News and Events - Scribe Publications

Sufficient Grace shortlisted for the 2013 Warwick Prize for Writing

2013-09-02T00:00:00Z

We are delighted to announce that Amy Espeseth’s Sufficient Grace has been shortlisted for the 2013 Warwick Prize. The winner will be announced on 24 September 2013, and you can see the full shortlist here.

The prize is unique: an international, cross-disciplinary award that is open to substantial pieces of writing in the English language, in any genre or form. Judge Ian Sansom commented that ‘the shortlist exemplifies the inclusive approach to the appreciation of literature that the Warwick Prize for Writing was established to promote.”

Ross McMullin wins 2013 Prime Minister's Literary Award

2013-08-15T00:00:00Z

We are delighted to report that Ross McMullin’s Farewell, Dear People has won the history division of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. Inaugurated in 2008, the Awards recognise individual excellence and the contribution Australian authors make to the nation’s cultural and intellectual life. The full list of winners can be seen here, and more information about the Awards here.

Katherine Boo wins 2013 PEN Literary Award

2013-08-15T00:00:00Z

Congratulations to Katherine Boo, whose stunning work of narrative nonfiction, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, has just been awarded the 2013 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award. The prize is given to the author of a ‘distinguished book of general nonfiction possessing notable literary merit and critical perspective and illuminating important contemporary issues’.

The runner-up was Donovan Hohn’s Moby Duck, which we published in August 2011. More information, and a list of all the winners, can be seen here.

The Holiday Murders shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Awards

2013-08-05T00:00:00Z

Congratulations to Robert Gott, whose book The Holiday Murders has been shortlisted for Best Fiction in the 2013 Ned Kelly Awards. The winner will be announced at the Brisbane Writers Festival in September.

Entries open for The Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers

2013-07-20T00:00:00Z

We are very excited to tell you that entries are now open for the inaugural Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers. This developmental award is open to writers aged 30 or under, who are working on a longform work in any nonfiction genre: memoir, journalism, essay, biography, and creative nonfiction.

The winner will receive:

a cash prize of $1,500
a meeting with an editor or a publisher at Scribe
up to 10 hours of editorial time to work on developing the piece to Scribe’s publication standard OR to work on developing it into a book-length project
a 12-month book subscription to Scribe, consisting of one new-release nonfiction title a month.

Entries must be between 5,000 and 10,000 words — the entry form and conditions are available here. Entries close on October 11 — good luck!

The Davitt Award and Ned Kelly Awards Longlists

2013-07-11T00:00:00Z

A host of Scribe books have been recognised in the first rounds of two Australian awards for crime writing. Both Sufficient Grace by Amy Espeseth and Running Dogs by Ruby J Murray have been longlisted for the Davitt Award for the best crime books by Australian women, and Sufficient Grace is also on the longlist for the Ned Kelly Awards in the Best First Fiction category. The Holiday Murders by Robert Gott is also in the running for the Ned Kelly Awards, and Mike Richards’s Wakool Crossing has been recognised in the True Crime category.

The Encore Award 2012 shortlist

2013-07-08T00:00:00Z

Little People by Jane Sullivan has made the shortlist for this year’s Encore Award for a second novel. The judges say their choices reflect ‘the most ambitiously conceived and impressively executed second novels of the year’. Other books on the shortlist include Mateship with Birds by Carrie Tiffany, The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman, and What The Family Needed by Steven Amsterdam.

Scribe announces the Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers

2013-07-01T00:00:00Z

We’re delighted to announce, in partnership with Express Media, a new award for writers 30 or under — the Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers. This exciting award has been established to foster talented young writers and their work — in addition to a cash prize of $1,500, the winner receives a meeting with a publisher or an editor, and up to 10 hours of editorial time.

The prize is open to writers who are working on a longform or book-length work, in any nonfiction genre — entries must be between 5,000 and 10,000 words.

Scribe’s founder and publisher, Henry Rosenbloom, said, ‘We see this as a natural extension of our longstanding commitment to serious nonfiction, and we’re delighted to be partnering in it with Express Media, who have an admirable record of fostering young writers.’

Entries open on 20 July — you can find out more about the prize, and download an entry form, here.

Gillard/Rudd

2013-06-27T00:00:00Z

Those of you who follow cricket will have noticed that we’re obviously a nation that puts a lot of store on careful, planned, and well-thought-out transfers of power.

And if, by any chance, you follow Australian politics, you’ll have noticed the same thing with the defenestration of Julia Gillard as our prime minister.

Where do I start in accounting for this?

With Tony Abbott, the leader of the opposition, who waged a vicious, relentless, no-holds-barred, unprincipled campaign against the legitimacy of a minority government, and the authority of the prime minister in that government, despite having sought to be anointed as the head of a minority government himself?

With the media in general, and Rupert Murdoch’s minions in particular, who waged a similar campaign, laying siege to Prime Minister Gillard and the Labor government from day one — finding fault with every policy, exaggerating every shortcoming, boosting Kevin Rudd and his treacherous supporters at every opportunity?

With Kevin Rudd, who never accepted his colleagues’ rejection of him, who never stopped sabotaging and conspiring against Gillard’s leadership, who was prepared to see the government brought down rather than abandon his insatiable ambitions?

With Julia Gillard, who was the victim of a vicious, outrageous, rolling misogynistic campaign by shock-jocks and many men around the country, who had to negotiate a hung parliament for three years, who had to battle against an opposition that tried to create a continuous sense of crisis and the leader she’d supplanted who did everything he could to create one — and yet managed to enact a series of major reforms in the classic Labor tradition?

With the country itself, which despaired of the way that national politics had descended into personal vituperation and empty sloganeering — instigated and pursued by the opposition — but which refused to give Gillard the credit she deserved?

It’s true, of course, that none of the above could have had the effect it did if Gillard had not demonstrated serious flaws of her own. Her judgement was sometimes wrong, and she often had difficulty in communicating the essence of her policies crisply and well. Although she was a superb negotiator, she was not a deep thinker, and was sometimes superficial and wrong-headed in her political actions. But if former Australian prime ministers were to be judged by those standards, they wouldn’t last long in anyone’s estimation. Gough Whitlam had spectacularly bad judgement (the highlight of which was his personal appointment as governor-general of a dreadful individual and class traitor who went on to dismiss him and his government). Paul Keating could never resist an opportunity to put his foot in his mouth. And the most recent Liberal prime minister, John Howard, made a series of tremendous mistakes, culminating in his attack on workplace security that ultimately cost him power and his own seat. Howard was wrong about key issues (such as the invasion of Iraq), and at one stage abandoned all political principles to save his own neck. His reputation does not appear to have suffered, despite all these egregious faults.

In the end, the opinion polls despatched Julia Gillard and seemed to validate the various campaigns against her leadership. Labor was facing a wipe-out at the general election, and it was too much to expect the parliamentary party to walk willingly into this nightmare.

When the left-of-centre Melbourne Age editorialised for Gillard to step aside last Saturday, the jig was clearly up. That didn’t stop it, of course, from behaving mendaciously when it got what it wanted: it greeted Rudd’s re-ascendancy with the front-page headline, ‘Rudd’s Revenge’. How that’s for having your cake and eating it, too? With bad-faith behaviour like this, the Age deserves to disappear beneath the waters of Port Phillip Bay.

Speaking purely for myself, I would have far preferred Labor to have campaigned with Julia Gillard at its head, and to lose honourably. That way, the government would have maintained its integrity, the party would have demonstrated its loyalty, and Kevin Rudd would have been despatched forever.

I say this, believing the party under Kevin Rudd’s leadership will lose far fewer seats at the election than it would have. Tony Abbott is a deeply unpopular leader of the opposition (deservedly so, in my opinion), and if Rudd’s re-emergence leads to Labor being competitive in opinion polls, it may even force the Liberals to consider their own form of emergency surgery. Come on down, Malcolm Turnbull.

Ultimately, I don’t believe that bad behaviour should be rewarded, and I don’t believe that Rudd redux would behave any better than he did the first time around. If Kevin Rudd were to win (which I still think is highly unlikely), he would become Australia’s Tony Blair, appealing to the public above his party, and traducing Labor values in the process. And we all know how that ended.

Henry Rosenbloom

Sufficient Grace longlisted for the 2013 Warwick Prize

2013-06-20T00:00:00Z

Sufficient Grace, by Amy Espeseth, has been longlisted for the prestigious Warwick Prize. This biennial prize, run by the University of Warwick, is unique as an international, cross-disciplinary award open to substantial pieces of writing in the English language, in any genre or form. The full longlist can be seen here.

Farewell, Dear People shortlisted for 2013 Prime Minister's Literary Awards

2013-06-19T00:00:00Z

Ross McMullin’s Farewell, Dear People, has been shortlisted in the history division of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. Inaugurated in 2008, the Awards recognise individual excellence and the contribution Australian authors make to the nation’s cultural and intellectual life. The full shortlists can be seen here.

The Kibble Award Shortlist

2013-06-05T00:00:00Z

Cate Kennedy’s Like A House On Fire has been shortlisted for the Nita B Kibble Award 2013. The Awards recognise the works of women writers of fiction or non-fiction classified as ‘life writing’. The full shortlist can be seen here.

John Button Prize 2013 Longlist Announced

2013-05-30T00:00:00Z

Money Shot by Jeff Sparrow has made the longlist for the John Button Prize 2013. Established in memory of John Button, the late Industry Minister, Senator and writer, the prize recognises excellence in writing on Australian public policy and politics, and will be awarded at the Melbourne Writers Festival in August.

Sufficient Grace wins Best Designed Literary Fiction Book at the APA Book Design Awards

2013-05-24T00:00:00Z

The lovely Sufficient Grace has won Best Designed Literary Fiction Book at this year’s Australian Publishers' Association Book Design Awards. The cover is by Scribe’s Art Director Miriam Rosenbloom and book designer and illustrator Allison Colpoys. The award is shared with W. H. Chong’s work on The Voyage.

A note from the publisher on launching Scribe UK

2013-05-21T00:00:00Z

The launch of Scribe’s UK website marks an important development in the company’s history. It signals Scribe’s expansion overseas, at a time when the book industry is under great pressure in much of the world. As such, it is a mark of confidence in the future of the book itself, as well as in our staff’s editorial judgements.

Reflected on the site is an array of books to be published in the UK for the first time, along with a backlist of titles that have never been made available in this country before. All of the books represent what I might call Scribe’s sensibility — a dedication to books that matter, whether fiction or non-fiction, and the pursuit of excellence in the development and presentation of our list.

We believe that books are vital to the health of any civilisation, and that good books don’t appear by accident — their authors have to be nurtured, and their works have to be attended to fastidiously, and then championed. Ultimately, good books depend on good publishers, both using a range of high-level skills, in the service of the wider society.

We hope to demonstrate, with this list and this website, that we have joined that cohort in the UK.

Henry Rosenbloom

The DSM and The Book of Woe

2013-05-15T00:00:00Z

The media is already abuzz with news of both the forthcoming new edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and Gary Greenberg’s The Book of Woe, a brilliant investigation of everything that’s wrong with it.

Considered the bible of modern psychiatry, the DSM is used to classify and diagnose mental illnesses. But it’s now coming under fire from professional bodies who say that they will not be supporting its use, from the National Institute of Mental Health, who say ‘Patients with mental disorders deserve better’ to the British Psychological Society.

In The Book of Woe, practicing psychotherapist Gary Greenberg takes this critique further, arguing that the DSM is dangerously unscientific, all too vulnerable to social and historic forces, and increasingly defined by market values.

The Book of Woe is already receiving rave reviews overseas, and the Australian edition is now available to pre-order or buy – for more information see here.

The Detour wins the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

2013-05-14T00:00:00Z

Gerbrand Bakker’s The Detour has won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2013. The Independent’s literary editor and judge of the prize Boyd Tonkin said the novel was “swift-moving and apparently straightforward, but with mysterious hidden depths”. The prize is shared with translator David Colmer. More information here. In 2010, Bakker won the International IMPAC Dublin Award for Literature for The Twin.

Canadian Jewish Book Awards 2013

2013-05-03T00:00:00Z

Matti Friedman’s The Aleppo Codex has won the 2013 Canadian Jewish Book Award History category. Judges said ‘Part history and part whodunit, Friedman’s fascinating book chronicles the Codex’s remarkable and controversial journey from 10th century Tiberias, to Syria, and eventually Israel.’ You can read more about the award here.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers wins LA Times Book Prize

2013-04-23T00:00:00Z

Congratulations to Katherine Boo, whose stunning work of non-fiction Behind the Beautiful Forevers has won the 2012 LA Times Book Prize in the Current Interest category. You can see the full list of winners here. Katherine was also a finalist in this year’s Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction.

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Shortlist 2013

2013-04-12T00:00:00Z

The Detour by Gerbrand Bakker has made the shortlist of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Previous recipients of the prize include Orhan Pamuk, Milan Kundera, José Saramago, W.G. Sebald, Per Olov Enquist, Per Petterson and Philippe Claudel.