News

In the first decade of the twentieth century, the Alice Mitchell murder trial gripped the city of Perth and the Australian nation. Stella Budrikis’s book, The Edward Street Baby Farm, retraces this infamous tragedy – a tragedy that ultimately led to legislative changes in order to better protect children’s welfare. In this interview, Fremantle Press […]

The Royal Western Australian Historical Society has awarded the Williams / Lee Steere Publications Prize to Dylan Hyde for his book, Art Was Their Weapon: The History of the Perth Workers’ Art Guild. Hyde wins a $1,000 cash prize and the official presentation took place at the Society’s annual general meeting on Wednesday 16 September.

Sharron Booth, Joanna Morrison and Maria Papas are in the running for $15,000 in prize money from the City of Fremantle and a publishing contract with Fremantle Press. All three Western Australian writers are shortlisted for the 2020 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award, which is now in its thirtieth year.

Rebecca Higgie won the inaugural Fogarty Literary Award for her manuscript The History of Mischief back in 2019 at a special ceremony at the ECU Spiegeltent. Chosen from a field of 64 manuscripts by Western Australian writers aged 18 to 35, Higgie won a $20,000 cash prize from the Fogarty Foundation and secured a publishing […]

True West by David Whish-Wilson and River of Salt by Dave Warner are in the running for Australia’s most prestigious crime writing award. Run by the Australian Crime Writers Association since 1995, the Ned Kelly Awards are dedicated to promoting the best crime writing this country has to offer.

Small Steps: A Physio in Ethiopia by Julie Sprigg will be launched by fellow Fremantle Press non-fiction writer Anne-Louise Willoughby at 6.30 pm on Thursday 10 September at the Balmoral Hotel. Supported by Crow Books, Julie, who is based in Victoria Park, will use the event as an opportunity to raise money for the not-for-profit […]

In this interview Rebecca talks about the histories behind the history and how these might be used to stimulate classroom discussions, research and writing activities.

Aussie director Nicholas Verso and producer Tania Chambers optioned the film and television rights to Holden Sheppard’s YA novel Invisible Boys this week. Invisible Boys has already won the 2018 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award, the 2019 Kathleen Mitchell Award and the 2019 Western Australian Premier’s Award for an Emerging Writer, and was shortlisted for […]

Hello and welcome to August. What a month it’s been! Congratulations to our Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards winners and shortlisted authors: Fiona Burrows, Amanda Curtin, Rafeif Ismail, Kathryn Lefroy, Caitlin Maling, Meg McKinlay, Helen Milroy, Holden Sheppard and Ellen van Neerven. We are so proud of you all.

I met a bloke last week who said his father died 20 years ago and he had never got over it. My father died in 2002 and I can still hear him telling me how to remove the ceiling fan in the bathroom. I’d done it a couple of times before and I was over […]

Young adult novelist Holden Sheppard was one of four Fremantle Press authors to be acknowledged in the 2019 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards ceremony at the State Library of Western Australia on Friday 7 August 2020. Holden took home the The Premier’s Prize for an Emerging Writer worth $15,000 for his debut novel, Invisible Boys.

We’re celebrating 30 years of the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award this year by bringing together Jay Martin, author of Vodka and Apple Juice: Travels of an Undiplomatic Wife in Poland, and Julie Sprigg, author of Small Steps: A Physio in Ethiopia. Jay won the Award in 2016 and Julie was shortlisted for it in […]

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.