The United Kingdom’s Education Secretary has said he believes schoolchildren need to read much more. The Telegraph reports that Michael Gove has suggested kids in the latter years of primary school and throughout secondary school should aim to be reading a novel each week to improve literacy standards across the board.

Mr Gove made his comments after a visit to a charter school in…

The Wheeler Centre congratulates all the nominees for the Indie Book Awards, announced last night. The award honoured 2010 best Australian books, as judged by independent booksellers. Comedian Anh Do won the top gong for book of the year for his memoir of coming to Australia as a three year-old, The Happiest Refugee. Chris Womersley won the best novel award for his second…

For several years, publisher Allen & Unwin has accepted manuscript pitches from aspiring writers every Friday with a service it aptly called the Friday Pitch. Now Pan Macmillan has inaugurated its own version of the Friday Pitch - Manuscript Monday. Pan Macmillan will consider pitches for commercial and literary fiction and non-fiction, children’s books and young adult fiction, so long as they are emailed…

Australian authors David Malouf and Craig Silvey have made it onto the shortlist of one of the most prestigious - and idiosyncratic - of literary awards.The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award has announced its shortlist of ten novels, culled from a typically massive longlist of more than 150 titles submitted by libraries around the world. For the record, the State Library of Victoria nominated…