News

Indie Book Awards 2024

David Marr and Melissa Lucashenko amongst the winners at the Indie Book Awards 2024

The winners of the Indie Book Awards 2024 have been announced this evening. The awards, which are picked by indie booksellers, celebrate the best Australian books from the last year across six categories, including fiction, non-fiction and young adult. An overall “Book of the Year” is then selected from the six category winners. This year…

Read More

Crime writers festival BAD Sydney returns for a five day run this November

Running from Wednesday November 1st to Sunday November 5th, BAD Sydney is back and bigger than ever! It all kicks off in just a few days, with an infamous Literary Death Match at the State Library of NSW’s Metcalfe Auditorium. Writers Tim Ayliffe, Anne Buist, Candice Fox, and Rob McDonald will duke it out in…

Read More

OzAsia Festival’s writing and ideas program In Other Words returns this November

In Other Words, OzAsia Festival‘s writing and ideas program, has today revealed its three day line-up, with more than 60 Asian writers and thinkers heading up an exciting array of panels and special events. Running from Friday 3rd November to Sunday 5th November at Adelaide Festival Centre, In Other Words is the perfect way to…

Read More

Entries for 2023 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards open

Entries for the 2023 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards have opened, with a shared prize pool of $600,000 up for grabs. Honouring excellence in Australian literature, works published in 2022 are eligible to enter. Since its inception in 2008, the Awards have grown to six categories, covering fiction, non-fiction, children’s literature, young adult literature, poetry, and…

Read More
Dublin Literary Award 2023

Aussie books garner international attention at the 2023 Dublin Literary Awards

Five Australian authors have had their work recognised in the 2023 Dublin Literary Award Longlist; an award that saw 84 libraries across 31 countries nominate worthy recipients. With a prize of €100,000 for the winner, the award is the world’s most valuable annual prize for a single work of fiction published in English. The last time…

Read More
The Prime Minister's Literary Awards

The 2022 Winners of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards are here!

Six categories, six winners. The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards have announced the six books that represent outstanding literary talent in Australia and have made a valuable contribution to Australian cultural and intellectual life. Let’s learn more about the winners… Fiction: Red Heaven by Nicolas Rothwell Beginning in the late 1960s in Switzerland, a boy’s ideas about…

Read More

Audiobook-lovers rejoice! Spotify just launched over 300,000 audiobooks on their catalogue

Spotify has just launched its Audiobook services to Australia, the UK, Ireland and New Zealand with a catalogue of more than 300,000 books. With the promise of a slew of Aussie titles as well as worldwide bestsellers, we took a look through and pulled out some highlights… The Dry by Jane Harper 9 hr 37 min…

Read More

Eleanor Jackson wins the Small Press Network Book of the Year for 2022

Picked from a shortlist packed with incredible stories, the Small Press Network has announced its Book of the Year. The SPN Book of the Year Award recognises the literary greatness of books published by small publishers in Australia each year. The winner this year was Gravidity and Parity by Eleanor Jackson, a poignant and intricate collection of…

Read More

And the 2022 Dymocks Book of the Year is…

If you’ve been looking for a book that has the booksellers raving then its time to check out the Dymocks Book of the Year winners. On Monday 28 November, the Dymock’s team announced the 2022 Book of the Year and Young Readers Book of the Year as voted for by Dymocks staff across the company….

Read More

The shortlist for the 2022 Dymocks Book of the Year is out… and it’s juicy!

The Dymocks Book of the Year award was first introduced in 2018 to recognise and continue to support literary talent. Voted on by Dymocks staff across the country, the winners will be announced on Monday 28 November at the Dymocks flagship store on George St, Sydney. The shortlist for the Dymocks 2022 Book of the…

Read More

Shehan Karunatilka takes out the 2022 Booker Prize for The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Shehan Karunatilka‘s story of a war photographer who wakes up dead in a celestial visa office and has ‘seven moons’ to try and solve the mystery of his own death has taken out the 2022 Booker Prize. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (published by Sort of Books) is Karunatilka’s second novel and was announced…

Read More

“Extraordinary skill and compassion” Jennifer Down wins the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award for her novel Bodies of Light

Taking home the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award for her novel Bodies of Light, Jennifer Down is one of the youngest authors to ever receive the accolade and as such has cemented herself as a potent voice to watch in the Australian literary landscape. The judges said of Down’s work, “Bodies of Light invites readers…

Read More

Diana Reid, Anita Heiss, and Hannah Kent get nods as ABIA announces 2022 shortlist

The Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) have today announced their 2022 shortlist, with a star-studded awards ceremony set to take place in Sydney on June 9th. The gala event will take place at ICC Sydney, hosted by actor, singer, and musical theatre star Alinta Chidzey, and with Wendy Whiteley, The Wiggles, Michelle Law, Peter Fitzsimons,…

Read More

Stella Prize announces 2022 longlist, with poetry collections making the cut for the first time

“What is original, what is excellent, what is engaging?” These were the guiding principles for this year’s panel of Stella Prize judges, who were tasked with choosing a longlist of just 12 from more than 200 entries across fiction, non fiction, graphic novels and poetry. The prize, now in its ninth year, was founded in…

Read More

The 2022 Furphy Literary Award opens for submissions

Pens/keyboards at the ready – the 2022 Furphy Literary Award has opened for submissions! Named for Joseph Furphy, author of the 1903 Aussie classic, Such Is Life, and “furphies” – the yarns spun on the back of Furphy water carts during World War One – the award celebrates writing with a distinctly Australian focus. Writers…

Read More
The Wedding Singer

Calling all WA writers: the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award is open for entries!

Submissions for the 2022 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award opened late last week, inviting WA authors to submit their manuscript for a chance to win $15,000 and a publishing contract. Writers have until midnight March 20th to put their work forward, so if you’re thinking about it, better move quickly! Sponsored by the City of…

Read More

Indie Book Awards announce 2022 shortlist

The Indie Book Awards have today announced a 24-strong shortlist, celebrating the very best in Australian literature, as chosen by the booksellers who have made a year of lockdowns and isolation a little more bearable for many. Established back in 2008, the Indie Book Awards recognises the contributions made by Aussie booksellers, and the impact…

Read More

Damon Galgut takes home Booker Prize for The Promise

It was a case of third time lucky for author Damon Galgut, winner of the 2021 Booker Prize. Nominated in 2003 for The Good Doctor and again in 2010 for In a Strange Room, it was multi-generational saga The Promise that saw the South African writer finally score one of the most prestigious awards in…

Read More

Love Your Bookshop Day 2021: The AU Books Team on some of their favourite local bookstores

Tomorrow is Love Your Bookshop Day, inviting booklovers to come together and celebrate all the wonderful things that their favourite bookshops do for local communities. They’re booksellers, yes, but they’re so much more. They can give personalised recommendations for gifts and book clubs, or find you that book with the blue cover that was in…

Read More

Love Your Bookshop Day returns on October 9th

Love Your Bookshop Day (LYBD) is back again! Taking place on October 9th, this year’s major events will be entirely virtual, so that everyone – locked down or not – can join in the celebration. Long before we were confined to our couches, the local bookstore was the place to go for all your literary…

Read More

OzAsia Festival announces new writing and ideas program, In Other Words

More than 40 Asian and Australian writers will come together for In Other Words, a new writing and ideas program from the OzAsia Festival team. Curated by Laura Kroetsch, Benjamin Law, and Roanna Gonsalves, the program will run from November 5th to 7th, with guests able to attend either in person at the Dunstan Playhouse…

Read More

Booker Prize announces 2021 shortlist

  This year’s Booker Prize shortlist was released over night, with the prize’s website stating that “as always, the lucky winners will be the readers“. The final six novels, whittled down from a longlist of thirteen, includes previous shortlistees Richard Powers and Damon Galgut, as well as debut novelist Patricia Lockwood and fan favourite Maggie…

Read More

Yarra Valley Writers Festival returns with a blended online and in-person program

The Yarra Valley Writers Festival will once again welcome readers, thinkers, and wine-lovers to Warburton, Victoria in mid-July. Boasting a fantastic line-up, including Kate Holden, Helen Garner, Tony Birch, Kate Mildenhall, Nardi Simpson, Stuart Coupe, Rick Morton, Jessie Tu, Louise Milligan, and more, the festival’s program will be accessible both in-person and online. Rather than…

Read More

Brooke Dunnell wins the 2021 Fogarty Literary Award with her last minute manuscript

, Last night saw Brooke Dunnell announced as the winner of the 2021 Fogarty Literary Award at the ECU Spiegeltent. Dunnell receives a $20,000 cash prize from the Fogarty Foundation, along with a publishing contract with Fremantle Press for her winning manuscript The Glass House.  The Fogarty Literary Award is for Western Australian writers aged…

Read More

First time nominees dominate 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist

The 2021 shortlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction has been announced at a virtual event overnight. This year’s shortlist is one for the newcomers, with none of the six shortlisted authors having been previously shortlisted for the Prize. The six strong shortlist, which was selected by Chair of judges, Bernardine Evaristo and her judging panel…

Read More

Winners of the 2021 ABIA Awards announced

The winners of this year’s ABIAs (Australian Book Industry Awards) were announced at Carriageworks in Sydney as part of the Sydney Writers’ Festival this evening in a hybrid online and in-person event. Julia Baird took out the top award for Book of the Year for her non-fiction release Phosphorescence, described by guest presenter Cate Blanchett…

Read More

Evie Wyld takes out the 2021 Stella Prize with her novel The Bass Rock

“We are all struggling. To acknowledge that is to connect to our fellow human beings and to nature…” In an evening centered around the theme ‘If They Could Talk: On Voice and Voicelessness’, Evie Wyld took out the 2021 Stella Prize and the $50,000 prize for her novel The Bass Rock, “a fearless novel that…

Read More

ABIA announce 2021 shortlist, with Cate Blanchett to present Book of the Year at star-studded April awards night

The Australian Book Industry Awards have just released their 2021 shortlist, with the final winners to be announced at a star-studded event on April 28th at Sydney’s Carriageworks. In an ABIA first, a limited number of tickets to the awards night will be available to the general public. And for anyone who can’t make it…

Read More

The 2021 Stella Prize Shortlist unveiled

This morning the Stella Prize have announced their 2021 shortlist live on ABC Radio National’s Breakfast program.  The 2021 shortlist spans fiction and non-fiction and showcases the extraordinary talent and ingenuity on display across the Australian literary landscape. The 2021 prize saw the judges receive over 160 entries from Australian women and non-binary writers.  Earlier…

Read More
Pip Williams

Pip Williams and The Dictionary of Lost Words are the big winners at the Indie Book Awards 2021

For the second year the Indie Book Awards have been announced online, with The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams announced as Australian independent booksellers’ favourite book of the year. On winning the award, Pip Williams hailed the work of Australia’s independent booksellers as they adapted to working in a pandemic lockdown: “The Dictionary…

Read More