Dispatch #024
Come get cosy with us during winter. We are having a great time in the book shop with seasoned and debut authors and we'd love to see you at any one of our upcoming events.
LAUNCHES: We had such a fun night in the bookshop last Thursday, launching the rip-roaring, rollicking, badass female bushranger book, ‘Billie King’ by Shannon Kelly-White, into the world. Thank you so much to all the staff who stayed late to make it happen; and to Bondi local, Shona Joy, for the ‘Best Double-Denim’ door prizes, and Akubra Bondi, for donating a genuine Akubra hat as a door prize. What a night. And a nice reminder that books don’t have to be grim! They can be feisty feminist tales of gun-toting, whip-cracking female legends. Yeeha!
PRIZES: The shortlist for the 2026 National Biography Award has been announced by the State Library of NSW. The Award was established in 1996 to encourage “the highest standards of biography and autobiography writing”. Awarded annually, it is Australia’s richest prize for biographical writing and memoir. Congratulations to all on the shortlist, below:
Australian Gospel by Lech Blaine (Black Inc.)
Chameleon by Robert Dessaix (Text Publishing)
Max Dupain: A portrait by Helen Ennis (Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)
Groomed by Sonia Orchard (Affirm Press)
Find Me at the Jaffa Gate: An encyclopaedia of a Palestinian family by Micaela Sahhar (NewSouth Publishing)
Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath by S. Shakthidharan (Powerhouse Publishing)
FURPHY: Kailum Graves (below left) has won this year’s Furphy Short Story Award for The Magpies Have Unionised. Kailum is an emerging writer from Brisbane who has also won the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation Writing Competition, the Jennifer Burbidge Short Story Award, the Glossy Planet History Repeating Challenge, and the Henry Lawson Festival of the Arts Open Poetry Competition. In second place was Four And Half Stars by Michael Burrows, an author and musician from Perth, named one of Australia’s Best Young Novelists in 2022 by the Sydney Morning Herald, with a novel coming out in March 2027. Wonderful stuff.
WILD THINGS: There’s going to be a kids festival called Wild Things at the Opera House, between September 26 - October 11. They’ll be doing staged adaptations of classic children’s books from around the world including:
You’ll See - a unique take on James Joyce’s epic novel Ulysees for teenagers, combining live performance, intricate paper design and an original score. Australian premiere from esteemed Irish company Branar.
ZOOOM an imaginary adventure through a universe of lasers and light projections inspired by Crockett Johnson’s beloved children’s book Harold and The Purple Crayon. From award-winning Australian theatre-makers Patch Theatre.
Handa’s Suprise - a Kenyan puppet safari based on author + illustrator of over 40 books, Eileen Browne’s picture book that combines physical performance, live music and song. Australian premiere from North London Theatre Institution Little Angel Theatre.
The Longest Nights - a bilingual pansori that follows the unlikely friendship of a white rhino and penguin based on the award-winning Korean children’s book by Luly. World premiere from Korea’s acclaimed Ipkoasan.
SETTLEMENT: A federal judge in San Francisco has signed off on a landmark $1.5 billion settlement of a lawsuit brought by a group of authors who accused it of misusing their books to train its AI chatbot, Claude. It’s the largest known settlement in a US copyright case, and it means companies like Bloomsbury will receive more than $21 million (or $3,000 per stolen work) for books eaten up by the machines, including those by bestselling novelists Sarah J. Maas and J.K. Rowling. More here.
SAM: We were all devastated by the loss of Sam Neill. He was well known as an actor, but his book Did I Ever Tell You This? is also gorgeous (below right). Published in 2023. It was written while he underwent treatment for blood cancer. Sam was a wonderful addition to many writers’ festivals, often pairing up with his great mate Bryan Brown, who also turned to books in recent years. Vale, Sam. We will miss you.
REG: Australia’s last surviving Kokoda campaign veteran, Reginald James Chard OAM, died peacefully this week, aged 102. Chard fought in Papua New Guinea during World War II, surviving repeated bouts of malaria. He made a lifelong commitment to preserving the legacy of the Kokoda campaign, and his deeply moving book was an account of his time as an 18-year-old Australian soldier who fought in 1942; his agony at losing Betty, his wife of 66 years; and the pride he later took in guided tours of Sydney's Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway. Vale, Reg.
ADAPTATION HIGHLIGHT: The Odyssey is smashing box-office records, but let’s not forget the film was once a book! There are a few different versions out there, including special ones for children, and we have many different ones in store, so do drop in if you’re on the hunt for the original source material (fun fact: Homer probably wasn’t one person; it was probably a bunch of people, all passing the story down over centuries. So you can choose to read any of the many different versions as you like).
New titles here from the former Swans coach (go Swans! Bound to make the finals this year) John Longmire, ex-SAS soldier Andy White; the ever popular Dave Eggers; Rebecca Birrell; and the marvellous Mirandi Riwoe.
Whistler Bookclub, Bondi Literary Salon, Tuesday 4th of August: Whistler by Ann Patchett, at Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore. Click here for tickets.
Dr Joanna McMillan, An Evening with the Author, Tuesday 11th of August: Join Dr Joanna McMillan for an author talk about her latest book The Fibre Factor at Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore. Click here for tickets.
Angel Down, Bookclub, Bondi Literary Salon, Wednesday 12th of August: Angel Down by Daniel Kraus, hosted by Anna O’Rady at Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore. Click here for tickets.
Remembering Babylon Bookclub, Bondi Literary Salon, Tuesday 18th of August: Remembering Babylon by David Malouf at Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore. Click here for tickets.
Victoria Hannan, An Evening with the Author, Wednesday 19th of August: Victoria will be in conversation with Benjamin Law to celebrate the launch of her new book ‘I Love the Whole World!’ at Gertrude & Alice. Click here for tickets.
Yesteryear Bookclub (#2), Bondi Literary Salon, Thursday 6th of August: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke at Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore. Click here for tickets.
Dr Lucy Hone, An Evening with the Author, Wednesday 26th of August: an evening of insight and inspiration as bestselling author Charlotte Ree sits down with resilience expert Dr Lucy Hone at Paddington Uniting Church. Click here for tickets.
And that’s all for today, folks! Thank you for reading, and please do forward our newsletter to your friends so that we can build our community here. We have over 2,000 subscribers, and we would love to welcome more!
Have something you’d like to include? Our newsletter is compiled by a Bondi local, Caroline Overington. You can follow her on Instagram or Facebook, or get in touch here if you’ve got news to share.
I just realised... I hear Caroline's lovely voice when reading this. :)
Now that is a fascinating fun fact, Caroline, about The Odyssey. Good to see Longmire's done a book sharing some of his football wisdom, I guess.