• 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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  • In its World Intellectual Property Day statement, the IPA warns against ‘a pretext of emergency access.’

    In News by Porter AndersonApril 27, 2020 IPA on Intellectual Property Day: ‘How Much Value Publishers Bring’ French citizens wait to enter a shop in Chartres under lockdown restrictions on April 4. Image – iStockphoto: Razvan ‘When We Need a Strong Legal Framework’ The springtime march of international issue observance days—as we wrote in our […]

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  • Storylines Notable Book Awards 2020 – virtual flyer now available

    Storylines Notable Books List 2020     The 2020 Storylines Notable Books List, for the highest quality books in five genres published during 2019, is now available online.   It is compiled by the Storylines Children’s Literature Charitable Trust from over 110 entries from publishers by expert panels of authors, teachers, librarians, academics and parents. […]

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