This week, we’re regressing. We’re taking our brains and our palates back in time, to arguably better days. We’re longing for the old internet, and certain familiar characters. Some of us are tripping the light fantastic to bygone epochs entirely. Read more >
A Granite State minor’s library borrowing records used to be confidential, even to parents, but a recent New Hampshire state law has upended that privacy. Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, signed House Bill 273 on August 1st, which opens a Read more >
In good news for people who love bad news, the Associated Press is apparently ending its regular literary coverage. Starting September 1st, the national news source and media hub will no longer release their standardized, stand-alone reviews for new books. Read more >
It’s August, and, despite (or because of) the madness of the world, I come bearing new books. Below, you’ll find twenty-six remarkable new options to consider in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. You’ll find fiction on Ukraine, the last zoo in Read more >
Alice Oswald, one of Britain’s most acclaimed poets, was arrested at a mass sit-down demonstration outside the houses of Parliament in London on Saturday for holding up a sign in support of direct action movement Palestine Action. Oswald—a former Oxford Professor Read more >
The Polari Prize, one of the UK’s premiere awards celebrating LGBTQ+ writing, has sparked controversy by including John Boyne’s Earth as a contender for their annual Book Prize. In protest, at least half of the other longlisted authors and a Read more >
On Sunday night, the Israel Defense Forces bombed a journalists’ tent outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. The strike killed seven people, including Al Jazeera journalists Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Read more >
Many of our best writers have played the fake name game. Call it what you will—an alias, a pseudonym. But from Samuel Clemens to She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, we can find a gamut of wily writers determined to evade the postman. Or possibly, Read more >
A cool August week here in New York, and I’ve been obsessing over tomatoes. Peak tomato season is the best, an ecstatic experience, and in my humble opinion a redeeming moment for summer, which is otherwise too hot and sweaty Read more >
The theme this week is small attention. Whether palpating the perfect nightshade or kneeling at the church of secular folk, we spent time looking and listening close. Small things—good jokes, cupcakes, asides—kept the engines running. Drew Broussard went to a Read more >
Is James Patterson writing his own stuff these days? He’s seems to have a very full dance card as a collaborator/brand/the head of a Renaissance-style artist’s guild. He’s co-bylined books with the likes of Bill Clinton, Dolly Parton, and Mr. Read more >
In fresh hell, Trump signed a law “clawing back $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting” this week. This move effectively decimates the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which has conducted federal funds to NPR and PBS for nearly 60 years. Read more >
Today we mark the launch of a new literary institution: the National Association of Black Bookstores. A nonprofit collective and member-based organization, the NAB2 looks to “amplify Black voices, and preserve Black culture by increasing the visibility, sustainability, and impact Read more >
If you’re curious about what’s going on in the heads of our Supreme Court’s most regressive and Trump-loving minds, publishing has got you covered. Three books by conservative robesters are on the docket: Basic Books has a book slated for Read more >
As we’ve covered here, The New York Times has been among the most egregious when it comes to promulgating right-wing Israeli propaganda about the ongoing genocide. As James North reported in Mondoweiss last week, just days after publishing its first Read more >
August is here, and with this new month comes new books to look forward to—and we certainly need things to look forward to. Below, you’ll find a whopping twenty-seven new books to consider in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, spanning everything Read more >
It’s been a big book year for ex-pats. For perhaps obvious reasons, a lot of Americans seem to be getting off on the idea of fleeing the coop. Vincenzo Latronico’s Perfection, a ruthless depiction of two PMC EU citizens trying Read more >
David Grossman, widely considered to be Israel’s most prominent novelist, has described his country’s campaign in Gaza as a genocide. Speaking to Italian daily La Repubblica, in an interview published earlier today, the award-winning author and recipient of the 2018 Read more >
Welcome to August! The last third of summer begins, but there’s still plenty of time to finish reading that long book you’ve been working through and plenty of time to squeeze in one last trip to the ocean/lake/river/creek/body of water Read more >
This week’s little joys are all about razzle-dazzle. We dug new music, and movies. Some of us made these things. And we drew inspiration from sparkly genre pieces, from near and far in space and time. To start with magic. Read more >
