2023 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) shortlists

Showing all posts tagged: Australian literature

2023 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) shortlists

19 April 2023

Another day, another literary award shortlist announcement, this time it’s the 2023 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) shortlists. All up, seventy-one books have been shortlisted across fourteen categories, including Audiobook of the Year, Biography Book of the Year, several Children’s and The Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year, with five titles selected in two fiction categories:

Literary Fiction Book of the Year

All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien
The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
Seeing Other People by Diana Reid
Limberlost by Robbie Arnott

General Fiction Book of the Year

Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor
The Tilt by Chris Hammer
Exiles by Jane Harper
Day’s End by Garry Disher
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

The ABIAs are pretty close to Australia’s equivalent of the Oscars (or Logies), but for books rather than movies. Accordingly, winners will be named at a ceremony on the evening of Thursday 25 May 2023, in Sydney.

The Age Book of the Year awards 2023 shortlists

14 April 2023

The Age Book of the Year awards 2023 shortlists were announced this afternoon. The awards are split into two sections, one for fiction, and the other for non-fiction.

The shortlisted titles for the fiction award are:

Limberlost by Robbie Arnott
Every Version of You by Grace Chan
A Country of Eternal Light by Paul Dalgarno
Funny Ethnics by Shirley Le
The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane
Faithless by Alice Nelson

The shortlisted titles for the non-fiction award are:

The All of It by Cadance Bell
Childhood by Shannon Burns
Suburban Noir by Peter Doyle
Raised by Wolves by Jess Ho
Wandering with Intent by Kim Mahood
Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters by Mandy Sayer

The winners of each category — who will be announced on Thursday 4 May 2023, at the opening of the Melbourne Writers Festival — will receive a prize of ten thousand dollars.

Is the Australian publishing industry is based on a hunch?

13 April 2023

Katherine Day writing for The Conversation:

“The entire industry is based on hunches,” says literary agent Martin Shaw, who was head book buyer at Readings for 20 years before he became an agent. “More than half the books you publish either lose money or don’t make money. And that’s true — week in, week out, year in year out — whether you’re a small, medium or big publisher,” claims Henry Rosenbloom, founder of Scribe Publications, which has been acquiring books since 1976. This can be a heartbreaking reality for the in-house staff. “I’ve personally spent months editing books, and you publish the book and no one’s interested,” Henry adds.

I wonder how the publishing industry could not be based on hunches. Unless you’re publishing a big-name, well established (and even then nothing’s ever guaranteed) author, how does anyone know how a new book might be received?

RELATED CONTENT

Australian literature, publishing

Recently published Australian fiction, April 2023

11 April 2023

It’s been a while since I wrote about recent fiction releases by Australian authors, so here’s a quick round up of a few titles that have arrived on bookshop shelves in the last little while.

The Last Love Note, by Emma Grey, book cover

The Last Love Note, by Emma Grey, an author living near Canberra, is the story of a woman, Kate Whittaker, looking for love following her husband’s death. Based in part on Grey’s own experiences after her husband died, her protagonist struggles to get on with life.

Kate has a son to raise, while holding down a demanding job, and contending with a domineering mother, along with her best friend who is trying to find her a match. Then Kate learns that her boss knows a secret about her past…

The Bell of the World by Gregory Day, book cover

The Bell of the World is the sixth novel from Victorian author, poet, and musician Gregory Day, and is set during early to mid-twentieth century in a rural coastal town called Ngangahook. Sarah Hutchinson, a troubled young woman, returns to Australia after a stint at an English boarding school, to live with her uncle Ferny.

Sarah and Ferny bond over music, poetry, and reading. But their way of life is threatened when local town’s people propose building a bell tower, the chimes of which would surely disrupt the harmonies created by nature.

Resistance, by Jacinta Halloran, book cover

Resistance is the latest novel by Melbourne based author Jacinta Halloran, a former doctor and board member of Australian literary award, the Stella Prize. Nina is a family therapist with a reputation for listening to everything her clients tell her.

But her latest case may be her most challenging. A couple who stole a car and drove into the outback have been ordered to be counselled by her. But something’s not quite right about this couple who are reluctant to see her, and before long Nina begins to fear for the safety of their two children.

We Only Want What's Best, by Carolyn Swindell, book cover

We Only Want What’s Best, is the debut novel of Sydney based writer and stand-up comedian Carolyn Swindell, and is set on a flight between Australia and Los Angeles. Bridget is taking her daughter Becky to Disneyland to perform in a dance recital. Accompanying them is Simone and her daughter, Zahra.

Bridget, who isn’t completely comfortable making the long flight, becomes further unsettled when she finds potentially exploitative photos of Zahra, and other dance troupe girls, on Simone’s phone. The two women struggle to contain the rising tension between them, lest it overwhelms them before the flight lands.

Things She Would Have Said Herself, by Catherine Therese, book cover

Things She Would Have Said Herself, is new fiction from Australian author Catherine Therese, and tells the story of Leslie Bird, the quick tempered matriarch of her family. And while Leslie loves being a wife and mother, there’s a problem: she can’t stand her husband or children.

Despite the difficulty of her role, Leslie does her best to conceal the pain she feels, and the losses she has suffered. But the pressure of organising and hosting Christmas lunch for her extended family, may cause everything to unravel in spectacular fashion.

The 2023 David Harold Tribe Poetry Award

4 April 2023

Entries are open until Monday 29 May 2023 for the 2023 David Harold Tribe Poetry Award. With a prize of twenty-thousand dollars, it is Australia’s richest award for original, unpublished, poetry of up to one-hundred lines in length. David Tribe was an Australian humanist and writer who died in 2017.

The prize was created in 2005 as part of the David Harold Tribe Awards, to recognise excellence in Australian fiction, poetry, philosophy, sculpture, and symphony, with a prize for each segment being awarded every five years. In 2018, the last time the poetry award was presented, Grace Heyer and Ella O’Keefe were named joint winners.

More information about the prize, and how to enter, can be found here.

Bad Art Mother by Edwina Preston rejected by 25 publishers

30 March 2023

Bad Art Mother by Edwina Preston, book cover

Melbourne based Australian musician and author Edwina Preston took her manuscript for Bad Art Mother, which was today shortlisted for the 2023 Stella Prize, to twenty-six book publishers before finding one who accepted it:

Thankfully her agent, Jenny Darling, was sending out the book. “I was a bit shielded in that sense, I don’t know if I would have sent it out 25 times off my own bat. But having that support behind me, I can’t tell you how important that was. It felt very lonely, and I felt very much like I was a bit deluded about myself and my work, but she believed in it.”

It’s kind of surprising, though maybe it isn’t, but Preston already had two books to her name, The Inheritance of Ivorie Hammer, a novel published in 2012, and Not Just a Suburban Boy, a biography of late Australian artist Howard Arkley, published by Duffy & Snellgrove, in 2002.

Unpublished authors are not the only ones who struggle to get their work into print.

The 2023 Stella Prize shortlist

30 March 2023

The 2023 Stella Prize shortlist was unveiled this morning on RN Breakfast, an ABC radio station. The following six titles have been selected:

We Come With This Place by Debra Dank
big beautiful female theory by Eloise Grills
The Jaguar by Sarah Holland-Batt
Hydra by Adriane Howell
Indelible City Louisa Lim
Bad Art Mother by Edwina Preston

The winner will be announced on Thursday 27 April 2023.

Madukka The River Serpent, crime fiction by Julie Janson

29 March 2023

Madukka The River Serpent, by Julie Janson, book cover

It takes ten-thousand hours to become an expert. Or so some people claim. Malcolm Gladwell made the assertion in his 2008 book, Outliers. Broken down, if ten-thousand hours are required to become proficient at something, it will take about five years to achieve expert status. Assuming you put in about forty-hours per week.

Aunty June, a private investigator, and owner of Yanakirri Investigative Services, on the other hand, reckons thirty-hours is enough. That’s thirty-hours all up. That’s how long it took her to complete a certificate course in investigative services, at a nearby vocational education school.

And with the ink on her business cards barely dry, Aunty June has landed — sort of — her first case. Investigating the whereabouts of her missing nephew, Thommo. The thing is, Aunty June’s investigative services weren’t exactly asked for. Fed up at the lack of progress local police were making in the wake of Thommo’s disappearance, she decided to get involved, whether anyone else liked it or not.

Aunty June is the protagonist in Madukka The River Serpent, published by UWA Publishing, December 2022, written by New South Wales based Australian playwright, poet, and Darug Burruberongal woman, Julie Janson. But as Aunty June delves into the mystery surrounding her nephew’s disappearance, it quickly becomes apparent this is far more than a missing person’s case.

She runs up against racism, corruption, and lies. Bikie gang members and cotton farmers are also in the mix. And with water levels in the Darling River, one of Australia’s longest rivers, in decline, water theft may also be on the cards. Along with murder. Aunty June soon comes to see why police want to give the case a wide berth.

Madukka The River Serpent is Janson’s first foray into crime fiction, and is one of only a few such works by Indigenous writers. Australian author Jock Serong has described Janson’s novel as “raw, visceral, rude and tough, [and a] new perspective on Australian noir that we’ve been waiting for.” Perhaps then Madukka The River Serpent will be the beginning of something.

Once a Stranger, debut fiction by Zoya Patel

28 March 2023

Ayat as not seen, nor spoken to, her mother, Khadija, and sister, Laila, who live in Canberra, for six years. Ayat hurriedly moved away to Melbourne after her mother and sister learned she was dating Harry, a Catholic. Ayat made clear her boyfriend would not convert to Islam, the religion of her Indian family, in the event they decided to marry.

Ayat also took exception to Laila agreeing to marry a man of the family’s choosing, in accordance with tradition. Arranged marriages may have been appropriate in another time and place, but Ayat sees no place for the institution in today’s world. After six years though in the Victorian capital, she has made a new life for herself with Harry.

But Khadija is unwell. She has only a short time to live. Laila contacts Ayat, and asks her to come home and see her ailing mother, while there is still time. But on arriving in Canberra, Ayat is asked to travel far further afield. Khadija would like to make a final trip to India, with her daughters, before she dies.

But the prospect of visiting India is daunting for Ayat. For one thing, it will bring her face to face with her extended family, and their expectations. But Khadija hopes the trip will help Ayat understand her values, and desire to uphold tradition, in Once a Stranger, published by Hachette Australia, March 2023, the debut novel of Canberra based journalist and author, Zoya Patel.

Based in part on Patel’s own experiences, which she also explores in her 2018 memoir, No Country Woman, Once A Stranger treads a path that will be familiar to many first generation Australians.

People who sometimes feel they are neither here nor there, as they walk a line between the traditions their families adhere to, and embrace the culture of another country. And where acceptance and alienation comes from compatriots and locals alike, in attempting to navigate the difficult middle ground.

How to Kill a Client, the debut whodunit by Joanna Jenkins

23 March 2023

How to Kill a Client, by Joanna Jenkins, book cover

Gavin Jones is the in-house counsel at a large mining company, headquartered in Brisbane, the capital of the Australian state of Queensland. In his role, Jones awards legal contracts worth millions of dollars each year. As such, legal firms in Brisbane, and across Australia, are at his beck and call.

Among these law companies is Howard Green, one of Brisbane’s best known legal practitioners, who are frequently awarded lucrative work thanks to their relationship with Jones. There is nothing they wouldn’t do for fear of losing his favour. With his influence, Jones is feted wherever he goes.

Or at least that used to be the case. But at age thirty-nine, Jones is found dead. The victim of murder. Who though could possibly want someone who was the life-blood of so many businesses in mining and legal circles, dead? As the police investigation commences though, a side of Jones, not so well known to those outside of industry circles, begins to emerge.

He was demanding. Manipulative. Aggressive. Abusive. Narcissistic. And a misogynist. He treated women appallingly. Any women partners of Howard Green whom Jones took a disliking to were quickly swept aside. He treated his wife no differently. But his horrific conduct was not limited to women, and many others were also subjected to Jones’ wrath.

Indeed as the police probe continues, instead of eliminating suspects, the list of people with a grudge against Jones only grows. Far from being lauded by his business associates, just about no one actually liked him. This is the premise of How to Kill a Client, published by Allen & Unwin, January 2023, the debut novel of Brisbane based Australian author, and former lawyer, Joanna Jenkins.

Readers of How to Kill a Client have described Jenkins’ whodunit as captivating, compelling, razor sharp, and riveting. Numerous readers were unable to discern the identity of Jones’ killer until the final reveal, which speaks mountains for Jenkins’ skilful writing… despite the number of suspects.

« older posts

newer posts »