Historian Clare Wright’s Näku Dhäruk: The Bark Petitions has won Book of the Year at the NSW Literary Awards, held at the State Library of New South Wales on May 18, 2026. The 640-page history of the 1963 Yirrkala Bark Petitions also took the $40,000 Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction, giving Wright $50,000 in prize money in total. Wright, a La Trobe University professor who spent years living and working with the Yolŋu community in north-east Arnhem Land, traces the petitions — painted bark panels presented by Yolŋu elders to the federal government — and their role in the development of Australian land-rights law. The book, in its fourth print, has won multiple awards this season including the Australian Political Book of the Year and the Queensland Literary Awards non-fiction prize. Judges described Näku Dhäruk as a work of national significance that brings Yolŋu voices to national attention. Other NSW winners included Moreno Giovannoni (Christina Stead Prize), S. Shakthidharan (Multicultural NSW Award), Shaun Grant (scriptwriting) and Jill Jones (poetry). Wright framed the win as recognition for the community whose story the book tells.

Taiwanese author Yáng Shuang-zi and translator Lin King won the 2026 International Booker Prize for Taiwan Travelogue, announced at a ceremony in London’s Tate Modern. The £50,000 award will be split equally between author and translator. Judges, chaired by novelist Natasha Brown, praised the book as both “a romance and an incisive postcolonial novel.” Presented as a rediscovered travel memoir set in 1930s Japan‑occupied Taiwan, the story follows a Japanese novelist’s culinary tour and her fraught relationship with a Taiwanese interpreter; it foregrounds themes of colonial power, class and queer desire. The win marks the first time a work originally written in Mandarin has taken the International Booker and the first time winners are Taiwanese and Taiwanese‑American. Taiwan Travelogue was selected from 128 submissions; its English translation previously won the 2024 National Book Award for translated literature and the Mandarin original won Taiwan’s Golden Tripod Award. Publisher And Other Stories — which also won last year — will share in the likely sales boost that typically follows the prize.

Irish novelist Sally Rooney will publish a Hebrew translation of her 2024 novel Intermezzo through November Books, an independent Israeli press that meets exemption criteria set by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, Reuters-reviewed reporting shows. The edition, announced in mid-May 2026 and due for release in June, will be produced in collaboration with +972 Magazine and Local Call, two independent Israeli and Palestinian outlets. Rooney, who in 2021 refused a Hebrew translation offer from mainstream Israeli publisher Modan in support of the cultural boycott, said she regrets earlier contractual choices and has worked with BDS advisers to ensure this arrangement aligns with the movement’s guidelines. November Books says it receives no Israeli state funding, does not operate in West Bank settlements and recognises Palestinian rights, including the right of return. The move has been hailed by supporters as a model for principled engagement and criticised by opponents who view cultural boycotts as discriminatory; Rooney has previously faced book removals and public backlash over her stance.