Read Alert

It’s INKY WEEK!
Please join us for the launch of the 2008 Inky Awards.
Featuring:

2007 Golden Inky Winner Simmone Howell
2007 Silver Inky Winner John Green (via YouTube)
the official 2008 Longlist Announcement
the launch of the Inkys Creative Reading Prize
really, really special cake.

Young people are welcome to stay for a free writing workshop after the launch.
Friday 1 August, 11am
Experimedia, [...]

Here is JK Rowling’s commencement speech at Harvard.
And here is a website where some angry authors and book-people are railing against a UK plan to put age banding on all children’s books…
…and here is an article that has some very feisty commenting on the issue - both pro and con.
Happy Friday!

Randa Abdel-Fattah is among the panel tonight on ABC1’s Q&A. Q&A is the program where you can ask the questions. Go to the program website, register and send it in your questions. Other panellists include Crikey founder Stephen Mayne and Tony Burke, (opposition spokesman on immigration prior to becoming the now federal minister for Agriculture, [...]

A biting southerly wind drags the leaves from the plane trees on LaTrobe Street. Current Melbourne temperature: 12C.
So how happy am I to receive an invitation to attend a book launch in Darwin next Friday? To be reminded that there are people in Australia right now strolling about in t-shirts and sandals. Who are not [...]

Morris Gleitzman marks the publication of Then, a companion novel to Once, with a special in-conversation event at the Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre Elsternwick, next Tuesday, 3 June.
The event is from 4.30pm for 5.00 start, winding up at 6.30.
You can reserve seats by phoninng (03) 9811 2416 or email rsvp@au.penguingroup.com
Then continues the story [...]

It’s another strong line-up for this year’s Guardian fiction prize for children, announced at the Hay-on-Wye Festival this week. Highlights include Before I Die by Jenny Downham, The Bog Child by the late Siobahn Dowd and Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce.

Jenny Valentine, the author of the wonderful Finding Violet Park is one of this [...]

Woodend is famous for many things*, not least that in winter it can be seriously cold. Thankfully, the Woodend Winter Arts Festival has a lively program of events. Elizabeth Honey is at Woodend Library on Saturday 7 June at 10.30am (free).
Later that day Rod Quantock leads the Scotch College Orchestra through the forests of [...]

Go, James Roy! Winner of the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award (Ethel Turner Prize) for Town, his crafty collection of short stories.

In March, James made Lili’s Clayton’s shortlist; now he’s taken it all the way to Sydney.
This SMH story goes big on Li Cunxin’s The Peasant Prince (adaptation of Mao’s Last Dancer, illustrated by [...]

This is a surprisingly sensible article from Newsweek about YA. Nothing you haven’t heard before, but nice to read.
The Boys, Blokes and Books blog is back! And there’s a copy of the new Andy Griffiths book to be won - just tell us your best Pirate Joke.
SPEAKING of blogs, UK author Jenny Valentine (winner of [...]

If you were lucky enough to see the Spare Parts adaptation of Shaun Tan’s The Arrival, you will know what an exceptional artist Shaun is. Shaun Tan’s new book, Tales From Outer Suburbia is out in June and we’re delighted to welcome back this outstanding illustrator.

Shaun Tan will be in conversation with Melbourne poet and [...]