Category Archives: Australian books

Adelaide University cancels literary festival event with UN Gaza investigator Francesca Albanese

Posted on by

Festival organisers criticise the university for last-minute booking cancellation of event headlined by special rapporteur for Palestinian territories

Another free speech row at a literary festival has erupted, with Adelaide University abruptly cancelling a high-profile event featuring UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese.

The move has prompted the festival’s organisers and speakers to accuse the 152 year-old institution of “crumbling in fear”.

Continue reading...

‘We want our stories to be told’: NSW Labor pledges $3.2m to support writing and literature amid AI onslaught

Posted on by

Stories Matter strategy responds to urgent pressures such as declining reading rates and growing impact of digital media on publishing, minister says

It is a sector that delivers $1.3bn annually to the New South Wales economy and supports up to 22,000 jobs, yet the average writer earns just $18,200 a year from their creative practice.

To counter this stark disparity, the NSW government is launching the state’s first ever writing and literature strategy, and has committed $3.2m to support and expand the sector.

Continue reading...

Decision to close Meanjin criticised as act of ‘utter cultural vandalism’

Posted on by

Shutting long-running literary journal, which published emerging writers as well as the cream of Australia’s literary talent, described as ‘enormous loss’

One of Australia’s longest running literary journals has been scrapped, in what has been described as an act of “utter cultural vandalism” on the part of the University of Melbourne.

After 85 years, Meanjin, run by the university’s subsidiary Melbourne University Publishing (MUP), will publish its last edition in December. Although the journal’s editor, Esther Anatolitis, worked her last day at Meanjin on Thursday, the spring and summer quarterly editions of the journal are already at the printers.

Continue reading...

Award judges resign after Queensland state library strips writer’s prize over Hamas tweet

Posted on by

One resignation letter expresses ‘disgust’ over library’s decision to rescind First Nations author’s $15,000 award after arts minister weighs in

At least four judges for the Queensland literary awards have resigned over the past 24 hours, protesting against the State Library of Queensland’s decision to withdraw a prestigious $15,000 fellowship from First Nations writer Karen Wyld over comment she made last year about the Gaza conflict.

The 2022 Stella award winning poet Evelyn Araluen, Wiradjuri academic and writer Dr Jeanine Leane, writer and reviewer Nigel Featherstone and Gamilaroi poet Luke Patterson all confirmed to Guardian Australia on Friday they have resigned from the awards’ judging panels. It is believed several other judges have also resigned, but wish to remain anonymous.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

RecipeTin Eats’ Nagi Maehashi beats Brooke Bellamy at publishing industry awards amid plagiarism allegations

Posted on by

Maehashi beat five finalists to take out prestigious prize after her second cookbook broke Australian records for first-week nonfiction title sales

Recipe book writer Nagi Maehashi has beaten cupcake queen Brooke Bellamy at the publishing industry’s annual awards, as Maehashi and other authors accuse Bellamy of plagiarism.

Maehashi won the illustrated book of the year a second time at the Australian book industry awards night in Melbourne on Wednesday for her most recent book, RecipeTin Eats: Tonight.

Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning

Continue reading...

RecipeTin Eats founder accuses Brooki Bakehouse of plagiarising recipes in popular cookbook

Posted on by

Brooke Bellamy denies taking recipes from fellow cookbook author Nagi Maehashi who said it felt like ‘blatant exploitation’

The founder of food website RecipeTin Eats has accused an influencer of plagiarising her recipes in a bestselling Australian cookbook.

On Tuesday Nagi Maehashi, who started RecipeTin Eats in 2014, accused Brooke Bellamy – also known as Brooki Bakehouse – of plagiarising two of her recipes in Bellamy’s popular cookbook, Bake with Brooki.

Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning

Continue reading...

Embattled Creative Australia boss served angry letters from staff and 600 literary figures amid Sabsabi fallout

Posted on by

Letters from staff expressed ‘complete lack of confidence in your ability to lead this organisation effectively’ and fears over participating in external inquiry

The embattled head of Creative Australia has been served with two letters of complaint collectively written by staff, and a third signed by more than 600 Australian literary figures.

The fallout over Creative Australia’s decision in February to withdraw the artistic team of Khaled Sabsabi and Michael Dagostino from next year’s Venice Biennale continues, with its chief executive, Adrian Collette, now on leave and an inquiry under way into the circumstances surrounding the selection and subsequent sacking of the pair as Australia’s representatives.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Stella prize 2025: shortlist entirely women of colour for the first time in award’s history

Posted on by

Michelle de Kretser and journalist Amy McQuire among six authors in contention for $60,000 prize for women and non-binary writers

The Stella prize, Australia’s award for women and non-binary authors, has made history this year with a shortlist featuring only works by women of colour, for the first time since the award was established in 2013.

Announced on Tuesday morning, this year’s shortlist includes Darumbal and South Sea Islander journalist Amy McQuire’s essay collection, Black Witness (winner of the 2025 Victorian premier’s award for Indigenous writing), about the failures of mainstream media and power of Indigenous journalism; two-time Miles Franklin-winner Michelle de Kretser’s Theory & Practice, a reckoning with fiction, memoir and colonialism; and playwright, poet and author Samah Sabawi’s family memoir, Cactus Pear For My Beloved, tracing her roots from British-occupied Palestine through to contemporary Queensland.

Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning

Continue reading...

Australian independent publishing stalwart Text acquired by global giant Penguin Random House

Posted on by

Local publishing house says it will ‘retain creative control’ and no redundancies are planned for Melbourne office

The world’s largest general book publisher has acquired one of Australia’s leading independent publishers, the Text Publishing Company.

Penguin Random House announced the acquisition on Wednesday, with the chief executive of its Australian operations, Julie Burland, saying the move consolidated the publishing house’s longstanding relationship, where its Australian arm distributes and sells all of Text’s titles in the Australian and New Zealand markets.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Over 100 famous works by Australian authors rescued from oblivion by literary heritage endeavour

Posted on by

Three-year project returns out-of-print classics – including six Miles Franklin winners – to circulation and into ebook format for the first time

More than 160 books by noted Australian authors have been rescued from oblivion, including six winners of the Miles Franklin literary award.

The three-year project, which culminated at the end of last year, has put out-of-print titles by Thea Astley, Mem Fox, Charmian Clift and Anita Heiss back in circulation and into ebook format for the first time.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

The 1920s desecration of a Gutenberg Bible shocked the US – but miraculously gave a Jewish family new life in Australia

Posted on by

Michael Visontay discovered that a ‘crime against history’ in the book world set off a chain of events that led to his family’s delicatessen in 1950s Sydney

It was a brazen act of extreme literary vandalism that desecrated one of the world’s most valuable books. But it also allowed a family of Holocaust survivors to forge a new life in Australia.

The extraordinary tale was uncovered by the author and journalist Michael Visontay while researching his family history during Covid lockdown and has now been published as a book, Noble Fragments.

Continue reading...

Australian authors group give every federal politician five books to encourage nuance in Middle East debate

Posted on by

Exclusive: Group of more than 90 including writers Tim Winton and Charlotte Wood have paid for every federal senator and MP to receive curated package

Some of Australia’s most prominent authors are among a group of more than 90 writers and literary supporters who have paid for every federal parliamentarian to receive a carefully curated package of books on the Middle East to expand their knowledge of the history of the conflict.

Each of the 227 MPs and senators is being given the same five books – nonfiction, fiction and reference works – as part of the campaign to encourage wider reading on the origins of the Middle East conflict among Australia’s political leaders.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Alexis Wright wins $60,000 Melbourne literature prize

Posted on by

The Waanyi writer, who won the Miles Franklin award and Stella prize this year for her novel Praiseworthy, has been recognised for her body of work and contribution to Australian culture

Alexis Wright has been awarded the $60,000 Melbourne prize for literature, capping off an extraordinary year in which she has won more than $200,000 in prize money after the publication of her epic novel, Praiseworthy.

The Melbourne prize for literature, awarded every three years, recognises a Victorian writer whose “body of published work has made an outstanding contribution to Australian literature and to cultural and intellectual life”. Past winners include Christos Tsiolkas, Alison Lester and Helen Garner.

Sign up for our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning

Continue reading...

Miles Franklin award 2024: Alexis Wright continues dream run as shortlist announced

Posted on by

Much-lauded Praiseworthy joins works by Gregory Day, André Dao, Sanya Rushdi, Jen Craig and Hossein Asgari competing for Australia’s highest literary honour

Alexis Wright continues her dream run with the acclaimed novel Praiseworthy, one of six books announced as the shortlist for the 2024 Miles Franklin literary award, Australia’s highest literary honour.

Announced on Tuesday, the other five books up for the $60,000 prize are Gregory Day’s The Bell of the World, André Dao’s Anam, Sanya Rushdi’s Hospital, Jen Craig’s Wall and Hossein Asgari’s Only Sound Remains.

Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning

Continue reading...

Australian online seller Booktopia enters share trading halt a fortnight after major job cuts

Posted on by

Bookseller tells ASX it will announce outcomes from strategic review, including ‘progress in seeking additional funding’

Australia’s largest online bookseller has entered into a voluntary share trading suspension, just two weeks after axing 50 jobs and losing its chief executive.

Booktopia Group Ltd notified the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on Monday, saying its securities would be suspended from quotation immediately pending an announcement on “further outcomes” from a strategic review, “including its progress in seeking additional funding”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Victoria’s Robinsons Bookshop apologises after owner’s call for more ‘white kids’ on book covers

Posted on by

Susanne Horman’s comments have been ‘taken out of context’ and ‘misrepresented’, business says

Victoria’s oldest independent bookshop has apologised after its owner called for more picture books with “just white kids on the cover” and claimed that the chain would stop stocking “woke agenda” content that divided people.

Susanne Horman, the owner of Robinsons Bookshop chain, posted a series of tweets in December where she called for an “substantial shift” in Australian publishing, arguing the focus should be in line with public opinion, requests for books and “for what is good”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Sarah Holland-Batt wins $25,000 top prize at Queensland literary awards

Posted on by

The poet’s premier’s award for The Jaguar, a collection about the death of her father, follows Stella prize win earlier this year

Sarah Holland-Batt’s “technically brilliant and experimental” poetry collection about the death of her father, The Jaguar, has won the $25,000 top prize at the Queensland literary awards, fresh after her Stella prize win earlier this year.

The 40-year-old’s third collection, covering her father’s diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease, his time in aged care and his death two decades later, won the premier’s award for a work of state significance on Wednesday night.

Sign up for our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning

Continue reading...

Man charged for alleged harassment of Yumi Stynes, who has received threats over sex education book

Posted on by

The 23-year-old was arrested at Balmain police station and charged with one count of use carriage service to menace, harass or offend

Police have arrested a man who allegedly threatened author Yumi Stynes, the co-author of an educational book aimed at helping teenagers understand sex and sexuality that was recently removed from shelves at Big W after staff members were abused.

Stynes – co-author of Welcome to Sex: Your No-silly Questions Guide to Sexuality, Pleasure and Figuring it Out – has reported receiving death threats and violent, graphic, racist abuse from critics of her book.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Big W removes sex education book from shelves after staff members abused

Posted on by

Publisher of Welcome to Sex by Dr Melissa Kang and Yumi Stynes defends book after conservative campaigners claim it is ‘teaching sex to children’

The publisher of a sex education and consent book aimed at adolescents has defended the title after it was taken off the shelves of Big W stores amid backlash from conservative campaigners.

Welcome to Sex, co-authored by the former Dolly Doctor and adolescent health expert Dr Melissa Kang and feminist writer Yumi Stynes, is the fourth book in a series on topics such as consent and menstruation.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Miles Franklin award 2023: shortlist revealed for Australia’s prestigious literary prize

Posted on by

Five first-time nominees are among the six authors competing for $60,000 award for novels that ‘present Australian life in any of its phases’

Five first-time nominees – including a debut novelist – are among the six authors shortlisted for the 2023 Miles Franklin award, Australia’s highest literary honour.

Announced on Tuesday, the six books up for the $60,000 prize are Jessica Au’s Cold Enough for Snow, Robbie Arnott’s Limberlost, Yumna Kassab’s The Lovers, Fiona Kelly McGregor’s Iris, Shankari Chandran’s Chai Time at the Cinnamon Gardens, and Kgshak Akec’s Hopeless Kingdom.

Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning

Continue reading...