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Australia Reads receives $100K in federal funding, announces Reading Hour date change
The Australia Reads campaign has received $100,000 in funding from the federal government, it announced today. Chair of the Australia Reads committee, Hachette ANZ CEO Louise Sherwin-Stark, said the government support would ‘significantly amplify our campaign on the benefits of reading and motivate all Australians to get back into a regular reading habit’. The […]
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Peter Wells Short Fiction contest 2020 – First prize for aspiring young writer Heidi Rogers
4 May 2020 Waikato writing student, Heidi Rogers, received first prize at this year’s Peter Wells Short Fiction Contest. Master of Professional Writing student, Heidi Rogers, has claimed first prize in this year’s Peter Wells Short Fiction Contest. Rogers won the competition for her piece Finding Our Way Around Violets– a story about a couple who is aware […]
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Announcement of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize Winners
News May 4, 2020 The 2020 Pulitzer Prize winners in 15 Journalism and seven Book, Drama and Music categories were announced on Monday, May 4 at 3 p.m. Eastern. A Special Citation was also awarded. The Board also announces the election of its two co-chairs: Stephen Engelberg, Editor-in-Chief, ProPublica, and Aminda Marqués Gonzalez, President, Publisher and Executive […]
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Canadian Publishers on Court Setback: ‘Copyright Framework Is Broken’
May 4, 2020 A new court decision condemns certain ‘fair use’ guidelines by the educational sector, but doesn’t support the mandate to pay the fees set by Canada’s copyright board. At York University in Toronto. Image – iStockphoto: Peter Spiro By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson ‘Illegal and Unfair Copying on a Systematic Basis’ After […]
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Kiwi book publishers struggling to regroup after seeing sales obliterated in April
4 May 2020 The Publishers Association of New Zealand/Te Rau o Tākupu (PANZ) says members are reporting zero or minimal sales for the month of the Level 4 lockdown. The risk to the book industry is at its greatest since the Global Financial Crisis. “Publishers, along […]
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A NEW $30,000 LITERARY PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION – NOW OPEN
With prize money of $30,000, the new ARA Historical Novel Prize gives Australian and New Zealand historical novelists the chance to be recognised in a class of their own, with the most significant prize purse for any genre-based prize in Australasia. The ARA Historical Novel Prize has been made possible by the generosity of […]
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OCKHAM NEW ZEALAND BOOK AWARDS WINNERS CEREMONY – LIVE ONLINE MAY 12, 6pm!
The 2020 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards winners’ ceremony will take place LIVE, on line from 6pm, Tuesday 12 May. The New Zealand Society of Authors and other NZ literary organisations, publishers, and finalists will all co-host the Ockhams Event on Facebook. SEE YOU THERE! The ceremony will also be streamed via the […]
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JOIN THE VERB COMMUNITY – new platform launches
A MESSAGE FROM VERB WELLINGTON It’s a strange writing to you all in this new world we are all in. We hope this finds you well, safe and in good spirits. Even while the creative landscape as we know it has radically shifted, none of our ambition has. In fact, I’d say that the current […]
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Auckland Writers Festival announces 2020 Winter Series
ANNOUNCING OUR 2020 WINTER SERIES We are excited to announce our 2020 Winter Online Series, featuring a star-studded writer line-up which includes Bernardine Evaristo, Ann Patchett, Neil Gaiman, Barbara Ewing, Richard Ford, Elizabeth Knox, Robert Macfarlane, Philippe Sands, Lisa Taddeo, Ian Wedde, Alan Bollard, Chanel Miller, Freya Daly Sadgrove, Simon Armitage, Maggie O’Farrell, Deborah […]
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AMANI: Africa Creative Defence Network launches to defend free speech – PEN
As authoritarian regimes crackdown on dissent, artists and creatives are bearing the brunt of the pressure, finding themselves at risk of threats, harassment, arrest, imprisonment, torture, and even death because of their creative work. This has become only more of a reality during the COVID-19 pandemic, as governments exploit “emergency powers” to silence criticism. […]
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Coronavirus Update: The UK Scraps Its 20-Percent VAT on Digital Books
A rare benefit of COVID-19, the UK’s government has wiped out the market’s punishing 20-percent VAT on digital publications, making ebooks more affordable amid #StayAtHome restrictions. Windows in east London’s Leyton district carry messages of hope in the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, an April 26 shot. Image – iStockphoto: Marcos Casado By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief […]
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CLNZ/NZSA $25,000 Writers’ Award 2020
Applications Open Early to Support Writers $25,000 award to a New Zealand writer one of the highest non-fiction prizes in New Zealand literature presented by the New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) and Copyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ) brought forward by three months to support NZ writers CLNZ and NZSA have brought forward the application process for […]
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