Patience and Fortitude have a new, freaky playmate. Tom Verlaine, the late livewire best known as frontman for the proto-punk band Television, has left his remaining archive to the NYPL. According to Fine Books & Collections, six decades of Verlaine Read more >
Today, the Sundance Film Festival starts in Utah, kicking off the domestic season for indie film. This year’s line-up is (happily!) full of original scripts. And new work from the likes of Rachel Lambert, Stephanie Ahn, and writer-directors Maryam Ataei Read more >
A new program called The Unbanned Book Network is stepping in to counter the increased threat of book bans in schools across America. The new initiative was launched this week by the team at We Need Diverse Books, and aims Read more >
Today, the National Book Critics Circle announced their finalists for the best books published in 2025—30 books in six categories—as well as the finalists for the John Leonard Prize for Best First Book, and the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Read more >
Three big J-names have new books this week, each one more coveted and anticipated than the last. Julian Barnes is releasing his 28th (!) book, a mix of memoir and fiction about mortality, memory, and love. Jeanette Winterson’s new work Read more >
People are really down on January, but I have to say, it’s not as bad as everyone says. There’s a good week and a half where people pretend they still don’t know what email is, you get to stunt around Read more >
Welcome, readers, to the first happy list of 2026! It’s already shaping up to be another year where easy joy goes thin on the ground, so celebrating the little things feels more important than ever. Here’s what’s making your friendly Read more >
Welcome to the second installment of this year’s awards season reading list. Here you’ll find bespoke recommendations tailored to your favorite movie of last year. After last week’s Marty Supreme list, I bring you another pairing from mid-century New York. Read more >
This week, Eugene Lim (Search History, Dear Cyborgs) was named the winner of the 44th John Dos Passos Prize, given every year by Longwood University “to a talented American writer who experiments with form, explores a range of voices and Read more >
January 1st is not just an involuntary national celebration of hangovers, it’s also Public Domain Day, when a tranche of old copyrights automatically expire. This year, thousands of works from 1930 entered the public domain, along with sound recordings published Read more >
For as long as I can remember, a bestseller in the world of books has only referred to the Times’s list of top sellers, the reigning measuring stick of publishing success. But a new bestseller list put together by two Read more >
Today, Chicago-based arts organization United States Artists announced their 2026 USA Fellows, a group of 50 artists, including five Writing Fellows, each of whom will receive a cash award of $50,000. Recipients are encouraged to use this unrestricted grant “for any Read more >
Now in its 22nd year, the Story Prize recognizes excellent short fiction from all over the world. Today, three finalists have been selected by Julie Lindsey and Larry Dark, the respective founder and current director of the Story Prize. This Read more >
As my colleague James Folta reported last week, the Adelaide Literary Festival descended into chaos after Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah, a Palestinian-Australian author, was abruptly removed from the festival over “sensitivity concerns.” In the wake of this call from the board, Read more >
Tis a truth universally acknowledged that in the second week of January, resolutions made in earnest over champagne toasts fizzle out like fireworks. This is the rubber meet road week, when we (or, I) start to crave structure around pledges Read more >
Readers seeking a deeper immersion in their books are turning to the multisensory experience of “ambiance videos.” Popular on BookTok, these are mood enhancing videos you can put on in the background while reading, to get into a story, curate Read more >
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