It’s good news week…

Hello gleemailees,

Absolutely fabulous news that The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) has won the 2024 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award worth A$710,000. The global award is given annually to a person or organisation for their outstanding contribution to children’s and young adult literature, and is the largest award of its kind in the world.

Bookseller & Publisher quotes jury chair Boel Westin - ‘The importance of all people’s own languages and stories is the foundation for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation’s shining work among First Nations peoples in Australia. Their innovative activities, which build on respect, collaboration and sensitivity, are an inspiration for reading promotion work around the world.’

This really is wonderful. Our own David Gaunt was on the ILF board at its inception and booksellers and readers have done an enormous amount of fundraising over the years, including you, every time you pay $2 to have a book gift-wrapped.

In fact there is only one book in the Stella shortlist published by a mainstream publisher, Allen & Unwin’s Feast by Emily O’Grady (which I loved btw).  Australian writing and publishing is going strong - American publisher Simon & Schuster has just announced Summit, a new imprint for Australian fiction, to be helmed by Jane Palfreyman, longtime publisher at Allen & Unwin (and I guess, responsible for aforesaid Feast). Palfreyman’s move is a turn-up for the books, as we say in the trade!

I’ve been banging on for some years now about sustainability in the book trade, and the lack thereof, so I was thrilled to read about moves by HarperCollins in the US to save trees and reduce their carbon footprint. (I’m easily thrilled.) The idea of changing the font and layout of pages in Bibles was first tried by their religious publishing arm, saving 100 million pages of print in one year alone. HarperCollins then applied this to their general list, trying out a variety of fonts which would fit more words on the page, as well as new inks, both of which reduced costs enormously without sacrificing the aesthetic of the layout and design. Thousands of trees have been saved. I imagine other publishers are following suit and if not, why not?

I’m hosting some events now, so hope to see you in our glorious new shop.

Morgan

Freud's Last Session TICKET GIVEAWAY

We have 5 double passes to give away to Freud's Last Session (in cinemas 18th April).  To be in with a chance, email your postal address to competitions@gleebooks.com.au with 'Freud's Last Session' in the subject field. Only the lucky winners will be notified.