Penguin Books Australia

Penguin has had some success in the Romantic Book of the Year awards.

The Shelly Beach Writers' Group by June Loves is a finalist in the Romantic Elements category and The Voyagers by Mardi McConnochie is a finalist in the Long Romance category.

Winners are announced at the Romance Writers of Australia national conference on 18 August.

For the complete shortlist see the RWA website.

Paul Kelly'sHow To Make Gravy has been shortlisted for the National Biography Award ($25,000).

The award encourges the highest standards of writing biography and autobiography and promotes public interest in these genres.

The shortlist is announced 1 May and the winner 14 May as part of the Sydney Writers' Festival.

For further information see the State Library of NSW website.

Congratulations to the following authors who have been shortlisted for the 2012 ABIAs

International Success of the Year

Midnight in Peking by Paul French

Illustrated Book of the Year

Tasting India by Christine Manfield

General Non-fiction Book of the Year

Women's Stuff by Kaz Cooke

Book of the Year for Younger Children (age range 0 to 8 years)

One Small Island by Alison Lester, illustrated by Coral Tulloch

Literary Fiction Book of the Year

All That I Am by Anna Funder

General Fiction Book of the Year

Lola's Secret by Monica McInerney

Book of the Year

All That I Am by Anna Funder

Tasting India, a diverse cookbook and travelogue written by Christine Manfield, was awarded two awards at the 26th Annual International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Awards in New York City. Tasting India is a labour of love and an inspiring journey through India’s cities, temples, dining rooms, street food and restaurants of India that Christine collected over more than a decade of travel to the country.
The coveted IACP Awards Program acknowledges the best of the best within myriad aspects of the culinary industry. With over 50 award categories, the cookbook awards are considered the gold standard among cookbook awards and widely lauded as the most selective in the industry promoting quality and creativity in culinary writing and publishing.

Tasting India won:
Best Cookbook of the Year Award, which was chosen from the winners of the 18 cookbook categories. This was the ultimate award in the Cookbook category. Christine’s work represents the first-ever Australian win in this category.
Culinary Travel Award, which is a new category for the IACP award that focuses on culinary travel. Entries could range from guidebooks, travelogues, or other types of books that illuminate the culture of a place through an exploration of its food, anywhere in the world.
'This recognition is immensely rewarding and quite overwhelming. I am thrilled that Tasting India, a complete labour of love has been embraced so thoroughly and exalted to this special status, to sit amongst the best in the world. It is an amazing achievement,' enthused Christine.

We are pleased to announce Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney will visit Australia in May. Diary of a Wimpy Kid was released in 2007 and quickly landed on the New York Times bestseller list, before reaching the #1 spot. This super popular and best-selling series has sold millions of copies worldwide! The Wimpy Kid series won Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards in 2010 and 2011, and Jeff Kinney was nominated for a Children’s Choice Book Award in 2009, 2010 and 2011. In 2009, Jeff Kinney was named one of TIME magazine’s most influential people in the world.

Jeff Kinney was born in 1971 in Maryland and attended the University of Maryland in the early 1990s. It was there that Jeff ran a comic strip called ‘Igdoof’ in the campus newspaper, and he knew he wanted to be a cartoonist.

Jeff is the design director of a Boston-based Internet publishing company, where he created Poptropica.com.