• Anthropic, an Ai company, will pay authors $1.5B to settle lawsuit over pirated chatbot training material.

• Khin Myint, author of Fragile Creatures: A Memoir,  has won the 2025 Maragaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award.

• The Australian Political Book of the Year Award 2025 shortlist has been announced:
  • The Chairman’s Lounge / Joe Aston
  • Mean Streak / Rick Morton
  • Näku Dhäruk: The Bark Petitions / Clare Wright
  • Nuked / Andrew Fowler

• The Queensland Literary Awards 2025 shortlist has been announced:
  • Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance: Australian Gospel: A Family Saga / Lech Blaine, Black Witness / Amy McQuire, Everything is Water / Simon Cleary, Warra Warra Wai / Darren Rix and Craig Cormick, Yanga Mother / Cheryl Leavy and Christopher Bassi
  • Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Awards: Alex Philip, Olivia J Bennett, Sean West, Svetlana Sterlin
  • The University of Queensland Nonfiction Book Award: Black Convicts / Santilla Chingapipe, Murriyang: Song of Time / Stan Grant, Näku Dhäruk: The Bark Petitions / Clare Wright, The Season / Helen Garner, Warra Warra Wai / Darren Rix and Craig Cormick
  • The University of Queensland Fiction Book Award: Nightingale / Laura Elvery, Rapture / Emily Maguire, Wild Dark Shore / Charlotte McConaghy, Little World / Josephine Rowe, Out of the Woods / Gretchen Shirm
  • Young Adult Book Award: Don’t Let the Forest In / CG Drews, Into the Mouth of the Wolf / Erin Gough, Liar’s Test / Ambelin Kwaymullina, My Brother, Finch / Kate Gordon, Return to Sender / Lauren Draper
  • Children’s Book Award: All the Beautiful Things / Katrina Nannestad, Little Bones / Sandy Bigna, Spirit of the Crocodile/ Aaron Fa’Aoso and Michelle Scott, Summer of Shipwrecks / Shivaun Plozza, Thunderhead / Sophie Beer
  • Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection: The Oblong Plot / Chris Andrews, Tintinnabulum / Judith Beveridge, Kangaroo Unbound / Luke Johnson, The Infant Vine / Isabella G Mead, Mixed Business / Alan Wearne
  • David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Writer: Eskos / Vika Mana, Finding Billy Brown / ES Crismani, Neurodiverging into [He]ARTS / BS Windon
  • Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer: The Burning Season / Karen Lee, Commonplaces / Gillian Hagenus, The Curse / Bronte Coates, Easy Living / Mindy Gill, The Lyrebirds / Dani Ringrose
  • The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award: Annette Kellerman, Australian Mermaid / Grantlee Kieza, Bina: First Nations Languages, Old and New / Gari Tudor-Smith et al, Black Convicts / Santilla Chingapipe, Dirrayawadha / Anita Heiss, Everything is Water / Simon Cleary, First Name Second Name / Steve MinOn, Nightingale / Laura Elvery, Red Dirt, Blue Lights / Tess Merlin

• The Davitt Awards 2025 winners have been announced:
  • Adult Novel: To the River / Vikki Wakefield
  • Nonfiction Book: The Lasting Harm / Lucia Osborne-Crowley
  • Young Adult Novel: Into the Mouth of the Wolf / Erin Gough
  • Children’s Novel: The Midwatch / Judith Rossell
  • Best Debut Book: What I Would Do to You / Georgia Harper
  • Kerry Greenwood Reader’s Choice: What Happened to Nina? / Dervla McTiernan

• The Queenstown Writers Festival program for 2025 has been announced.

• The NSW History Awards winners for 2025 have been announced:
  • Australian History Prize: Warra Warra Wai / Darren Rix and Craig Cormick
  • General History Prize: Vector: A Surprising Story of Space, Time, and Mathematical Transformation / Robyn Arianrhod
  • NSW Community and Regional History Prize: Yirranma Place: Stories of a Darlinghurst Corner / Alana Piper
  • Digital History Prize: One Mind, One Heart / Larissa Behrendt, Michaela Perske and Clare Wright
  • Young People’s History Prize: Our History: Bold Ben Hall / Sophie Masson
  • Anzac Memorial Trustees Military History Prize: Rock and Tempest: Surviving Cyclone Tracy and its Aftermath / Patricia Collins

• • The Northern Territory Literary Awards 2025 shortlist has been announced. You can read all about the awards and the winners HERE.
  • The BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival has announced the shortlist for 2025’s Danger Awards.
  • • Debut Crime Fiction: [http://What I Would Do to You (Georgia Harper, Vintage)]What I Would Do to You, Gus and the Missing Boy, A Town Called Treachery, All You Took From Me, The Crag
    • Crime Fiction: Shadow City, Sanctuary, Bone Lands, High Wire, Joy Moody Is Out Of Time, Highway 13, Pheassants Nest, The Dream, Girl Falling, Cutler
    • Crime Non-Fiction: In The Dead of Night, Black Witness, The Kingpin and the Crooked Cop, Dark City, The Outback Court Reporter
  • Readings has also announced the shortlist for the New Australian Fiction Prize for 2025.
    • The Confidence Woman, Edenhope, The Honeyeater, I Want Everything, Together We Fall Apart, Translations
  • The Ditmar subcommittee has announced the Ditmar Award ballot for works celebrating Australian science fiction.
  • • Best Novel: Blood Convenant, The Escher Man, Ghost Cities, The Medusa Situatuion, The Underhistory
    • Best Novella or Novelette: Cruel Nights, The Emporium, Ghost of the Neon God, Maleficium, Shattered, Wilder
    • Best Collected Work: Calavaria Fell, Kindling, Monsters in the Mills, Nightmare Logic
    • Best New Talent: Jeff Clulow, JJ Carpenter, KA Burgess, Sarah K Balstrup
  • An Indie Bookstore (First Chapter Bookstore) here in Adelaide has had someone steal thousands of dollars worth of books from their brick and mortar store. This person has stolen from a local business who supports local and international indie authors.
  • There is talks about Amazon changing their terms to allow Kindle Unlimited ebooks to be placed into libraries as well as just on the Amazon platform.

   

  Books in the Media

  National

  • Desolation/ Hossein Asgari (Fiction)
  • The Midnight Shift / Cheon Seon-Ran (Fiction)
  • No Dancing in the Lift / Mandy Sayer (Memoir)
  • Hailstones Fell Without Rain / Natalia Figueroa Barroso (Fiction)

   

  ACT

  • Blamey / Brent D Taylor (Miltary)
  • Die by the Sword / Tony Park (Fiction)
  • The Final Chapter / January Gilchrist (Fiction)
  • Gwyneth / Amy Odell (Biography)
  • Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories / Lee Child (Fiction)

   

  NSW

  • Be A Good Girl, Valerie / Marcia van Zeller (Fiction)
  • Borneo: The Last Campaign / Michael Veitch (Non-Fiction)
  • Conspiracy Nation / Ariel Bogle, Cam Wilson (Non-Fiction)
  • The Defector / Richard Kerbaj (History)
  • Dust / Michael Brissenden (Fiction)
  • Footy Country / Cory White (Photography)
  • Ghost of Myself / John Kinsella (Poetry)
  • The Golden Sister / Suzanne Do (Fiction)
  • Hollywood Vampires / Kelly Loundenberg, Maika Wholey (Non-Fiction)
  • The Island of Last Things / Emma Sloley (Fiction)
  • Lin-Manuel Miranda / Daniel Pollack-Pelzner (Biography)
  • The Midnight Estate / Kelly Rimmer (Fiction)
  • Nazi’s In Australia / Graham Blewitt, Mark Aarons (Non-Fiction)
  • Nobody’s Girl / Virginia Roberts (Memoir)
  • Prove It: A Scientific Guide for the Post-Truth Era / Elizabeh Finkel (Non-Fiction)
  • Ruins / Amy Taylor (Fiction)
  • If Russia Wins: A Scenario / Carlo Masala (Non-Fiction)
  • Saffron Incorporated / Stuart Coupe (True Crime)
  • The Sceptical Botanist: Separating Fact from Fiction / Tim Entwisle (Popular Science)
  • Sister Europe / Nell Zink (Humour)
  • Snake Talk / Tyson Yunkaporta, Megan Kelleher (Non-Fiction)
  • The Turning Protocol / Nick Croydon (Fiction)

   

  QLD + SA

  • Nobody’s Girl / Virginia Roberts (Memoir)
  • No Secrets / Graham Bidstrup (Memoir)

   

  TAS

  • Generation Connected / Dr Jo Orlando PhD (Family and Lifestyle)
  • The Golden Sister / Suzanne Do (Fiction)
  • My Sister and Other Lovers / Esther Freud (Fiction)
  • Stinkbug / Sinead Stubbins (Fiction)
  • The Vanedmonian: Wall Street and Silicon Valley Collide / Allan Charles Branch (Memoir)

   

  VIC

  • Be A Good Girl, Valerie / Marcia van Zeller (Fiction)
  • Borneo: The Last Campaign / Michael Veitch (Non-Fiction)
  • Conspiracy Nation / Ariel Bogle, Cam Wilson (Non-Fiction)
  • The Defector / Richard Kerbaj (History)
  • Dust / Michael Brissenden (Fiction)
  • Footy Country / Cory White (Photography)
  • Ghost of Myself / John Kinsella (Poetry)
  • The Golden Sister / Suzanne Do (Fiction)
  • Hollywood Vampires / Kelly Loundenberg, Maika Wholey (Non-Fiction)
  • The Island of Last Things / Emma Sloley (Fiction)
  • Lin-Manuel Miranda / Daniel Pollack-Pelzner (Biography)
  • The Midnight Estate / Kelly Rimmer (Fiction)
  • Nazi’s In Australia / Graham Blewitt, Mark Aarons (Non-Fiction)
  • Nobody’s Girl / Virginia Roberts (Memoir)
  • No Secrets / Graham Bidstrup (Memoir)
  • Prove It: A Scientific Guide for the Post-Truth Era / Elizabeh Finkel (Non-Fiction)
  • Ruins / Amy Taylor (Fiction)
  • If Russia Wins: A Scenario / Carlo Masala (Non-Fiction)
  • Saffron Incorporated / Stuart Coupe (True Crime)
  • The Sceptical Botanist: Separating Fact from Fiction / Tim Entwisle (Popular Science)
  • Sister Europe / Nell Zink (Humour)
  • Snake Talk / Tyson Yunkaporta, Megan Kelleher (Non-Fiction)
  • The Turning Protocol / Nick Croydon (Fiction)

   

Information gathered from own research as well as Books+Publishing, X, Publishers Weekly, Lady Whistlethreads