• Internet Archive – scans and uploads books en masse – MASS INFRINGEMENTS!

    Posted on 16 January 2018

    The Internet Archive is a San Francisco–based nonprofit digital library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. It seeks donations of hard-copy books from libraries and individuals and then scans, digitises, and offers them for lending and downloading without paying royalties or PLR. Alerts about this website have been posted by the Society […]

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  • Amazon Is Thriving Thanks to Taxpayer Dollars…and government food stamps

    Posted on 15 January 2018

    The tech giant has received more than $1 billion in tax breaks. The government is also funding food stamps for many of its workers. BY DAVID DAYEN January 10, 2018 As Amazon builds up its distribution network, it’s hit on a trick long practiced by the likes of Walmart: using the federal government to help pay its workers. […]

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  • PEN America and PEN Center USA Unite Against Threats to Expression

    Posted on 9 January 2018

    PEN Center USA in LA to Join Forces with PEN America in New York to Create National Organization   PEN America and PEN Center USA will join forces in 2018 as a stronger national organization under the banner of PEN America, uniting writers coast to coast to bolster the defense of free expression in the […]

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  • Fire and Fury – the right to freedom of speech under threat in the US

    Posted on 6 January 2018

    ABA and Authors Guild Slam Trump’s Legal Campaign Against ‘Fire and Fury’ By Jim Milliot | Jan 04, 2018 A range of book industry organizations, including the ABA and the Authors Guild, have issued public condemnations of President Trump’s attempt to block Henry Holt’s publication of Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff. […]

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  • NZ author Joy Cowley heads New Year Honours list

    Posted on 30 December 2017

    Congratulations to Joy Cowley, who has received the country’s top honour in the 2018 New Year Honours list! Joy Cowley has been an active and supportive member of the New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc) since joining in 1966. We are thrilled to see her outstanding service to literature and literacy in New Zealand […]

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  • Winners of the 2018 D’Arcy Writers’ Grants – Renee Liang and Mary Paul

    Posted on 20 December 2017

    The winners of the 2018 D’Arcy Writers’ Grants are Renee Liang and Mary Paul.  They will each receive $5000 for 10,000-12,000 word essays.   The judges decided on the two winners from the largest field of applicants since the grants were first offered by generous New York-based expatriates, Mark and Deborah D’Arcy.   Renee Liang plans […]

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  • $10,000 Annual Text Prize for Young Adult & Children’s Writing – opens Jan 3 2018

    Posted on 19 December 2017

    Mark 3 January 2018 in your calendars, writers of Australia and New Zealand, because that’s the date entries open for the $10,000 Annual Text Prize for Young Adult & Children’s Writing. Full details and the entry form are here. Submissions open 3 January and close 2 February, 2018.  The Text Prize aims to discover great […]

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  • Archaeological heist caper film script wins prize

    Posted on 15 December 2017

    IIML Awards to Sarah Harpur and Richard Dey – congratulations. A film script featuring an outlawed metal-detecting amateur archaeologist in 1980s Ireland battling the National Museum to prove an historical truth has been awarded the 2017 David Carson-Parker Embassy Prize for Scriptwriting at Victoria University of Wellington. Written by Sarah Harpur for her 2017 Master […]

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  • James Norcliffe Selected as 2018 Randell Cottage Writer in Residence

    Posted on 14 December 2017

    Christchurch-based writer James Norcliffe is to be the 2018 Creative New Zealand Randell Cottage Writing Fellow. Norcliffe has published nine collections of poetry, a short story collection and ten novels for young people. As an editor he has had long involvement with the literary magazine, takah? and has edited anthologies of poetry and young people’s writing. He’s also served as […]

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  • Powerful poetry collection wins Adam Foundation Prize – Tayi Tibble

    Posted on 14 December 2017

    A “powerful, restrained but unafraid” collection of poems that explore the lives of four generations of M?ori women has been awarded the 2017 Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing by Victoria University of Wellington’s International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML).   Tayi Tibble, 22, wrote the winning work—In a Fish Tank Filled with Pink Light—as […]

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  • OneTree House reveal 2018 catalogue

    Posted on 13 December 2017

    In May 2017 OneTree House announced the formation of a new, New Zealand children’s publisher and today reveal their 2018 catalogue here. The titles emanate from a wealth of award-winning talent, and present picture books, junior fiction, middle fiction and young adult novels, from authors such as Kyle Mewburn, Mary-anne Scott, Brian Falkner, Tina Shaw, […]

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  • Protecting copyright is crucial to fostering creativity

    Posted on 11 December 2017

    Protecting copyright is crucial to fostering creativity   Copyright Agency Limited chairman Kim Williams.Picture: Stuart McEvoy The issues of copyright and respect for creators is a great policy challenge in Australian creative life. The rights of creators are under siege on many fronts: • no consideration to who loses out when books, music, TV or […]

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