Bumper Book Nominations for this year’s Book Awards

More than 300 ABIA Book Award nominations have been submitted by authors and publishers across the country, indicating 2018 as a great year for producing quality Australian books.

The ABIA Book Award category with the most nominations is The Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year with 38 names now in the mix for the coveted award – last year won by Nevermoor author, Jessica Townsend. Thirty-four nominations have been submitted to the General Fiction category, which is ten more than last year, and the Illustrated Book category has received 31 nominations, also up on last year.

Three hundred and one (301) nominations were entered overall, across 12 book categories, including Biography Book of the Year, Literary Fiction Book of the Year and Small Publishers’ Book of the Year.

Chief Executive of the Australian Publishers Association Michael Gordon-Smith, on behalf of the ABIA committee, says these are great numbers for sturdy competition.

“These awards are about excellence in publishing and recognise the success that can be achieved through the crucial partnerships between authors and publishers.

“It’s exciting to have such a high level of competition, and to see the large number of fresh voices entered for the Matt Richell New Writer Award. It’s a sign of the level of energy across the whole industry, which is good news for Australian conversations and cultural life.”

The ABIA Academy will shortly start reviewing all the nominations and the longlist will be announced on the 7th of March.

The ABIA Business Awards are now open. Bookshops, publishers and industry Rising Stars can be nominated until 5pm on Tuesday 19 March 2019.

The ABIAs celebrate books published in 2018 and this year’s awards event will be held at the ICC in Sydney on Thursday 2 May.

The ABIA shortlist will be announced on 11 April 2019 along with the winner of the Rising Star, Lloyd O’Neil and Pixie O’Harris awards.

Nominate in the ABIA Business Awards here.