This event is a part of a Booked Out’s ‘Night at State Library VCE series’, with other events scheduled for Cate Kennedy and Toni Jordan later in 2019. Email us to find out more.

We will never tire of saying congratulations to the incredible and empowering Bri Lee. Bri is now winner of the People’s Choice Award category in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards for Eggshell Skull (an office favourite). The accolades just keep on coming! ⭐️🐣💀💖

And we’re off! To all the students starting school today, or simply returning for the new year, we wish you a fantastic year full of success and fun! 📚👩‍🏫📝

After surviving one of the most deadly diseases, Mike is passionate about teaching resilience and his unique and practical method of ‘simplification’. Check out Mike’s interview with the ABC here, describing how physical transformations can lead to life changing mental transformations.

We are thrilled to see our speakers strongly represented in the shortlisted Indie Book Awards for 2019. We have speakers represented in each of the six categories, excluding Illustrated NonFiction and Fiction.

Our celebrated speakers are:

BRI LEE: Shortlisted for Eggshell Skull under Nonfiction. Bri is one of our new recruits, and is intelligent and passionate about justice in the legal system for sexual assault survivors.

CHRIS HAMMER: Shortlisted for Scrublands under Debut Fiction. Scrublands is a bestselling Australian crime novel set in a drought-ravaged town, and has rave reviews for its style and authenticity.

CHRISTIAN WHITE: Shortlisted for The Nowhere Child under Debut Fiction. This title has been a smash hit, and is already in talks to develop the story into a movie.

ERIN GOUGH: Shortlisted for Amelia Westlake under Young Adult. This is a gorgeous novel that we can’t wait to read – with a strong feminist theme, this novel is great for girls schools.

DAVINA BELL: Shortlisted for All the Ways to be Smart under Children’s. Inclusivity is what we are about at Booked Out, and All the Ways to be Smart encapsulates this perfectly.

Refreshed and tanned from the summer break, Booked Out has returned for a ripper 2019.

Though we mourn the loss of our glorious banana palm tree to the Melbourne heat, we are ready and looking forward to the big year ahead.

To set up your speakers for your 2019, we are now available on 03 9824 0177.

We hope everybody had a rejuvenating rest, and look forward to a fantastic 2019.

The days are heating up, the Christmas carols are playing, and the Booked Out team is winding up for 2018 – that’s right, we are taking some time to get some rest, relaxation, and reading done before we launch into 2019!

The Booked Out office will be closed from the 20th of December through to the 14th of January.

We will be back in January: informed, up to date, enthusiastic and ready to make recommendations for the most suitable authors, illustrators, and poets for your class, school, library or festival in 2019.

In the meantime, please do have a good look at our website – unlike us mere humans, the website runs 24/7.

You can also email us at bookings@bookedout.com.au and we will respond to your query when we return to the office.

A huge thanks to all our wonderful clients, authors, illustrators and speakers for all the support in 2018, and we’ll see you in the new year!

Booked Out would like to extend a huge congratulations to the wonderful Glenda Millard, who has just received The Prime Minister’s Literary Award for her gorgeous picture book Pea Pod Lullaby. The book was illustrated by Stephen Michael King.

From over 500 entries to 30 shortlisted books, 6 titles were recognised as some of Australia’s greatest literature of the year.

Chair of the Young Adult and Children’s Literature Judging Panel Margot Hillel said that the winning books dealt with “issues that profoundly affect humanity… there’s a variety of ideas, of narrative techniques, of illustration techniques, which makes them very, very different, but all equally interesting.”

Congratulations, Glenda, on this incredible achievement!

Read more about Pea Pod Lullaby here.

Read more about the winners here.

We are so lucky at Booked Out. Although most of our liaison with authors is by phone or email, occasionally we get to catch up with authors and illustrators in person. The extremely talented Lucinda Gifford and Ailsa Wild popped into Booked Out for a quick show and tell of their latest lovely books and projects. We saw Zobi and the Zoox – a very timely picture book about coral beaching and the latest Squishy Taylor. And we were treated to a sneak preview of Lucinda’s upcoming projects.. SHHHH we won’t tell … but we’re EXCITED.

If you’d like to have see what these extremely talented two can do – please have a look at their profile pages. And we are already taking bookings for Book Week 2019….