North America Publishers’ Program 2027: Adult Lists
Key dates
Applications close: Tuesday 4 August 2026 at 3pm AEST
Notification: Approximately six weeks after the closing date
Program dates: Wednesday 3 March to Friday 12 March 2027
Details
Location: Toronto, Canada & New York, USA
Art form: Literature
Amount: $6,000
Contact
To discuss your application, please contact:
Writing Australia
Email:
writing@creative.gov.au
Please note: To submit, you must be registered in our application management system a minimum of two business days prior to the closing date.
About the opportunity
Applications are now open to participate in an Australian publishing delegation to Toronto and New York from 3-12 March 2027.
North America is the largest rights market in the world for Australian books, with New York at the heart of its publishing industry. It is also the hub for one of the world's largest communities of literary agents and scouts.
This program will provide Australian rights sellers, literary agents and publishers of works for adults with the opportunity to develop their experience in the North American market, extend their networks, and pitch titles to North American editors. Applicants must represent a minimum of six authors.
The delegation will undertake a nine-day program of industry meetings, market briefings and networking opportunities. We will work with the delegates to develop a tailored schedule of meetings in New York and Toronto.
We will support up to eight delegates with $6,000 each towards the cost of participating. Delegates will be responsible for all associated costs including but not limited to visas, flights, accommodation, travel insurance, ground transport, meals and incidentals, and tickets to events.
After an evaluation of previous iterations of the program, we regret that we are no longer able to accommodate self-funded delegates.
2027 program participants
In 2027, the North America Publishers' Program includes nine participants and has a focus on publishing professionals representing Australian works for adults.
Click here to view the full bios and areas of interest for the 2027 North America Publishers' Program delegates.
Eligibility
Who can apply
Australian rights sellers, literary agents and publishers working in the following areas of creative writing are eligible to apply: adult fiction and narrative non-fiction, poetry.
Applicants must represent a minimum of six authors.
Please check the general eligibility requirements on the Creative Australia website.
Who can’t apply
You can’t apply for a grant if:
- you have an overdue grant report to the Creative Australia
- you owe money to Creative Australia
- you publish or represent fewer than 6 authors
Protocols
Your application must comply with the following Protocols. We may contact you to request further information during the assessment process, or if successful, as a condition of your funding.
Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts
All applications involving First Nations artists, communities or subject matter must adhere to these Protocols, provide evidence of this in their application and support material. More information on the First Nations Protocols is available here.
Commonwealth Child Safe Framework
All successful applicants are required to comply with all Australian law relating to employing or engaging people who work or volunteer with children, including working with children checks and mandatory reporting. Successful organisations who provide services directly to children, or whose funded activities involve contact with children, will additionally be required to implement the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.
Assessment
Creative Australia staff will assess your application against the published selection criteria and will seek recommendations by industry advisors as needed.
You will be notified of the outcome of your application approximately six weeks after the closing date.
Assessment Criteria
Applicants are required to respond to the following selection criteria:
1. Demonstrated understanding of, and commitment to, North American markets and networks. Demonstrated suitability of your represented books and authors to the North American market. Applications must include an indicative range of the authors (minimum of six) and titles you wish to introduce to the North American market.
2. Professional experience relevant to the aims of the delegation addressing the timeliness of this opportunity. Demonstrated ability to plan and deliver on any international outcomes that may arise.
3. The impact of participation in this delegation in achieving the aims of your international market development strategy.
Application Form
The types of questions we ask in the application form include:
- a response to the selection criteria
- supporting material as relevant to the application, including an indicative overview of the titles you wish to present to the North American market.
Support material
You must include an indicative overview of the range of titles you wish to introduce to the North American market with your application.
No other supporting material or budget is required.
Additional information
After you apply
Once you submit your application, we will send you an email acknowledging receipt of your application.
After you submit your application, we first check it meets the eligibility criteria for the grant or opportunity to which you are applying.
Applications for this program are assessed by Creative Australia staff, and industry advisers as required, against the published assessment criteria for the relevant grant program.
We aim to notify you of the outcome of your application no later than 6 weeks after the published closing date for the applicable grant round.
Successful applications
Once all applications have been assessed, you will be contacted about the outcome of your application. If you have been successful, you will also be sent a funding agreement. This outlines the conditions of funding, how you will be paid and your grant reporting requirements. The following accordion items outline these stages in more detail.
Grant agreements
If your application is successful, you will receive an email advising you a grant is offered. You must then agree to the conditions of your grant, which represents Creative Australia’s contract with you – this can be done online, by email or by letter. Payment of a grant will not be made until the grant conditions have been agreed and accepted by all the relevant parties.
You should not start a project that depends on a grant until all relevant parties have agreed and accepted the grant conditions and we have evidence of such acceptance on file.
Standard grant conditions require you to, among other things:
- seek prior approval for making a change to a funded project (for example, changes in the activity budget; changes to key creative personnel; or changes to start or end dates)
- respond to requests for information about the project or grant
- satisfactorily account for how the grant is spent (if you do not you will be required to return all monies for which you cannot satisfactorily account)
- comply with all applicable laws
- acknowledge our support in all promotional material associated with the project; this includes use of the Creative Australia logo and a standard text of acknowledgement.
- provide artistic and financial acquittal reports at the end of the project
- return any unspent grant funds at the completion of your project or on notice from us to return such unspent funds.
Grant agreements must be signed by a legal entity – either a legally constituted organisation or an individual. For unincorporated groups, see the section on administered grants.
All individual or organisation grant applicants based in Australia must have an ABN. Individual applicants without an ABN may have their grant administered by an individual or organisation with an ABN. Organisations operating outside of Australia do not need an ABN to apply. Individuals based outside of Australia may not need an ABN to apply, depending on their circumstances (please check with your accountant or tax advisor).
The name of the applicant must match the name of the ABN and the name of the bank account into which we pay the funds. There are no exceptions to this rule. If applicants cannot provide an ABN and bank account that are in the same name as the applicant’s name, they will need to nominate an administrator for their grant.
Groups/ensembles/collectives, unincorporated associations/ unincorporated entities and other bodies with no legal status do not need an administrator if they have an active Australian Business Number (ABN) and bank account in their name. If they are unable to provide an active ABN and bank account that matches the name of the applicant, they must nominate an administrator. The name of the administrator must match the name of the ABN and bank account into which funds are paid if the application is successful.
Grant payments
If we approve your application you will need accept the conditions of the grant in a funding agreement.
After you accept your funding agreement online, we will automatically generate a payment for the grant on your behalf. You do not need to send us an invoice.
We will pay grant funds directly into your nominated bank account within two weeks after acceptance of the funding agreement. Grant payments cannot be postponed.
If you do not wish to have the grant funds paid directly into your bank account you can choose to have your grant administered by another individual or legally constituted organisation (Doesn’t apply to Arts Projects – Organisations).
When you apply, you will be asked to provide an active Australian Business Number or ‘ABN’. The ABN that you provide must correspond to the name of the applicant (or the administering body, if one has been nominated). When you accept your funding agreement, you will be asked to enter the details of the bank account you wish the grant to be paid into. The name associated with that bank account must correspond to the name in which the ABN has been registered.
Logo downloads
Acquitting your grant
Grant reports are required on completion of your project. Acquitting a grant means accurately reporting on the funded activities and the expenditure of Creative Australia funding.
Please read your funding agreement to check details of the grant acquittal material you should provide.
The grant acquittal report is where you tell us:
- how you spent your grant
- what the artistic outcomes of your funded activity were.
If you do not provide a satisfactory grant report at the times and in the manner detailed in your funding agreement, we will not make any further payments that may be due to you, and you will not be eligible to apply for further grants.
If you do not provide a satisfactory grant report, we may ask you to pay back all or part of the funding provided to you.
We use grant reports to fulfil obligations of accountability to the Australian Government. They are also essential to the development work of Creative Australia. The reports help us evaluate the achievements of funded activities, monitor the effectiveness of grant categories and ensure our policy development is consistent with the experience of artists in the field.
Reporting for Multi-year Funded Organisations
Organisations in receipt of multi-year funding are required to submit financial, statistical, and artistic reporting on an annual basis.
All reporting is submitted online via our arts organisations reporting system.
If you are not sure what reporting you need to submit as part of your annual reporting, or what information to provide, please get in touch.
Acknowledging Creative Australia funding
All recipients must acknowledge that Creative Australia provided funding for their activities. When you acquit your grant, we will ask you how you acknowledged us.
For printed or online material use our logo and this phrase:
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. OR,
(Company Name) is assisted by the Australian Government through the Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.
Where projects do not have a public outcome, or do not produce any printed or online material, you will need to think about how best to acknowledge Creative Australia funding.
2027 program participants
Sandra Buol
Rights Manager Adult Books – Allen & Unwin
Main areas of interest:
- Commercial and upmarket fiction
- Accessible literary fiction
- Non-fiction
Sandra Buol manages international rights across Allen & Unwin’s adult fiction and non-fiction lists, with a particular focus on North America and the UK. She has built a strong track record of placing Australian and New Zealand authors directly with North American publishers, including Macmillan Publishers, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Sourcebooks, Kensington Publishing, Greystone Books, Ulysses Press and Sutherland House Books. Recent deals include North American rights for Louise Wallace’s debut novel Ash to Mariner Books, Dr Lucy Hone’s How Will I Ever Get Through This? to Simon Element, and Kate Emery’s Murder Is Cheaper Than Therapy to Minotaur following a competitive auction.
Sandra joined Allen & Unwin’s Rights team in 2019; Allen & Unwin are Australia and New Zealand’s largest independent publisher. Alongside English-language rights, Sandra has extensive experience selling translation rights and developing long-term relationships with publishers, agents and scouts across key international markets.
Fiona Inglis
Managing Director and Agent – Curtis Brown
Main areas of interest:
- Commercial fiction
- Memoir
- Narrative non-fiction
Following eight years in various publishing roles in Melbourne, Sydney, and London, Fiona joined Curtis Brown in 1993, overseeing the purchase of Hickson Associates in 1999 when she became Managing Director. She was the founding president of the Australian Literary Agents’ Association.
Fiona’s list is diverse, ranging from commercial fiction to memoir to narrative non-fiction. Among writers she represents are Liane Moriarty, Markus Zusak, Jane Harper, Thomas Keneally and Christos Tsiolkas. Her clients’ books have been #1 New York Times bestsellers, winners of numerous prizes, and adapted for stage and screen. She values long-term relationships with her authors, many of whom she has represented for over 20 years.
Airlie Lawson
Head of Rights – HarperCollins
Main areas of interest:
- Commercial fiction
- Literary fiction
- Genre fiction
- Narrative non-fiction
Airlie Lawson’s career in the publishing industry spans more than 25 years. She’s held specialist Rights roles at major publishing houses in Australia and at HarperCollins in the UK. Her experience working in Rights is complemented by a PhD, which she was awarded for her research on where, how and why Australian novels ‘travel’ internationally.
Recent deals for HarperCollins Australia include North American, UK, German and Lithuanian rights to Gravity Let Me Go by internationally bestselling, multi-award-winning author Trent Dalton; North American and French rights to The Parisian Corset by debut author Katrina Lawrence; Bulgarian and Romanian rights to Slave Concubine Queen by award-winning journalist Sally Neighbour; Spanish and Italian rights to A Deadly Dowry by Elizabeth Leydin; and North American rights to Year Bear! by debut creator John Corrie.
Sarah McDuling
Rights Manager Adult Publishing – Penguin Randon House
Main areas of interest:
- Commercial fiction
- Literary fiction
- Expert-led non-fiction
Sarah McDuling joined Penguin Random House Australia in 2022, bringing 12 years of experience across bookselling and the Australian publishing industry. In her current role, she works closely with publishers, editors, agents and scouts to identify international opportunities, develop rights strategies and build long-term publishing partnerships across global markets.
Recent rights sales include The Dopamine Brain by Anastasia Hronis, sold into nine territories; world rights for Vow of Eternal Night by Lily Crozier to Entangled Publishing; world rights for The From Scratch Kitchen by Bob Dickinson to Quadrille; and world English-language rights for Stuff the British Stole by Marc Fennell to Ebury.
Her background across both bookselling and rights management gives Sarah a strong understanding of readership, market positioning and the commercial potential of books across territories. She is passionate about championing Australian authors, keeping pace with an ever-evolving international publishing landscape, connecting great books with readers around the world and finding increasingly creative ways to fit more books onto her already overflowing bookshelves.
Jordan Meek
Contracts and Rights Manager – Hachette
Main areas of interest:
- Crime and thriller
- Literary and upmarket fiction
- Non-fiction
Jordan Meek has been working in Rights since 2018 across both trade and academic publishing. Her career highlights include selling international crime sensation Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson into 24 translation territories and aiding in the North American and film sales. Crossing lines from academic to trade publishing with Planet Fungi: A Photographer’s Foray by Stephen Axford, Catherine Marciniak and Tom May selling to Andrews McMeel.
Hachette ANZ’s recent successes in North American markets include pre-acquisition joint global Hachette deals for Tierney Page’s London Hearts series and New York Hearts series. Continuing the romance theme, regency era meets fast and furious Fast & Fastidious by R.M Cadwell has sold. Hachette ANZ crime titles have also made splashes with Shelley Burr’s WAKE and RIPPER, The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin and See How They Fall by Rachel Paris all finding homes in North America.
Jane Novak
Literary Agent – Jane Novak Literary
Main areas of interest:
- Literary and commercial fiction
- Literary and commercial non-fiction
- Poetry and hybrid work
Jane Novak began her career as a bookseller before joining Pan Macmillan Australia in 1997 as a publicist. She then worked at Text Publishing as Publicity Manager for several years before starting her literary agency in 2016. Her agency represents a broad mix of fiction and non-fiction and her clients include Helen Garner, Gerald Murnane, human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson, First Nations poet Ali Cobby Eckermann, former Manus Island refugee and journalist Behrouz Boochani and playwright/novelist Suzie Miller, author of the smash hit plays/novels Prima Facie and Inter Alia. She is passionate about Australian literature and is eager to find publishing pathways for less traditional storytelling alongside established genres.
Rebecca Slater
Literary Agent – a4 Literary
Main areas of interest:
- Literary and upmarket fiction
- Non-fiction
Rebecca Slater is a literary agent at a4 Literary – one of Australia’s leading literary agencies. She represents a broad list of authors working in the literary and upmarket fiction and non-fiction space with recent North American deals including The Kookaburra by Charlotte Guest to Simon & Schuster, Man & Horse by John Egenes to Knopf and Worry Doll by Laura McPhee-Browne to Book of the Month. She is interested in championing writing by First Nations storytellers, and the LGBTQI+ community. Rebecca has a background in rights-selling and scouting both in Australia and the UK.
Aviva Tuffield
Publisher – University of Queensland Press
Main areas of interest:
- Literary-crossover fiction
- Creative and narrative non-fiction
- Poetry
Aviva Tuffield has worked in Australian publishing for 25 years, including as a publisher at Black Inc. and Affirm Press, and associate publisher at Scribe Publications, where she was responsible for launching their Australian fiction list. At University of Queensland Press, Aviva is proud to have worked with many prize-winning and internationally published authors, including Siang Lu, Randa Abdel-Fattah, Evelyn Araluen, Angela O’Keeffe, Tony Birch, Ellen van Neerven, Chris Flynn and Sarah Holland-Batt.
Aviva was a co-founder and the inaugural executive director of the Stella Prize. In 2015 she was selected as one of Westpac/Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence and has also been a finalist in the NAB Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards for her work with the Stella Pri
Sophy Williams
Publisher and International Director – Black Inc.
Main areas of interest:
- Quality non-fiction
- Literary fiction
- Current affairs
- History
Sophy Williams is one of Black Inc.’s publishers and manages international rights for the imprint as well as La Trobe University Books, Upswell and Melbourne Books. She has been selling English-language, translation, audio and film/TV/dramatic rights for 25 years. Key deals include One Hundred Days by Alice Pung to HarperVia, People Who Lunch: Essays on Work, Leisure and Loose Living by Sally Olds to Little, Brown Spark, Investing with Keynes by Justyn Walsh to Pegasus, Wellmania by Brigid Delaney to Greystone and The Shortest History of Economics by Andrew Leigh to Mariner Books.
Based in Melbourne, Black Inc. is a leading independent publisher and three-time winner of the Australian Book Industry Awards Small Publisher of the Year. They are best known for publishing quality non-fiction books in the areas of history, politics, memoir, biography, economics, and current affairs. They also publish the journal Quarterly Essay and some literary fiction. Notable books include See What You Made Me Do by Jess Hill (winner of the 2020 Stella Prize, now an award-winning documentary series and sold in multiple translation deals) and The Godmother by Hannelore Cayre, translated from the French by Stephanie Smee (Winner, 2020 CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger Award, feature film adaptation starring Isabelle Huppert). Black Inc. are also the Australian publisher of the global bestseller The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben.
We acknowledge the many Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and honour their Elders past and present.
We respect their deep enduring connection to their lands, waterways, and surrounding clan groups since time immemorial. We cherish the richness of First Nations peoples’ artistic and cultural expressions. We are privileged to gather on this Country and to share knowledge, culture and art, now and with future generations.
