Parent perceptions of banned books: survey
A new survey sheds light on the perceptions of parents regarding public libraries and the current issues they face. The "Public Libraries and Book Bans - Parent Perception Survey" gathered insights...
View ArticleThe Banned Wagon Tour traveling across the South during Banned Books Week
In partnership with the Freedom to Read Foundation, PEN America, and the Little Free Library, Penguin Random House is launching the Banned Wagon Tour, which during Banned Books Week will travel across...
View ArticleAuthors shocked to find AI ripoffs of their books being sold on Amazon
Publishing a book is a big occasion for any writer, and Rory Cellan-Jones is no exception. "Like any author, I obsessively check Amazon," he said. "And this thing popped up." The former BBC technology...
View ArticleTexas's controversial book rating law goes into effect
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has set a tentative schedule to decide whether a judge's order blocking the state's controversial book rating law, HB 900, should stand. But an...
View ArticleThree book buses roll out for October
The progressive action group MoveOn.org's Banned Bookmobile is on the road again, after an inaugural multi-stop tour of the Midwest and South in July. Penguin Random House's Banned Wagon, a project of...
View ArticleNobel prize in literature 2023 won by Norwegian author Jon Fosse
The Nobel prize in literature has been awarded to 64-year-old Norwegian author Jon Fosse "for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable". His works include the Septology series...
View ArticleBoards trodden by Shakespeare found under floor of Norfolk guildhall
Boards trodden by Shakespeare have been discovered under layers of flooring at England's oldest medieval guildhall as it undergoes a big refurbishment. The 600-year-old oak floorboards are believed to...
View ArticleFree books for Florida residents to celebrate the freedom to read
Book lovers launched an audacious plan this week to help readers trapped in Florida. A website called BannedBooksUSA.org will send censored and restricted books for free (plus the cost of shipping) to...
View ArticleLouise Glück, Nobel prize-winning poet, dies at 80
Louise Glück, the Nobel prize-winning author and a former poet laureate of the United States, has died at the age of 80. Her death was confirmed Friday to the Associated Press by Jonathan Galassi, her...
View ArticleScholastic Book Fairs' new diversity opt-in comes under fire
Scholastic has responded to accusations of censorship at its book fairs stemming from the creation of a new diverse stories offering, called "Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice," which...
View ArticleFrankfurt Book Fair 2023: The War Against Books and Libraries
At this week's Frankfurt Book Fair, Publishers Weekly asked Richard Ovenden, director of the Bodleian Libraries of Oxford University and author of Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate...
View ArticleScholastic apologizes, will end controversial book fair offering
Amid a chorus of criticism from authors, librarians, educators, and freedom to read advocates, Scholastic this week said it would stop offering an optional collection of diverse books at its book...
View ArticlePurchase of Simon & Schuster returns it to a standalone company for the...
As of yesterday, the KKR purchase of Simon & Schuster from Paramount Global has been officially completed. With the $1.62 billion all-cash transaction, S&S is now a standalone private limited...
View Article"AI" named most notable word of 2023 by Collins dictionary
The technology that is set to dominate the future – for good or ill – is now the word of the year. "AI" has been named the most notable word of 2023 by the dictionary publisher Collins. Defined as...
View Article"Books keep our minds free": US prisons ban reading materials at alarming pace
Reading bans are rising at an alarming rate in prisons across the U.S. according to new PEN America data, and are often less documented than bans in other settings, making it hard to determine the...
View ArticleZibby Media withdraws National Book Award sponsorship over potential for...
Ahead of this year's National Book Awards ceremony, publisher Zibby Media has withdrawn its sponsorship of the event after learning that some authors were planning to use the awards ceremony to call...
View ArticleThis book club spent 28 years reading "Finnegans Wake," and now they're...
For a quarter century, Gerry Fialka, an experimental film-maker from Venice, California, has hosted a book club devoted to a single text: James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, one of the most famously...
View ArticleNational book awards: finalists use ceremony to call for Israel-Hamas...
A majority of this year's finalists at the national book awards made a collective statement calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war at the ceremony in New York on Thursday, amid a storm behind...
View Article"Prophet Song" by Paul Lynch wins 2023 Booker prize
Irish author Paul Lynch has won the 2023 Booker prize for his fifth novel Prophet Song, set in an imagined Ireland that is descending into tyranny. It was described as a "soul-shattering and true"...
View ArticleAll-American lineup for oddest book of the year award
The six-book shortlist has been unveiled for the 2023 Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of the Year, and all are from American publishers. The winning title is chosen by members of the public...
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