Not All Those Who Wander are Lost

"The Australian" newspaper is reporting that the Western Australian State Government is instigating

...the new Premier's Australia-Asia literary fund, worth $1.2 million over four years and touted as the richest of its kind in Australia, will be managed jointly by the department and the State Library of WA. It will be judged by a panel of three: an Australian author (to be appointed) and two international authors who have already been selected.

They are Sri Lankan-born author and journalist Nury Vittachi, founder of Asia Literary Review, who has played a key role in setting up literary organisations in the Asian region; and Karachi-born novelist Kamila Shamsie, who has judged Britain's Orange prize for new fiction.

Unlike the contentious Prime Minister's Literary Awards, the panel will make the final decision about the winning book. The winning author's prize will be more than the $100,000 offered by the PM's prize.

Sophie Cunningham, the new editor of the Australian literary periodical "Meanjin", opens a cupboard in the magazine's office and discovers 68 years of back issues. Some of the covers are wonderful.

Genevieve provides the details about a new Chair of Australian Literature being created by the Rudd Government at the University of Western Australia.

Judith Ridge reports on the launch of Woolshed Press, a new Australian children's book imprint from Random House publishers.

Lonely Planet Publishers find themselves in a spot of trouble over news that an author plagiarised most of the details in one of their travel guides. I'm not looking to visit Colombia anytime in the near future, which is probably a good thing - on a number of levels.

Angela Savage clocks in with Milestone #1, the completion of the first draft of her new novel - a follow-up to Behind the Night Bazaar. The author featured in our recent "Australian Crime Fiction Snapshot."

Justine Larbalestier found a copy of her novel Magic or Madness in a German bookshop - the German edition of course - and found it sitting next to a book by John Marsden. "I've been stunned by how many Aussie books I've been seeing in translation on our travels. Oodles of them by the likes of Trudi Canavan, Sara Douglass, Sonya Hartnett, John Marsden, Garth Nix, Marcus Zusak etc., etc. World domination!"