We all want more time for reading, so who wouldn’t want their very own ‘do not disturb’ sign for the bedroom door? Our free one is very special!

We’re delighted to report that recognition for Fremantle Press books has been strong this month, with four titles making the award lists (as modelled here by Children’s Publisher Cate Sutherland).

Throughout the 1930s May Holman was a household name and an inspiration to the women of her generation. She made history in 1925 when, at age thirty-one, she became Australia’s first female Labor parliamentarian, holding the seat of Forrest until her untimely death on the eve of the 1939 elections. Thousands lined the streets for […]

Bella and the Wandering House by Meg McKinlay is a finalist in the Children’s fiction category of the 2015 Aurealis Awards. Picked from a field of some 750 entries across 15 categories, McKinlay’s book for junior readers is competing against her other 2015 release: A Single Stone.

We All Sleep by Ezekiel Kwaymullina will be read aloud on a new episode of Play School for ABC Children’s TV to air later this year.

Representation matters, including in picture book illustrations. Perhaps especially in illustrations, because children are fluent in the language of art in a way that most adults are not. There is no aspect of an illustration that escapes the attention of a child, and this means that to create art for children is to speak to an audience more attuned to the nuances of representation than yourself. This is one of the reasons why the misrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in illustration – or the misrepresentation of other diverse peoples, for that matter – should never be dismissed as being ‘only a picture book’.

Poet Dennis Haskell is set to launch his eighth and most personal collection of poetry to date, Ahead of Us. Written in memory of his late wife, Rhonda, the book will raise much needed funds for the Cancer Council WA.

Submissions for the 2016 City of Fremantle T.A.G. Hungerford Award are open. Western Australia’s longest running and most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript offers a cash prize of $12,000 from the City of Fremantle and a publishing contract with Fremantle Press.

Fremantle Press authors Jen Banyard and Deb Fitzpatrick have both been shortlisted for a 2016 West Australian Young Readers’ Book Award.

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Winners!

Congratulations to Alicia Lilly of Bannister Creek Primary School who has won a date with Meg McKinlay for her school in 2016.

Sally Morgan’s new book, Sister Heart, was shortlisted for a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award today. Poignantly written from the child’s perspective, Sister Heart tells the story of a young Aboriginal girl’s experience as part of the Stolen Generations.

WA kids say Viking creators are number one Norman Jorgensen and James Foley’s The Last Viking Returns has won the Hoffman Award, an award given to the highest ranked creators in the West Australian Young Readers’ Book Awards. This is the third win for Jorgensen and the second for Foley.

Caitlin Maling has won the Dorothy Hewett Flagship Fellowship for her forthcoming poetry collection Us Girls. The fellowship is awarded for poetry of outstanding quality, in memory of Dorothy Hewett – a poet also published by Fremantle Press.

We are thrilled that Paisiello Pictures in California have optioned the film rights to Liz Byrski’s In Love and War.

Peacock Visuals has created a book trailer for Can a skeleton have an x-ray? by Kyle Hughes-Odgers.

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Vale Ian Templeman

Fremantle Press extends its deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Ian Templeman, who passed away yesterday. Along with the late Terry Owen, Fremantle Press owes its existence to Ian’s vision for an independent publishing house that would provide greater publication opportunities for writers living and working in Western Australia.

Proceeds from the sale of Dust by Daniel ‘Matsu’ Craig will help raise money for a local pay-it-forward program in Fremantle. The book launch will take place at Hot Soup on Wednesday 11 November 2015.

Albany branch members of the War Widows’ Guild of Australia will join Melinda Tognini for the Denmark launch of Many Hearts, One Voice: The story of the War Widows’ Guild in Western Australia at Teahouse Books on Monday 16 November.

Melinda Tognini’s book Many Hearts, One Voice: The story of the War Widows’ Guild in Western Australia will be launched with help from the organisation that inspired it.

Kate McCaffrey has won her second Australian Family Therapists’ Award for Children’s Literature for her latest novel, Crashing Down.

Alan Carter’s success in Germany continues. Last week we were delighted to hear from our European publishing friends that Edition Nautilus had sold the pocketbook rights for Alan Carter’s Prime Cut to Droemer Knaur, one of Germany’s biggest publishers.

Perth-born musician and Before It Breaks author Dave Warner has been named a Western Australian State Living Treasure.

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Vale Terry Owen

Fremantle Press extends its deepest sympathy to the family, friends and colleagues of Teresa (Terry) Owen, the founding manager of Fremantle Press, who died in Perth last week.