The Sharpe Report – 29 August 2025

• • 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