This year, National Sorry Day will be held on Sunday 26 May. We’d like to take this opportunity to celebrate some incredible First Nations authors and artists. The below examples constitute by no means a complete list, so please feel free to peruse our other recommended reads here. For those with little ones, we’ve put together a collection of recommended Indigenous books for children here. Furt…

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The program for the 2019 Emerging Writers' Festival has been announced. The festival will run from 19–29 June in venues across Melbourne’s CBD and surrounding suburbs. You can view the full program here, and you can find information about what special passes are available here. Here are eight of our top picks from the program. Amazing Babes

It’s Amazing Babes’ sixth anniversary and we’re bac…

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The 2019 longlist for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, has been announced. The Award celebrates novels of the highest literary merit that tell stories about Australian life. Winning authors also receive a prize of $60,000. Congratulations to all the authors on this tremendously strong list!

The longlisted books are:

The Lebs by Michael Mohammed Ah…

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We are delighted to announce the 2019 shortlist for the Readings Young Adult Book Prize. Now in its third year, the prize was created to recognise and celebrate new voices in Australian Young Adult literature, and considers the first and second books of YA authors across Australia.

The six shortlisted books for this year are:

Highway Bodies by Alison Evans What I Like About Me by Jenna Guillau…

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The Peacock Detectives by Carly Nugent Love Your Body by Jessica Sanders Young Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe Ninja Switch! (Ninja Kid, Book 3) by Anh Do Wilam: A Birrarung Story by Aunty Joy Murphy Elementals: Ice Wolves (Book 1) by Amie Kaufman You Go First by Erin Entrada Kelly Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid by Jeff Kinney Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle 1) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff All t…

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On Identity by Stan Grant Room for a Stranger by Melanie Cheng Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dlaton Australia Day by Stan Grant The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe The Overstory by Richard Powers Normal People by Sally Rooney Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan Stone and Star by Helen Macrae

Stan Grant’s meditation on hope and community, On Identity, leads the pack of best…

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Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton #MeToo: Stories from the Australian Movement by Miriam Sved, Christie Nieman, Maggie Scott and Natalie Kon-yu The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie Room for a Stranger by Melanie Cheng Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi The Overstory by Richard Powers Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe Life Before by Carmel Reilly Normal People Sally Rooney

Tren…

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The Peacock Detectives by Carly Nugent Wilam: A Birrarung Story by Aunty Joy Murphy, Andrew Kelly and Lisa Kennedy There’s Only One Mum Like You by Jess Racklyeft Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff 47 Degrees by Justin D'Ath Welcome to Country by Aunty Joy Murphy and Lisa Kennedy His Name Was Walter by Emily Rodda The Bad Guys #9: The Big Bad Wolf by Aaron Blabey Diary of An Awesome …

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Four emerging writers have been chosen as the Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists for 2019. Congratulations to Tom Lee, Jamie Marina Lau, Robbie Arnott and Ruby J. Murray!

Read on for more information on each of the excellent novelists featured.

Flames by Robbie Arnott

‘This is the kind of book that you’ll be able to read a second, third, even fourth time, and it will sti…

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For two days each year, the town of Clunes becomes home to the largest collection of new, second-hand, rare and out-of-print small-press publications and collectible books in Australia. Readings Kids shop manager Angela Crocombe shares her wrap-up of this year’s Clunes Booktown Festival, held last weekend.

Thank you to the delightful town of Clunes for hosting a wonderful Booktown Festival th…

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