pleasure and figuring it out (Melissa Kang & Yumi Stynes, HGCP) in physical stores, following ‘multiple incidents of abuse’ aimed at staff.
The decision comes after objections to the book’s content made online were picked up by mainstream media outlets, including Radio 2GB.
A spokesperson for Big W told News.com.au the store would continue to sell the book online as part of its parenting range. ‘We know there has been a wide range of views about the book, however it’s disappointing that there have been multiple incidents of abuse directed at our store team members in the past 24 hours. To keep our team and customers safe, the book will be available to customers online only.’
The book’s publisher Hardie Grant told Books+Publishing it was ‘proud to be the publisher of Welcome to Sex, an educational and age-appropriate guide for tweens and teens and their parents about sex and sexuality’, by adolescent health expert, GP and former Dolly Doctor advice writer Kang and journalist Stynes.
‘Welcome to Sex was developed in response to genuine questions about sex from adolescents to Dolly Doctor over a 20-year period, as well as comprehensive interviews with young people and adolescent experts about issues they are facing, particularly in an online world,’ said HGCP managing director Kate Brown. ‘Every young person develops at their own rate, and parents and caregivers are encouraged to make their own decisions about what is appropriate to share with their family.’
A spokesperson told Books+Publishing Hardie Grant ‘would love to thank booksellers for their support of the book’, the fourth in the authors’ Welcome to series on topics including consent and menstruation which Hardie Grant had sold successfully worldwide and was ‘designed to support parents as they navigate these conversations, as well as being a valuable, curated resource for young people who will otherwise search the internet for answers to their inevitable questions’.
Said Brown of Welcome to Sex: ‘Buying this book is a positive choice for parents and teens who are looking for guidance on a subject of genuine importance. We have published it for an audience who want that option.’
Hachette withdraws memoir after police raise concerns about accuracy
The memoir Special Operations Group by retired former member of the Victoria Police Special Operations Group (SOG) Christophe Glasl has been withdrawn from publication by Hachette Australia after Victoria Police raised concerns about its accuracy, the Age reports.
In a statement on Monday, Hachette said: ‘It has come to our attention that some of the content of this book is inaccurate. We have taken the decision to withdraw this book from sale immediately while we undertake further review.’
Hachette told Books+Publishing that booksellers with stock ‘can reach out to ADS for a no-fault return’.
Victoria Police said it had ‘concerns about the accuracy of the book including some of the author’s claims about jobs he attended’. ‘Of particular concern is chapter 18 which focuses on the author’s claimed involvement in the resolution of the Port Arthur massacre. To confirm, the former member was not part of the SOG deployment to Port Arthur nor was he even in Tasmania at the time.’
A police spokesperson told the Age Glasl was not one of the 10 Victorian SOG members that went to Tasmania on the day of the massacre, and said there were also doubts about other stories Glasl included in the memoir.
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