Island launches nonfiction prize
Island magazine has launched a new nonfiction prize. With support from the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund, the inaugural Island Nonfiction Prize will award the winner $3000, a subscription to Island...
Book on Jack the Ripper’s victims wins £50k Baillie Gifford Prize for nonfiction
UK historian Hallie Rubenhold has won the £50,000 ($94,700) 2019 Baillie Gifford Prize for nonfiction for her book The Five: The untold lives of the women killed by Jack the...
Text sells book on Indigenous thinking to US for six-figure sum
Text Publishing has sold North American rights to Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save The World (Tyson Yunkaporta) to HarperCollins imprint HarperOne in a six-figure pre-empt. Agent David Forrer at...
Scribe acquires ‘major title’ on women of ISIS
Scribe has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to The Guest House for Young Widows: the women of ISIS, by journalist, writer and academic Azadeh Moaveni. Scribe publisher Henry Rosenbloom describes...
UQP signs Kurmelovs in two-book deal
UQP has acquired ANZ rights to two books by Royce Kurmelovs via Melanie Ostell Literary. The first book, Just Money: A Story of Debt and the Bankers and Crooks Who Created It,...
Shortlist announced for 2018 Baillie Gifford Prize
In the UK, the shortlist for the £30,000 (A$54,720) Baillie Gifford Prize, which recognises nonfiction writing by authors of any nationality, has been announced. The shortlisted titles are: Hello World:...
PRH acquires ‘Fixed It’ book by Gilmore
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired rights to a nonfiction book by Melbourne-based writer, commentator and journalist Jane Gilmore. Titled Fixed It: One Woman's Movement Against the Real Fake...
Scribe acquires US nonfiction titles by Stack, Villarosa
Scribe has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to two nonfiction books by American authors Megan Stack and Linda Villarosa, reports BookBrunch. Stack's book, Women's Work: A Reckoning with Home and...
‘The Lifted Brow’ & RMIT non/fictionLab Prize for Experimental Nonfiction shortlist announced
Melbourne-based publisher and literary magazine the Lifted Brow has announced the shortlist for its Prize for Experimental Nonfiction. The shortlisted works are: ‘Occupy’ by Ashley Lee ‘List of the Affected’ by...
Talking points: Lesley and Tammy Williams on ‘Not Just Black and White’
Not Just Black and White (UQP, September) is a memoir that takes the form of a ‘conversation in print’ between mother and daughter Lesley and Tammy Williams. They spoke to...
Picture this: Market growth for illustrated children’s nonfiction
A renewed interest in books as beautiful objects has boosted the market for illustrated children’s nonfiction, writes Carody Culver. While most people tend to think of picture books in terms of fiction,...
All about ‘Eve’: Rochelle Siemienowicz on ‘Fallen’
Rochelle Siemienowicz is the author of Fallen (Affirm Press, May), a ‘thought-provoking memoir about religion, marriage and sexuality’ that juxtaposes Siemienowicz’s ‘burgeoning sexuality with her strict Seventh Day Adventist upbringing’....
My kind-of life: Oliver Mol on ‘Lion Attack!’
Lion Attack! (Scribe, May), the first book from Australian writer Oliver Mol, co-winner of the inaugural Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers, is part memoir and part make-believe. Reviewer Chloe Townson...
On tour: Meet the author Joanna Rakoff
Joanna Rakoff’s memoir My Salinger Year was published by Bloomsbury in 2014. Rakoff will be travelling to the Perth Writers Festival and Adelaide Writers’ Week in February and March. What would...
Francophilia: Patti Miller on ‘Ransacking Paris’
Patti Miller’s Ransacking Paris (UQP, April) is ‘that rare object—a book for anyone who believes we don’t need any more expat memoirs’, writes reviewer Max Oliver. He spoke to the...
Under the covers: Nonfiction top picks 2015
Hilary Simmons asks publishers to share their top nonfiction picks for 2015. (See fiction picks here.)NewSouth publishing director Phillipa McGuinness says The Rise and Fall of Gunns Ltd (Quentin Beresford,...
Down with dumb: Helen Razer and Bernard Keane on ‘A Short History of Stupid’
Helen Razer and Bernard Keane’s A Short History of Stupid (A&U, December) examines the rise of Stupidity in the modern world. Hilary Simmons spoke to the authors.Your paths only crossed...
Black Inc. says integrity of PMLAs ‘seriously damaged’, calls for list of entries to be published
Black Inc. has called on the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards to publish a list of all entries submitted for the award for nonfiction.In a statement, Black Inc. director Morry Schwarz...
Taking a gamble: Michaela McGuire on ‘Last Bets’
When Michaela McGuire came across the death of Crown Casino patron Anthony Dunning in the news, she began to follow the court case and was eventually inspired to write Last Bets...
King wins RBC Taylor Prize for nonfiction
In Canada, Thomas King has won this year’s RBC Taylor Prize for his book The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America (University of Minnesota Press)....