Belal Jadallah, one of the most beloved and respected journalists in Gaza, was killed yesterday by Israeli shelling. Known locally as “the godfather of Palestinian journalists,” Jadallah was the founder and chairman of the Gaza Press House—an organization dedicated to Read more >
More than 1,700 Canadian writers—including Noor Naga, Omar El Akkad, and Sarah Bernstein—have signed an open letter expressing support for the protestors who disrupted the Scotiabank Giller Prize gala at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto last Tuesday. On Tuesday Read more >
We’re just shy of one week out from the announcement of the UK’s biggest book prize: the Booker. So it’s time to place your bets on who will win the £50,000, a massive spike in book sales, and lifelong bragging Read more >
Multiple reputable accounts on Twitter (X, if you must) are reporting that Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha has been kidnapped by Israeli forces while fleeing to “safety” in southern Gaza. Abu Toha has recently published poetry in major American outlets Read more >
In a video address to the Munich Literature Festival yesterday, the human rights activist and Booker Prize-winning author of The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy made a powerful speech in solidarity with the Gazan people, and with the millions around Read more >
In further evidence of Mayor Eric Adams’s absolutely disastrous run as mayor of New York City, it was announced yesterday that the New York Public Library system will see widespread Sunday closures of many branches as a resulting of a Read more >
Celebrated British author A.S. Byatt—a scholar and novelist whose 1990 novel, Possession, won the Booker Prize and brought her international renown—has died at the age of 87. A statement released this morning by her longtime UK publisher, Chatto & Windus, reports Read more >
John Vaillant’s Fire Weather: A True Story From a Hotter World, has won the prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize for nonfiction. Per Frederick Studemann, chair of judges for the prize: Fire Weather brings together a series of harrowing human stories with Read more >
It’s been a hell of a 24 hours for writers demonstrating moral courage. Last night at the National Book Awards, over a dozen NBA finalists took to the stage to use their moment in the spotlight to oppose the ongoing Read more >
The St. Charles County library system recently bought additional copies of a challenged book, Bang Like a Porn Star: Sex Tips from the Pros, because “committee members need more copies to conduct a formal review.” Suuuuure guys. The book, which Read more >
In a star-studded National Book Awards ceremony that featured LeVar Burton (in another consummate turn as host), Oprah Winfrey (ebullient, and in person this time), and the disembodied voices of Julie Andrews, Trevor Noah, Matthew McConaughey (introducing the Translated Literature Read more >
As reported by Publishers Lunch earlier today, Zibby Owens—the CEO of Zibby Media and creator/host of the Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books podcast—has withdrawn her sponsorship of tomorrow’s National Book Awards ceremony, citing the nominees’ decision “to collectively band together Read more >
Last night’s Giller Prize ceremony in Toronto was interrupted twice by pro-Palestinian protesters. The event—which honors the best of Canadian literature—was attended by such luminaries as Margaret Atwood and Vincent Lam, who looked on early in the evening as several Read more >
It’s the middle of November, which means that, for many of us, the days are a not-quite-enviable blend of colder and shorter (why we still use Daylight Savings Time is a mystery I’ll save for elsewhere). But never fear, there’s Read more >
On 8 November 1623, the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays was registered, bringing together the great playwright’s work as a single printed collection for the first time and saving it for centuries to come. 400 years on, Folio is delighted Read more >
Over 2000 poets and writers—including Danez Smith, Franny Choi, Safiya Sinclair, Daniel José Older, Jamel Brinkley, Hala Alyan, and Javier Zamora—have pledged to boycott the Poetry Foundation (as well as it’s poetry journal, Poetry), citing “a recent instance of prejudiced silencing” Read more >
On November 11th, 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 >
Dr. Fady Joudah—an award-winning Palestinian American writer, poet, and physician, whose essay, “A Palestinian Meditation in a Time of Annihilation,” we were proud to publish last week—has lost more than fifty members of his extended family in Gaza in the past Read more >
Everyone knows that Kurt Vonnegut loved music. There’s that quote, you know the one. Vonnegut liked to repeat himself, but here’s how it appears in A Man Without a Country: No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our Read more >
Tania Branigan has won the 2023 Cundill History Prize for Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China’s Cultural Revolution. “Haunting and memorable, Tania Branigan’s sensitive study of the impact of the Cultural Revolution on the lives and psyches of an entire Read more >
