Six Pan Macmillan authors on the ABIA 2020 Longlist 🏆
The Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) are one of Australia’s largest celebrations of the ‘collaborative efforts of authors and industry professionals who bring quality books to Australian and international readers’. The 2020 longlist, as voted on by the ABIA Academy, features some amazing Pan Macmillan books that were published in 2019. A big congratulations to the authors longlisted below. We wish all our incredible authors the best of luck ahead of the shortlist announcement on 9 April.
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Wolfe Island by Lucy Treloar – Longlisted for Best Literary Fiction Book of the Year
Kitty Hawke, the last inhabitant of a dying island sinking into the wind-lashed Chesapeake Bay, has resigned herself to annihilation…
Until one night her granddaughter blows ashore in the midst of a storm, desperate, begging for sanctuary. For years, Kitty has kept herself to herself – with only the company of her wolfdog, Girl – unconcerned by the world outside, or perhaps avoiding its worst excesses. But blood cannot be turned away in times like these. And when trouble comes following her granddaughter, no one is more surprised than Kitty to find she will fight to save her as fiercely as her name suggests…
Gulpilil by Derek Rielly – Longlisted for Best Biography Book of the Year 
It’s been almost fifty years since a teenage David Gulpilil illuminated screens worldwide with his breakout role in Walkabout. It was one of the first times we’d seen an Aboriginal person cast in a significant role and only four years after Holt’s referendum to alter the constitution and give Indigenous people citizenship and, subsequently, the right to vote. But what has marked Gulpilil, despite his fame and popularity, is the feeling that he’s been forever stuck between two worlds: a Yolngu man, a hunter, a tracker, who grew up in the bush in Arnhem Land outside any white influence; and a movie star flitting from movie sets to festivals. Able to exist in both worlds, but never truly home.
When All is Said & Done by Neale Daniher – Longlisted for Best Biography Book of the Year
Neale Daniher sat down to pen a letter to the grandchildren he’ll never get to know. And then he kept on writing…
In 2013, the AFL legend was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease – a cruel and incurable condition. When All is Said & Done is a book of stories and wisdom from a man who has always held his beliefs to the Bunsen burner of life. Neale is unflinchingly honest, sharing a timely reminder that, even though life doesn’t promise to be fair, we all have the power to choose how to make our time on this earth matter.
How It Feels to Float by Helena Fox – Longlisted for Book of the Year for Older Children 
Biz knows how to float. She has her people, posse, her mum and the twins. She has Grace. And she has her dad, who tells her about the little kid she was, and who shouldn’t be here but is. So Biz doesn’t tell anyone anything. Not about her dark, runaway thoughts, not about kissing Grace or noticing Jasper, the new boy. And she doesn’t tell anyone about her dad. Because her dad died when she was seven. And Biz knows how to float, right there on the surface – normal okay regular fine.
The 117-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton – Longlisted for Book of the Year for Younger Children
Andy and Terry’s amazing treehouse now has 13 new storeys, including a tiny-horse level, a pyjama-party room, an Underpants Museum, a photo-bombing booth, a waiting room, a Door of Doom, a circus, a giant-fighting-robot arena, a traffic school, a water-ski park filled with flesh-eating piranhas and a treehouse visitor centre with a 24-hour information desk, a penguin-powered flying treehouse tour bus and a gift shop.
Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia: Second edition by Macquarie Dictionary – Longlisted for Illustrated Book of the Year
The Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia is a unique tool for exploring and understanding the lives and cultures of Australia’s First Peoples. This second edition of the award-winning Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia opens a window onto the landscape of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lives, from over 60,000 years ago to the present time. Each chapter has been extensively revised and updated by one or more experts in their field, under the general editorship of Bill Arthur and Frances Morphy of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University.