Today, the National Book Critics Circle announced their finalists for the best books published in 2025—30 books in six categories—as well as the finalists for the John Leonard Prize for Best First Book, and the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Read more >
As ICE agents continue to terrorize the Twin Cities, indie bookstores are stepping up. As Claire Kirch reported in Publishers Weekly last Friday, booksellers in Minneapolis and St. Paul have joined community efforts to fight the feds. As the cities Read more >
Three big J-names have new books this week, each one more coveted and anticipated than the last. Julian Barnes is releasing his 28th (!) book, a mix of memoir and fiction about mortality, memory, and love. Jeanette Winterson’s new work Read more >
People are really down on January, but I have to say, it’s not as bad as everyone says. There’s a good week and a half where people pretend they still don’t know what email is, you get to stunt around Read more >
Welcome, readers, to the first happy list of 2026! It’s already shaping up to be another year where easy joy goes thin on the ground, so celebrating the little things feels more important than ever. Here’s what’s making your friendly this week.">Read more >
Welcome to the second installment of this year’s awards season reading list. Here you’ll find bespoke recommendations tailored to your favorite movie of last year. After last week’s Marty Supreme list, I bring you another pairing from mid-century New York. Blue Moon was your favorite movie of 2025.">Read more >
This week, Eugene Lim (Search History, Dear Cyborgs) was named the winner of the 44th John Dos Passos Prize, given every year by Longwood University “to a talented American writer who experiments with form, explores a range of voices and Read more >
January 1st is not just an involuntary national celebration of hangovers, it’s also Public Domain Day, when a tranche of old copyrights automatically expire. This year, thousands of works from 1930 entered the public domain, along with sound recordings published Read more >
For as long as I can remember, a bestseller in the world of books has only referred to the Times’s list of top sellers, the reigning measuring stick of publishing success. But a new bestseller list put together by two Read more >
Today, Chicago-based arts organization United States Artists announced their 2026 USA Fellows, a group of 50 artists, including five Writing Fellows, each of whom will receive a cash award of $50,000. Recipients are encouraged to use this unrestricted grant “for any Read more >
Now in its 22nd year, the Story Prize recognizes excellent short fiction from all over the world. Today, three finalists have been selected by Julie Lindsey and Larry Dark, the respective founder and current director of the Story Prize. This Read more >
As my colleague James Folta reported last week, the Adelaide Literary Festival descended into chaos after Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah, a Palestinian-Australian author, was abruptly removed from the festival over “sensitivity concerns.” In the wake of this call from the board, Read more >
Tis a truth universally acknowledged that in the second week of January, resolutions made in earnest over champagne toasts fizzle out like fireworks. This is the rubber meet road week, when we (or, I) start to crave structure around pledges Read more >
Readers seeking a deeper immersion in their books are turning to the multisensory experience of “ambiance videos.” Popular on BookTok, these are mood enhancing videos you can put on in the background while reading, to get into a story, curate Read more >
In romance novels, I just love the friends to lovers trope—the tension! The magic of their friendship! In the new movie People We Meet on Vacation , based on the Emily Henry novel of the same name, actors Emily Bader People We Meet On Vacation.">Read more >
Hope everyone is staying warm, and staying hopeful and optimistic with those new year’s resolutions—so much possibility exists in the fresh month of January. Time to dive into the stacks by your bedsides, as well as the new books flying Read more >
Earlier this week, ten months after the body of murdered Palestinian poet and professor Refaat Alareer was recovered and laid to rest in the Ibn Marwan Cemetery in Gaza, his loved ones were finally able to place a headstone on Read more >
Used to be that if you saw steam coming off a hockey rink, it meant a Zamboni had just cruised by. But lately it’s more likely because a sports romance book is getting someone hot and bothered rinkside. Unrivaled, the Read more >
As The Daily Sabah reported this morning, Prague may be the new hot spot for a certain sort of literary tourism. Officials have noted an uptick in visitors thanks to a statue built of 8,000 books. “The Idiom,” created by Read more >
As Surina Venkat reported at The Hill this morning, both authors and publishing executives have detected “a notable chill in the market for queer stories.” Children’s books in particular are feeling the squeeze. Several agents have received rejections citing the Read more >
