News

In this podcast, recorded at The Business of Being a Writer seminar, Fremantle Press publisher Cate Sutherland delves into the world of self-publishing with authors Wendy Binks and Annabel Smith, and IngramSpark senior manager Debbie Lee.

Stock up your classroom with some free activity sheets, door hangers, teaching notes and bookmarks. We’ve rounded up a selection of the latest.

Head down to the City of Perth Library from now until 18 October for an amazing exhibition by our children’s and YA authors. The exhibit will showcase the inspiration, draft notes and illustrations, artworks and more behind their books.

We were lucky to chat with dystopian aficionado Brendan Ritchie about his chapter in the newly released book Beyond the Dark: Dystopian Texts in the Secondary English Classroom (edited by Patricia Dowsett, Ellen Rees and Alex Wharton, and published by the Australian Association for the Teaching of English). Brendan is well positioned to discuss dystopian […]

When you want to find books by and about Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander Peoples for your classroom or library, which resources do you turn to? The NCACL has just launched a new database, which they hope will be invaluable to teachers in their search for the most appropriate materials to share with their […]

The importance of critical thinking has become a common discussion topic in the media in recent weeks. And teachers have long known critical thinking is the basis for progress in learning. In this article, writer, illustrator and former teacher Katie Stewart shows how to use her new picture book, What Colour is the Sea?, to […]

Storyathon for Kids Write a microstory that is exactly 100 words. This writing competition is open to children in years 3–8 during each school term. You can submit up to three stories for one competition, and you can enter all or just a few of the competitions run each year.

Kelly Canby’s new book, Littlelight, is already on the reprint list after COVID-19 led Fremantle Press to let our booksellers get the book earlier than its release date. In this e-interview, Kelly tells us more about the book and shares some recent news.

Congratulations to Helen Milroy, author of Backyard Birds and Katie Stewart, author of What Colour is the Sea? for being shortlisted for this year’s Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards.

The US edition of I Love Me, published by Andrews McMeel and written and illustrated by Sally Morgan and Ambelin Kwaymullina, has won a 2019 Silver Nautilus Book Award.

Dianne Wolfer and Elaine Forrestal are both well-loved and well-established writers who have published a shelfload of historical children’s fiction between them. Settle in for a great podcast as the pair go in-depth on their writing process, and share tips on how to research and write historical fiction.

Congratulations to Amanda Curtin, Caitlin Maling, Ellen van Neerven, Fiona Burrows, Helen Milroy, Holden Sheppard, Kathryn Lefroy, Meg McKinlay and Rafeif Ismail, whose wonderful work as writers has taken them a step closer to winning a $15,000 cash prize or a fellowship worth $60,000.

Just days before COVID-19 sent us all home, Josephine Taylor and Catherine Noske jumped into the studio with Fremantle Press for an episode of Love To Read Local Radio. The two friends are best known in Western Australia’s literary community as editors of the journal Westerly and as academics and mentors, but this episode provided […]

Would you like some free classroom activities, stickers or bookmarks? Here’s a selection of the latest.

Our authors are still out there running workshops and talking to classrooms online. Read on to find out what’s available in the coming weeks.

Father of the Lost Boys author and former child soldier Yuot A. Alaak says lived experiences have a lot to teach us. He says giving students the opportunity to enter the lives of refugee children in a war, but from a safe distance, can help build empathy and understanding. In this very special blog post, […]

Co-curated with Djed Press and edited by Rafeif Ismail and Ellen van Neerven, Unlimited Futures: Speculative, Visionary Blak+Black Fiction provides the chance for established and emerging First Nations writers and Black writers to share the stories they wish had existed when they were growing up. The project was announced on Saturday 20 June as part […]

This week is Men’s Health Week and we want to help shine a light on the importance of self-care with some shelf-care.

It’s Refugee Week and author of Father of the Lost Boys Yuot A. Alaak is celebrating by using the launch for his memoir to raise money for his new charitable foundation. Yuot has established the Ajang Alaak Foundation in his dad’s honour to help promote education, especially among vulnerable girls, both in Australia and in […]

Hello and welcome to June. You may have noticed we’ve got a picture at the bottom of our newsletter that lets you know we’re a not-for-profit publishing house. So what is not-for-profit publishing?

Recorded at Perth Festival’s Literature and Ideas Weekend, this podcast is a live recording of the seminar ‘A Day in the Life of Bestselling Authors and Booksellers’, hosted by Holden Sheppard, with guests Natasha Lester, Michael Earp, Allyce Cameron and Aisling Lawless.

Readings staff members have selected Holden Sheppard’s Invisible Boys for the shortlist of this year’s Readings Young Adult Book Prize. Established in 2016, the prize recognises exciting emerging voices in Australian young adult literature.

Goldfields Girl by Elaine Forrestal is a historical novel for middle readers featuring real-life nineteenth-century teenager Clara Saunders. In this blog post, Elaine takes us into the exciting, dusty, fly-ridden world of a gold rush.

In 2015, I was well and truly sick of my book. The History of Mischief had been lingering with me since 2006, and progress was slow. It was often left for months, only for me to return to it, tinker a bit, and then abandon it for another lengthy period of time. I needed something to […]