Awards news with Alice Lewinsky at Text Publishing

The Australian Book Industry Awards have named Magda Szubanski’s Reckoning the Biography of the Year and outright Book of the Year for 2016. Elena Ferrante’s The Story of the Lost Child won the Reader’s Choice Award for International Book of the Year. The ABIAs recognise publishers’ work in editing, design, production, marketing, publicity and sales, as well as author achievement. Stephen Daisley was named winner of New Zealand’s richest writing prize, the inaugural Acorn Foundation Literary Award, for his novel Coming Rain, at the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. The NSW Premier’s Literary Awards have honoured two Text authors: Sonia Dechian’s An Astronaut’s Life won the 2016 UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing and Magda Szubanski’s Reckoning won the 2016 Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction.  The 2016 CBCA Shortlist was recently announced, with a number of Text titles among the shortlistees. Vikki Wakefield’s Inbetween Days was shortlisted in the Older Readers category; Martine Murray’s Molly and Pim and the Millions of Stars was shortlisted for the Younger Readers prize; and We Are the Rebels by Clare Wright was shortlisted for the Eva Pownall Award for Information Books. Magda Szubanski’s Reckoning was also recently awarded the 2016 Nielsen BookData Booksellers Choice Award. The prize celebrates the titles that booksellers most enjoyed recommending to their customers in 2015. Senior Editor Penny Hueston has been awarded a UK PEN Translates award for her translation of Sarah Cohen-Scali’s Max. Books are selected on the basis of outstanding literary quality, strength and innovation of the publishing project, and contribution to literary diversity in the UK. Hueston translated the work from its original French to English. Max is published by Walker Books in the UK. Overseas, Lori Roy won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Novel for Let Me Die in His Footsteps. Presented by the Mystery Writers of America, the Edgar Allan Poe Awards honour the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television.