Penguin is the 2008 publisher of the year, Scribe is small publisher of the year, Gleebooks the independent bookseller of the year and Dymocks Garden City Booragoon chain bookseller of the year, following the announcement of the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) at a gala dinner in Melbourne on Sunday night.

In accepting the publisher of the year award, Penguin CEO Gabrielle Coyne jokingly thanked Allen & Unwin chairman Patrick Gallagher ‘for the loan' of the award which has been won by Allen & Unwin for six of the past seven years.

Coyne said the award was a huge honour for Penguin and paid tribute to Penguin's staff, authors and illustrators, as well as thanking booksellers for playing ‘such a vital role' in the industry.
It was a good night for the Melbourne-based publisher, with Maggie's Harvest (Maggie Beer, Lantern) taking out illustrated book of the year, The Peasant Prince (Li Cunxin, illus by Anne Spudvilas, Viking) winning book of the year for younger children, booksellers choice award-winner Girl Stuff (Kaz Cooke, Viking) taking home general nonfiction book of the year and Those Faraday Girls (Monica McInerney, Penguin) being voted general fiction book of the year.

This year's book of the year went to People of the Book (Geraldine Brooks, Fourth Estate), which also won literary fiction book of the year, while biography of the year went to Arthur Boyd: A Life (A&U) by Brooks' sister Darleen Bungey.

Other book awards presented on the night were newcomer of the year, which went to Pauline Nguyen for Secrets of the Red Lantern (Murdoch Books) and book of the year for older children, which went to Ranger's Apprentice 7: Erak's Ransom (Random House). Ranger's Apprentice also scored Random House the international success award.

The evening also saw eminent novelist and poet David Malouf honoured with the Lloyd O'Neil Award ‘for outstanding service to the Australian book industry', and children's bookseller Kate Colley recognised for ‘distinguished and dedicated service to the development and reputation of Australian children's books' as the recipient of this year's Pixie O'Harris Award.

http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2008/06/08541/

This article from Thorpe Bowker's Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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