This week, many readers were shocked to learn that two major papers will not be endorsing a presidential candidate this election cycle—a decision made at the bequest of two billionaires with estate tax in the game. Jeff Bezos, owner of Read more >
October, incredibly, is nearly over, though the end of the month is often just what we look forward to most: Halloween, Samhain, reflections on the passage of time and life alike. (And, because it’s inescapable this year, the election, though Read more >
On October 26th, the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) announced the winners of the 25th National Translation Awards. The NTAs are awarded, in both poetry and prose, to “literary translators who have made an outstanding contribution to literature in English Read more >
Bernardine Evaristo, president of the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) and author of the polyphonic, Booker-Prize-winning Girl, Woman, Other, is paying it forward. And the “it” in question is some primo Kentish real estate. As part and parcel of the RSL’s Read more >
Something’s happening with sex and work this season, culturally-speaking. On screen, Sean Baker’s Anora, a loving profile of an escort on the come-up, is gathering Oscar buzz. On the page, Sally Rooney’s latest, Intermezzo, features a character balancing an IRL Read more >
Have you heard the one about a stone rolling into a book fair, and leaving a complete unknown? Bob Dylan, music icon and Chalamet look-alike, is currently on a European tour and happened to find himself at publishing’s biggest book Read more >
Gary Indiana, the prickly polymath with a dozen lives and careers to his name, has died. He was 74. A fearsome art critic for The Village Voice, a longtime theater and avant-garde filmmaker, a formidable thinker, and a brilliant prose Read more >
I work as the bookstore manager for a bookstore in the Hudson Valley and one of the things that means is that I handle not only the ordering of most of our books, but the unboxing of them as well. Read more >
Viet Thanh Nguyen, Isabella Hammad, Maaza Mengiste, Laila Lalami, Sinan Antoon, Bryan Washington, and Susan Muaddi Darraj are among the hundreds of authors who have signed a petition calling for the reinstatement of Arab American writer Aisha Abdel Gawad, who was dismissed from her position Read more >
Today Hulu released a trailer for the forthcoming Interior Chinatown, a limited series adapted from Charles Yu’s National Book Award-winning novel of the same name. The show—like the book—will follow Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural Read more >
Today, the British Academy announced the winner of the 2024 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, which “celebrates exceptional research and the role of non-fiction in bringing to light new perspectives on global histories and cultural identity.” This Read more >
Last week, the Republican presidential nominee continued a parade of poor room reads with a bizarre dance party. And like Connor Roy’s karaoke pick, Trump’s selections were far from standard. He put on Rufus Wainwright’s cover of “Hallelujah,” and asked Read more >
We’re moving ever deeper into October, that month of mundane and marvelous transformations (and, often, political surprises) and, as always, I have new reads to recommend. Today, you’ll find twenty-four new books in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to consider, with Read more >
Anne de Marcken has won the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction for her novel It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over (New Directions). Marcken’s novel was selected from a shortlist of ten by an illustrious panel—Margaret Atwood, Read more >
Bob the Drag Queen has written a book, y’all. And this is not the standard tell-all memoir announcement now standard practice for the cross-over artist with a brand to build. Luckily for the world, the Drag Race winning superstar has Read more >
This morning, the Academy of American Poets announced this year’s recipients of two of its major prizes: the Wallace Stevens Award and the Academy Fellowship for Distinguished Poetic Achievement. Naomi Shihab Nye has won the 2024 Wallace Stevens Award, which Read more >
At a ceremony in New York City this evening, Kirkus Reviews announced the winners of the 2024 Kirkus Prize, given annual in three categories: fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature. “This year’s prize-winning books—each written with elegance and lucidity—illuminate tragedies both Read more >
Han Kang won the Nobel Prize last week, and no, we’re still not over it! Beating out a sea of favored predictions, Kang’s singularly surreal and audacious prose was a dark horse for Big Swede recognition. The academy praised Kang Read more >
Arundhati Roy, the internationally celebrated author and human rights activist, has once again proven herself to be a model culture worker. On receiving the PEN Foundation’s annually given Pinter Prize last week, Roy announced that she’d be donating her prize Read more >
Ah, the end of film festival season. That magical time of year when all the critics make their award predictions, and all your MoviePass pals are clogging theaters, eager to catch the indies without big distribution deals before they disappear Read more >
