The Australian Book Design Awards 2025 longlist

Showing all posts tagged: Australian literature

The Australian Book Design Awards 2025 longlist

13 March 2025

This is where we get the once-a-year chance to judge a book by its cover… the longlist for the 2025 Australian Book Design Awards (ABDA) was published last week (PDF).

Among numerous inclusions (this is the longlist after all) are covers for Tim Winton’s latest novel, Juice, designed by Adam Laszczuk, and Lucinda Froomes Price’s book All I Ever Wanted Was To Be Hot, designed by Katherine Zhang, of Sydney based Australian design house Evi-O.Studio.

The winners will be announced on Friday 23 May 2025.

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Australian literature, books, design

Signs of Damage, a new novel by Australian author Diana Reid

5 March 2025

Signs of Damage is the third novel from London based Australian author Diana Reid.

The Kelly family’s idyllic holiday in the south of France is disturbed when Cass, a thirteen-year-old girl, goes missing. She’s discovered several hours later with no visible signs of injury. Everyone present dismisses the incident as a close brush with tragedy.

Sixteen years later, at a funeral for a member of the Kelly family, Cass collapses. The present and the past start to collide as buried secrets come to light and old doubts resurface. What really happened to Cass in the south of France? And what’s wrong with her now?

I’ve read Reid’s 2021 debut Love & Virtue and have her second, novel Seeing Other People, published in 2022, on my (lengthy) TBR list. Signs of Damage will be published later this month.

The 2025 Stella Prize literary award longlist

5 March 2025

Literary award season kicks off in Australia this year, with the announcement of the 2025 Stella Prize literary award longlist yesterday, at Adelaide Writers’ Week, in South Australia.

A Language of Limbs, by Dylin Hardcastle
Always Will Be, by Mykaela Saunders
Black Convicts, by Santilla Chingaipe
Black Witness, by Amy McQuire
Cactus Pear For My Beloved, by Samah Sabawi
Translations, by Jumaana Abdu
Naag Mountain, by Manisha Anjali
Peripathetic, by Cher Tan
Rapture, by Emily Maguire
The Burrow, by Melanie Cheng
Theory & Practice, by Michelle de Kretser
The Thinning, by Inga Simpson

The Stella Prize honours Australian women’s writing annually. The shortlist will be published on Tuesday 8 April 2025, with the winner being named on Friday 23 May 2025.

Somebody Down There Likes Me, a new novel by Robert Lukins

19 February 2025

Melbourne based Australian author Robert Lukins returns with a new novel, Somebody Down There Likes Me, a follow up to his 2022 book, Loveland.

As with Loveland and his 2018 debut, The Everlasting Sunday, Somebody Down There Likes Me, is set outside Australia, this time in a town called Belle Haven, in Connecticut, in the United States, during the final years of the twentieth-century:

Against the backdrop of the last decadent gasps of the twentieth century, the Gulch family have led a charmed existence in the ultra-wealthy enclave of Belle Haven, Connecticut. Now, the empire they have built is on the edge of collapse, and as the decades of fraud and criminality that lie beneath the family’s incredible wealth is exposed, the Gulch children are summoned.

I read Loveland a couple of years ago, and look forward to Somebody Down There Likes Me. I must also get hold of The Everlasting Sunday as well.

The Ledge, a thriller by Australian author Christian White

12 February 2025

A disturbing development in a twenty-five year old missing persons case sees a group of old school friends reluctantly reunite. All have reason to be fearful of the re-opened police investigation, and all are willing to do whatever it takes to ensure they are not incriminated. It’s not easy to be sure who to trust, or exactly who knows what about that tragic day many years earlier in 1999.

The Ledge wouldn’t be a Christian White novel if it didn’t feature a twist that leaves you breathless, and wondering whether you’ve been paying attention. White’s fourth novel will not let you down.

I read The Ledge in three days, a sprint compared to my usual glacial pace, often reading until two or three in the morning. Calling this a page-turner is an understatement.

I also suggest you read White’s earlier novels, The Nowhere Child, his debut, and The Wife and the Widow, his second novel, which in trademark style, are also set across dual timelines. I’m yet to read his third novel, Wild Places, published in 2022. I’ll need to catch up on some sleep before then.

The Shortlist for the Australian 2025 Indie Book Awards

20 January 2025

The Australian Indie Book Awards span six categories: fiction, non-fiction, debut fiction, illustrated non-fiction, children’s, and young adult, and last week the shortlist for the 2025 awards was published. My main interest is fiction, where Dusk by Robbie Arnott, and The Ledge by Christian White, are among contenders in that category.

I’m yet to read Dusk, but finished The Ledge in four days flat. Record time, for me, in recent years. White’s thriller/crime stories, with twists that leave you breathless, are verifiable page turners. That is was holidays contributed to the fast read. On that basis, The Ledge is my favourite in fiction. The winners will be announced on Monday 24 March 2025.

That might give me time to read Dusk, plus Cherrywood by Jock Serong, and Juice by Tim Winton, the other titles shortlisted in the fiction category, beforehand.

Melissa Lucashenko wins 2024 Mark and Evette Moran Nib award

28 November 2024

Goorie/South East Australian author Melissa Lucashenko has won the 2024 Mark and Evette Moran Nib literary award, with her 2023 novel Edenglassie. A work of historical fiction, Edenglassie, which links the past with the present, also won this year’s ARA Historical Novel Prize, Indie Book Awards, and the fiction category of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.

When Mulanyin meets the beautiful Nita in Edenglassie, their saltwater people still outnumber the British. As colonial unrest peaks, Mulanyin dreams of taking his bride home to Yugambeh Country, but his plans for independence collide with white justice. Two centuries later, fiery activist Winona meets Dr Johnny. Together they care for obstinate centenarian Granny Eddie, and sparks fly, but not always in the right direction. What nobody knows is how far the legacies of the past will reach into their modern lives.

Speaking after being presented the Nib, at a ceremony at Sydney’s Bondi Pavilion last night, Lucashenko said she intended to give away much of the forty-thousand dollar prize money.

Gail Jones wins Creative Australia Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature

27 November 2024

Sydney based Western Australian author Gail Jones was last week presented with the Creative Australia Lifetime Achievement in Literature award.

Jones’ books have won the ARA Historical Novel Prize, Barbara Ramsden Award, and Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards. They have also been included on the long and short lists of numerous literary awards, including the Miles Franklin, Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, and the International Dublin Literary Award.

Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au being adapted to film

26 November 2024

Australian author Jessica Au’s multi-award winning 2022 novel, Cold Enough for Snow, is being made into a film, says publisher Giramondo. No word yet as to who the lead actors will be, but production is scheduled to commence in 2025, and will be the debut feature of Jemima James.

Fingers crossed this is a faithful adaptation. If you haven’t yet read Cold Enough for Snow, now’s the time. It’s not a long read, but the ending sure packs a wallop.

Charlotte Wood did not win the Booker Prize, still gets Booker bump

22 November 2024

Sales of Australian author Charlotte Wood’s latest novel Stone Yard Devotional have enjoyed a boost, as a result of being both long and short listed for this year’s Booker Prize. The phenomena is sometimes called the Booker bump:

Her publisher says that since winning the Stella Prize in 2016 for The Natural Way of Things, her blistering feminist critique of the patriarchy, “Charlotte’s books have been bestsellers — and Stone Yard Devotional is no exception. Since being longlisted for the Booker Prize, sales have increased by over 30 per cent. We have to date sold over 40,000 copies of this beautiful book.”

Anyone who makes it to even the longlist of any literary award, but goes no further, is a winner if you ask me.

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