Our latest blog posts
Nina Kenwood wins the 2018 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children's Writing
Congratulations to Readings staff member Nina Kenwood for being named the winner of the 2018 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing!
Kenwood’s winning manuscript, It Sounded Better in My Head, was selected from more than 200 entries, and will be published by Text next year. As the winner, Kenwood will also receive $10,000 in Prize money, and she joins two other Readings employees to be honoured by this Prize: Leanne Hall, who won in 2009 for her…
A monthly update from our Teen Advisory Board
This month, we were fortunate to have a visit from Scot Gardner. Now a critically acclaimed author of several novels for young readers, Scot began his career writing for Earth Garden magazine and got his big break when he took the manuscript of his first novel to a John Marsden writing camp.
Scot travelled two hours by train to be with us. He showed us photos of his ‘office’ (a deserted bushwalking track) and his ‘co-workers’ (a bird, koala and…
Recommended Aussie books for beginner readers
We love to see Australian junior fiction for kids embarking on their reading journey. Here are some recommended reads for beginner and newly independent readers. (And we’re always hungry for more!)
From Nerd to Ninja (Ninja Kid Book 1) by Anh Do
Nerdy Nelson gets a big shock on his tenth birthday when he learns that he’s the last ninja on earth! Suddenly in possession of inherited coordination and cool ninja moves, Nelson is charged with the daunting task…
Emily O'Grady wins the 2018 Vogel's Literary Award
Emily O'Grady has been named the winner of this year’s Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award for The Yellow House, a powerful novel about the legacies of violence and the possibilities of redemption.
Cub lives with her parents, older brother Cassie, and twin brother Wally on a lonely property bordering an abandoned cattle farm and knackery. Their lives are shadowed by the infamous actions of her Grandad Les, who used to live in the yellow weatherboard house next door. When Cub’s…
The Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist 2018
The shortlist for the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction has been announced. This Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world.
Sarah Sands, Chair of the judging panel, says: ‘The themes of the shortlist have both contemporary and lasting resonance encompassing the birth of the internet, race, sexual violence, grief, oh and mermaids. Some of the authors are young, half by Brits and all are blazingly good and brave writers’
The shortlisted titles are:
The…
Our children's & YA top 10 bestsellers of the week
Found in Melbourne by Joanne O'Callaghan & Kori Song
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli & Francesca Cavallo
From Nerd to Ninja (Ninja Kid Book 1) by Anh Do
Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls: Volume 2 by Elena Favilli & Francesca Cavallo
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
The Long Class Goodnight by Sammy J
Messy Weird! (WeirDo Book 10) by Anh Do & Jules Faber
Amelia Westlake by Erin Gough
…
Our top 10 bestsellers of the week
A Higher Loyalty by James Comey
Tracker by Alexis Wright
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia edited by Anita Heiss
The Unexpected Education of Emily Dean by Mira Robertson
The Shepherd’s Hut by Tim Winton
The Earth Does Not Get Fat by Julia Prendergast
The Death Of Noah Glass by Gail Jones
The Temptation of Forgiveness by Donna Leon
Moment of Truth (Quarterly Essay 69) by Mark McKenna
The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape
James Comey, the former director of…
Jo Sandhu wins the 2018 Readings Children's Book Prize
We’re thrilled to reveal that the winner of this year’s Readings Children’s Book Prize is Tarin of the Mammoths: The Exile by Jo Sandhu!
Established in 2014, the Readings Children’s Book Prize celebrates on-the-rise Australian authors and is awarded to the book that children will love best. Jo Sandhu’s captivating and cinematic middle-fiction novel, set 30,000 years ago in Lapland, Finland is a fitting winner. This is an action-packed and unputdownable Stone Age epic for ages 8 to 12 that…
The Kibble and Dobbie Literary Awards longlists 2018
The longlists for the 2018 Kibble and Dobbie Literary Awards have been announced.
The Kibble and Dobbie Literary Awards are open to Australian female writers who have published a book of fiction or non-fiction classifiable as ‘life writing’. The awards moved to a biennial format in 2016, making the 2018 awards open to any work published in the last two years.
The eight longlisted titles for the $30,000 Nita B Kibble Literary Award for an established author are:
What we're reading: Curtis Sittenfeld, Eliza Robertson & Miyoko Schinner
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Mark Rubbo is reading Demi-Gods by Eliza Robertson
I just read Demi-Gods by Eliza Robertson. Eliza, a Canadian writer, won last year’s ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize for her story ‘Pheidippides’, and this is her first novel. It’s a highly charged coming-of-age story set across British Columbia and California in which a young woman…
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