University presses are keeping American literature alive
In an opinion piece in the New York Times, Margaret Renkl explores the importance of University Presses: Many important manuscripts would not see the light of day if they were measured against...
View ArticleConcerns linger for libraries after mixed election results
As usual, EveryLibrary executive director John Chrastka was busy on Election Day, this year tracking the fate of some 55 library initiatives across 16 states. And while general support for libraries...
View ArticleB&N buys paper source
Barnes & Noble has bought Paper Source, the stationery and gift store retailer with 123 locations across 25 states. Starting immediately, customers will be able to redeem B&N and Paper Source...
View ArticleBBC and A24 adapting Booker Prize Winner 'Shuggie Bain'
The BBC and A24 are teaming for an adaptation of Douglas Stuart's 2020 Booker Prize-winning novel Shuggie Bain, an international bestseller, sold in 39 countries. Gaynor Holmes, BBC Drama...
View ArticleHarperCollins union workers bring strike to the National Book Awards
As the 73rd National Book Awards kicked off at the swanky Cipriani Wall Street in New York City, unionized HarperCollins employees took their strike to the sidewalks surrounding the venue. As guests...
View ArticleBook sales continued to struggle in August
U.S. book sales fell 9% in August compared to a year ago at the 1,367 publishers who report data to AAP's StatShot program. All segments had declines in the month. The largest drops came in the...
View Article2022 National Book Awards
The National Book Awards returned in person for the first time since 2019 on November 16 at their usual location of Cipriani Wall Street in New York City's financial district. Presiding over the...
View ArticleGreg Bear, 1951-2022
Greg Bear, a Seattle science-fiction author who played a leading role in defining how global audiences saw future final frontiers, died Saturday of complications following heart surgery. Born in San...
View ArticleHow Ukraine's artists are taking on Putin's Russia
In a piece in The Guardian, Charlotte Higgins interviews Ukrainian artists weaponizing their work to mount a powerful act of resistance: ...If art seemed a feeble and useless weapon in the first...
View ArticleMerriam-Webster's word of the year is 'gaslighting'
Merriam-Webster's word of the year – and this you can believe – is "gaslighting." The online dictionary chose "gaslighting," which it defines as "the act or practice of grossly misleading someone...
View ArticleDonate to help Ukrainian fathers at war record bedtime stories for their...
Recognizing the power of stories to engender a love of reading and strengthen family bonds, Ukraine-born, Amsterdam-based tech entrepreneur Andriy Shmyhelskyy created Better Time Stories, an app that...
View ArticleDonate to provide books to Ukrainian refugee children
Thousands of Ukrainian refugee children are about to spend their first Christmas away from home. With its holiday campaign #SuperPowerofBooks, Warsaw-based Fundacja Powszechnego Czytania (Universal...
View ArticleThe Word of the Year goes goblin mode
A year ago, the lexicographic grandees at Oxford Languages dutifully stuck out their arms and chose "vax" as the 2021 Word of the Year. But this year, the venerable publisher behind the Oxford English...
View ArticleParamount CEO says S&S will be divested
At a UBS media conference earlier this week, Bob Bakish, CEO of Simon & Schuster parent company Paramount Global, said that with the sale to Penguin Random House now dead, the company still plans...
View ArticleHow to ban 3600 books from school libraries
This year, at least 102 books have been removed from the shelves of school libraries in Clay County, Florida. Many of these books were pulled at the request of one man: Bruce Friedman. A conservative...
View ArticleReese Witherspoon and the boom in celebrity book clubs
Writing in the Guardian, Elle Hunt explores the phenomena of celebrity book clubs: ... Each celebrity's involvement varies massively, from merely posting a picture of the cover on their Instagram...
View ArticleObituary: Dominique Lapierre
Dominique Lapierre, "a footloose French journalist who documented beauty, hope and peace amid war, poverty and disease in a long series of popular books, including Is Paris Burning? (1964) and City of...
View ArticleUSA Today pauses bestseller list, lays off presiding editor
USA Today told the Associated Press that its weekly bestseller book list will go on "hiatus for the remainder of the year" after its presiding editor was laid off in a round of budget-saving cuts on...
View ArticleBookforum to cease publication
Bookforum magazine has announced that it will cease publication. The New York-based magazine's most recent issue, which was released this month, will be its last. Bookforum was launched in 1994 as a...
View ArticleWhy the HarperCollins strike matters to readers
It's been more than a month since Laura Harshberger, a senior production editor at HarperCollins (a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.), stopped producing children's books and went on strike...
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