The Australian Publishers Association (APA) has announced the appointment of Michael Gordon-Smith as interim CEO following the resignation of long-time CEO Maree McCaskill last week. Gordon-Smith will begin in the role on 1 July and has been appointed till February 2014. Gordon-Smith has ‘almost thirty years of experience with Australia’s content and creative

The winner of this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award will be announced at the National Library of Australia in Canberra today between 1-2pm. As previously reported by Books+Publishing, the following books are shortlisted for the award: Floundering (Romy Ash, Text)   Questions of Travel (Michelle de

Australian author Margo Lanagan has been nominated for the 2013 British Fantasy Awards. Lanagan is shortlisted in the Best Fantasy Novel category for her book Sea Hearts (A&U), published in the UK as The Brides of Rollrock Island. Also shortlisted for the award are: Railsea (China Miéville, Macmillan), Blood and Feathers (Lou

The winners for this year’s Books I Love Best Yearly (BILBY) Awards, the children’s choice book awards for Queensland, have been announced. The winning titles in each of the categories are: Books for early readers Bamboozled (David Legge, Scholastic)   Books for younger readers The 26-Storey Treehouse

A number of changes to the Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) management committee were announced at this year’s annual conference, held in Adelaide from 16-17 June. Former treasurer Patricia Genat, owner of ALS Library Services, was elected as the new president of the ABA at the association’s annual general meeting. Genat replaces former

The shortlist for this year’s Chief Minister’s Northern Territory History Book Award has been announced. The shortlisted titles are: Tiwi: Arts, History, Culture (Jennifer Isaacs, Miegunyah) A Wild History: Life and Death on the Victoria River Frontier (Darrell Lewis, Monash University Publishing) The

A study into New Zealand’s goods and services tax (GST) arrangements that was commissioned by Booksellers New Zealand will be considered by the New Zealand Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee, reports Booksellers New Zealand. As previously reported by Books+Publishing, the report was produced for Booksellers NZ by Victoria University’s New Zealand

The Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) has announced a number of promotions to support National Bookshop Day on 10 August. The ABA will be running a national competition calling for people to vote for their favourite bookshop, with everyone who votes going into the draw to win $500 worth of Australian Book

The State Library of Victoria (SLV) has announced the recipients of the 2013-14 Creative Fellowships. Among the recipients selected for funding are several with book-related projects. Joanne Oliver will work on the biography Etched with Love and Courage: The Life and Work of Jessie Traill, Australian Printmaker, 1881-1967; Nicole Lindsay will

The shortlists for this year’s Prime Minister’s Literary Awards have been announced. The shortlisted titles in each of the categories are: Fiction Floundering (Romy Ash, Text) The Chemistry of Tears (Peter Carey, Hamish Hamilton)

Allen & Unwin was named Publisher of the Year at the 2013 Leading Edge Books Conference in Adelaide on 15 June, the fourth year running that the publisher has received the honour. A&U’s sales and marketing director Jim Demetriou accepted the award at an awards dinner at the State Library of South

The Light between Oceans by M L Stedman (Vintage) has won this year’s Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) Nielsen BookData Booksellers Choice Award. The award, which recognises Australian new-release titles that booksellers most enjoyed reading, marketing and handselling during the previous year, was announced at the 2013 ABA Conference gala dinner on 16

The Melbourne and Brisbane writers’ festivals have announced a number of events ahead of their official program launches. The Melbourne Writers Festival, which runs from 22 August to 1 September, will open with a theatrical performance from New York City storytelling troupe The Moth, who will be joined onstage by host Ophira

Entwined with You (Sylvia Day, Penguin), the third novel in the erotic fiction series Crossfire, is at the top of the bestsellers and the highest new entries charts. Orginally self-published, the series has become phenomenally successful, selling over six million English-language copies worldwide. The author is currently on a book tour in Australia. Dan

The winners of the 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize have been announced. The winner of the international prize was Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me: And Other Poems by Fady Joudah (Yale University Press), translated from the Arabic written by Ghassan Zaqtan. The winner of the Canadian prize was What’s the Score? by David

Maree McCaskill has resigned as CEO of the Australian Publishers Association (APA) after more than seven years in the position. Her resignation is effective from 14 June 2013. ‘Under Maree’s leadership the APA has continued to serve the diverse needs and challenges of local trade and educational publishers,’ said the APA in a statement. ‘On

Penguin Australia has announced that it will publish a series of books with the Australian Football League (AFL) for ‘supporters of all ages’. The children’s titles, which will be branded with the AFL logo and illustrated with ‘a variety of official team mascots and colours’, include activity, colouring and sticker books for

The finalists for this year’s Booksellers New Zealand Industry Awards have been announced. The finalists in each of the categories are: Regional Bookseller of the Year (North Island) Paper Plus Masterton The Children’s Bookshop, Wellington Vic Books, Wellington   Regional Bookseller of

The shortlists for the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ) Book Design Awards, including the PANZ Young Designer of the Year Award, have been announced. The titles shortlisted in the best designed cover category are: At the White Coast (Janet Charman, Auckland University Press), designed by Keely O’Shannessy

The Australian Publishers Association (APA) and Thorpe-Bowker, parent company of Books+Publishing, have launched TitlePage Plus. The APA and Thorpe-Bowker said in a joint press release this week that TitlePage Plus ‘creates a single point of access to local availability and enriched metadata for print and digital books’.  The existing TitlePage platform, now