Just a reminder: we're an excellent list of your articles (provided they're within our scope!). Check your record on AustLit! (And email us if we missed something. We love that!*) *not sarcasm. We do!

Register now for Indigenous Literacy Day and learn more at ILF.org.au/ild @austlit.bsky.social #ild2025 #indigenousliteracyday #readingopensdoors #mobsky

Famously, between the first and the second act of Waiting for Godot, the only difference in the stage set is that a previously bare tree ‘has four or five leaves’. So what’s the main note to self I found in this copy which seems to have belonged to a stage manager called Nigel...?

Favourite cover of the day: Krystal Sutherland is usually treated well by her cover artists, but wow do we especially love this Spanish edition of The Invocations.

Lists are subjective, but there's a few in this one that are my faves too. Esp love Samuel Wagan Watson's SMOKE ENCRYPTED WHISPERS! "Australian Poetry Month: 10 essential Australian collections that will change how you read" www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Congratulations to all those longlisted for the 2025 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award. It's very special to be on the list alongside so many extraordinary authors, including my own Bundyi author, Tasma Walton. @austlit.bsky.social #dirrayawadha #riseup #nibliteraryaward #longlist

Today's favourite book cover: this absolute stunner from Nicolas Rothwell and Alison Nampitjinpa Anderson. Just published!

Please join Amy Barry, Stacey McEwan, Steffanie Holmes and me for some ROMANCE WRITING REVELRY at Fullers Bookshop, Hobart on August 25. It’s going to be a blast! Tix on sale now: www.fullersbookshop.com.au/event/romanc... @austlit.bsky.social #romance #romancewriting #blueskybooks #booksky

Coming soon: a *free* two-day in-person symposium on Imaginative Literature for Children and Beyond: Australia, Japan, and the World. Author talks, translation workshops, and more. There are QR codes in the poster below, or check the link to register: languages-cultures.uq.edu.au/event/11005/...

New on AustLit: a new BlackWords information trail drawing on the ATSIS Unit at UQ's Music & Language pilot program on the role of music in language reclamation. Explore at: www.austlit.edu.au/musicandlang... This trail was developed by AustLit intern Clare Glassock, as were these lovely tiles!

Elevate: First Nations Storytelling and Literature Fund $10,000 grant for career development, open to Australian First Nations writers, poets, editors, illustrators, journalists, arts workers, and groups in the literature sector. creative.gov.au/investments-...

First Nations writers! Have you seen Magabala Books' callout for a First Nations romance anthology? Edited by BlackWords Coordinator Melanie Saward, Ambelin Kwaymullina, and Kate Cuthbert. Details below. Submissions due by 31 October 2025. magabala.com.au/blogs/news/s...

Proud to be a contributor to Rivers Flow: Reflections on the songs of Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter Edited by Kim Scott & Casey Mulder. Published by Fremantle Press, with book club notes. Released this coming October. You can pre-order now fremantlepress.com.au/books/rivers... @austlit.bsky.social

It's launch day for these two deadly titles! 🤩 🖤 'Cloudmaker' by Helen Milroy 🖤 'Old Days Imanka nurna laakinha nitjaarta' by Marjorie ‘Nunga’ Williams Congrats to both 📚

NAIDOC spotlight: the most recent work added to BlackWords is Mitch Tambo's forthcoming picture book (pub. Sept. 2025), I Am Me, which was indexed yesterday morning.

We witnessed the line dancing at the UQ launch, so we are here to endorse that there will definitely be line dancing!

New for NAIDOC Week: a BlackWords information trail exploring strength (and sharing culture), vision (in looking forward), and legacy (when looking back). This trail was compiled by current winter scholar Clare Glassock, who also created these lovely slides. www.austlit.edu.au/naidoc2025

NAIDOC spotlight: young-adult fantasy and speculative fiction from First Nations authors. One of our favourite genres--and one which is incredibly rich and rewarding right now! These are the merest sampling: check BlackWords for more.

Yes, and they’re incredible.

This is tomorrow! Wednesday. And we'd love you to join us as we talk First Nations storytelling and publishing and Tasma's breathtaking novel I AM NANNERTGARROOK. It's online and free! With thanks to the Australian Society of Authors.

NAIDOC spotlight: have you checked out Comics on Country? Includes the Indigiverse (Dark Heart and Dreamwalker), but also much much more. comics.org.au

Happy NAIDOC Week! BlackWords, AustLit's single biggest dataset and one of its foundational datasets, records works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors. It has been developed and maintained for over two decades, and is at the heart of the database. www.austlit.edu.au/blackwords

Don’t miss Qld’s first Indigenous barrister Joshua Creamer’s UQ #NAIDOC Public Lecture, Wed 9 July ‘How do we embrace the future when we can’t acknowledge the past?’ as he shares his journey in truth-telling & healing. Available in person or online at www.eventbrite.com/e/uq-naidoc-... #NAIDOC2025

NAIDOC Week is nearly here! We'll be launching a new BlackWords trail around this year's NAIDOC theme: The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy. And remember to check for other ways you can mark the occasion, such as Readings' 20% (!!) off Magabala titles: www.readings.com.au/collections/...

IBBY-UNESCO Collection of Remarkable Books in Indigenous and Endangered Languages is calling for nominations for books for young readers in an Indigenous and/or endangered language. We would very much like to see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors represented! www.ibby.org/awards-activ...

The deadline for this has been extended until 14th of July! An excellent writing challenge for Queenslanders (or people who just like Queensland).

Please join me at Avid Reader Bookshop on July 10 for Murri Trivia Night raising $ for the The Indigenous Literacy Foundation. It's always so much fun! And you don't need a team, we can put you in one on the night. avidreader.com.au/pages/11901-...

A very interesting (and commendable that they share it in this way) behind-the-scenes discussion among B&P staff about their dilemma when reporting on last month's Commonwealth Story Prize winning entry for the OZ region www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/202...

Remembering our national heroes, Yarri and Jacky Jacky - who saved an estimated 59 lives in the Great Flood of Gundagai, 1852. Their bravery inspired my novel BILA YARRUDHANGGALANGDHURAY www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Bila-Y... & kids' book BIDHI GALING www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Bidhi-...

I love it! Art by Lindsey Carr, design by Christine Foltzer

Indigenising the curriculum-Prof Bunda is an educator & thought leader w/ decades of experience in the education system at all levels. Her groundbreaking work in Indigenising curricula is transforming how knowledge is taught, proving that when Aboriginal women lead, entire institutions can change.

One of our favourite covers of the year. Look at it! It's magnificent. And creepy. Magnificently creepy.

Please join me as I speak with Nicole Abadee about truth-telling in fiction. Thurs 24 July 6pm–7pm. Museum of Sydney Before the talk, attendees are invited to a private viewing of the Seeing Sydney, Knowing Country exhibition between 5pm and 5.45pm. #truthtelling #firstnationsliterature

The Festival of Fiction is back – bigger and better than ever, and thrilled to be part of it. Two theatres, two massive days, 70 authors talking books – it’s going to be big! Saturday 18 October and Sunday 19 October 2025 at Edith Cowan University festivaloffiction.com.au @austlit.bsky.social

Tasma Walton explores a tragic family story in her new novel, I Am Nannertgarrook @austlit.bsky.social @abcnewsnetau.bsky.social

But make them Australian. We'll help!

Well, this looks absolutely incredible. Also did we mention FREE?

Vale to Aotearoa New Zealand writer Maurice Gee (1931–2025), and solidarity to anyone who was ever completely terrified by one of his books as a child, especially The Halfmen of O.

It's still Pride Month, so if you've explored all the young-adult fiction we shared last time, why not consider some memoirs or biographies? As always, this is only a small sampling of the rich variety of works available: explore AustLit for more!

CULTURE IS LIFE: NAIDOC Education Resources are now live! cultureislife.org/education/re...

Only TWO WEEKS to go till submissions close for the Bundyi Writing Prize! We are on the lookout for creative, compelling and original works of adult fiction that celebrate First Nations voices. $10k prize + 12 months mentoring with a First Nations editor www.simonandschuster.com.au/p/BundyiAUPr...

Bonus! This is also extremely helpful for your friendly neighbourhood national bio-bibliographical database of Australian storytelling.

The real advantage of setting your novel in Australia: no one will blink at the inclusion of a blonde Wayne.* Follow us for more hot tips about Australian stories. *plus you get an AustLit record, of course.

Would you include Larissa Behrendt's After Story? And The Fethafoot Chronicles by Pemulwuy Weeatunga?

New from AustLit intern Jemma Cumpstay: a BlackWords trail on First Nations adaptations of the Western canon, from fairytales and Shakespeare to a groundbreaking Bundjalung adaptation of Waiting for Godot. www.austlit.edu.au/blackwordsad...

This survey closes tomorrow! These questions are really embedded in the hope that bibliography, which has a traditionally homogenous outlook on data, can be more open to data heterogeneity while still driving the search results people expect--so the more responses we have, the happer we will be!

Oh look, it's an AustLit baby photo! Okay, this isn't us. But we did start life as a card catalogue, back in the 1970s. And now look at us: all grown up.

Happy Pride Month! This is only a small (very small--and it was a struggle keeping the numbers this low!) of young-adult novels with LGBTQIA+ themes or characters: why not explore further this month? Because representation really does matter.

To quote @nnedi.bsky.social's post on the subject, Africanfuturism will tend to naturally have mystical elements. Most African SF includes/respects the mystical. And yet here I am, still seeing (multiple) reviews of Africanfuturist stories in 2025 by prolific critics, complaining about mysticism?

We are reviewing our policy for indexing gender to be more inclusive of sex & gender diversity. To help, a UQ student is researching how authors want bio-bibliographical data presented. Survey below! Research is confidential & only de-identified findings shared with us. forms.gle/GTPopqceXxAB...