Magabala Books is pleased to announce that we have been shortlisted for the 2021 Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) for Small Publisher of the Year, having won the award in 2020.

This is the third year in a row we have been shortlisted, and this year we sit alongside industry friends and colleagues Affirm Press, University of Queensland Press, Cordite Publishing Inc, Pantera Press and Australian Scholarly Publishing.

While 2020 was a challenging year, it was also another record high in sales for us and we were once again on Bookscan’s heatseekers list, coming in as the second fastest growing small publisher in Australia.

With the intense growth in interest in diverse and First Nations voices due to the #BlackLivesMatter movement, it became more obvious than ever that the ‘world’ as our Publisher Rachel Bin Sallah says, ‘needs our books’.

We’re honoured to be shortlisted alongside our creators this year, with Living on Stolen Land by Ambelin Kwaymullina shortlisted for Small Publishers’ Adult Book of the Year, and Bindi by Kirli Saunders, illustrated by Dub Leffler; Found by Bruce Pascoe, illustrated by Charmaine Ledden-Lewis; and Family by Aunty Fay Muir and Sue Lawson, illustrated by Jasmine Seymour all shortlisted for Small Publishers’ Children’s Book of the Year.

The winners of the awards will be announced on Wednesday 28 April in Sydney and via livestream.