Oxford University Press is planning a round of layoffs, which, “if approved, will affect 113 employees,” according to Publishers Lunch. “A representative for the company said in a statement, ‘Like any organisation, we constantly adapt to changes within our markets. We have proposed some organisational changes which affect a small proportion of our overall workforce. We are currently undergoing a collective consultation process, and are working closely with impacted colleagues to support them during this time.’”

During the longest government shutdown in history, many independent bookstores “took on a new role as hubs for food donations,” the New York Times reports. “Dozens of bookstores have rallied around the issue of food insecurity in recent weeks, according to the American Booksellers Association.”

The New York Times follows actor Sarah Jessica Parker as she read 153 books during her time as a judge for this year’s Booker Prize. “It was the ‘experience of a lifetime,’ Parker said repeatedly during four interviews this past year tracking her time judging the award.” On November 10, David Szalay was revealed as the winner of the prestigious award for his novel Flesh.

A massive fire at a warehouse in Bhiwandi, a suburb of Mumbai, belonging to Indian comics publisher Amar Chitra Katha has destroyed more than 600,000 books, including special-edition sets, as well as “more than 200 original hand-drawn illustrations from the 1960s and 1970s,” the BBC reports. “The original positives on transparent film and other archival materials were also lost.” It took firefighters four days to contain the blaze.

Thirty-three incarcerated writers from twenty states have been named winners of PEN America’s 2025 PEN Prison Writing Awards, which honor literary works with first-place, second-place, and third-place prizes, as well as honorable mentions, in the categories of poetry, fiction, essay, memoir, and drama. “Administered by PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program, this year’s judging panel included for the first time ever six formerly incarcerated writers who were previous recipients of the awards.”

Translator Ross Benjamin writes in the Atlantic about the “Live Translation” feature of Apple’s new AirPods and the costs of instant translation made possible by AI. “The translation technology itself is astonishing, relying on large language models to all but realize the fantasy of the ‘Babel fish’ from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy—instant communication with anyone, in any language, simply by placing a device in your ear,” Benjamin writes. “Yet as people embrace these transformative tools, they risk eroding capacities and experiences that embody values other than seamlessness and efficiency.”

David Szalay has won the 2025 Booker Prize for his novel Flesh (Scribner, 2025). He receives £50,000 ($66,000). The annual prize is awarded to “the best sustained work of fiction written in English and published in the UK and Ireland.”

The Associated Press reports from Sunday’s Dayton Literary Peace Prize ceremony in Ohio where Salman Rushdie received a lifetime achievement award. Rushdie, whose latest book is The Eleventh Hour, his first collection of fiction since being attacked at the Chautauqua Institution three years ago, said that writers can express solidarity with those who are suffering and others on the front lines of conflict zones, such as journalists. “We can enlarge their voices by adding our voices to their voices. ... It can show us the reality of the other. It can show us what life looks like, not from our point of view, but from another point of view.”

Daniel J. Montgomery, who starts in his new role as executive director of the American Library Association, faces “a hefty slate of priorities...from federal appropriations and state funding for libraries, to partnerships with civic organizations, to generational change in the workforce, to concerns around AI and censorship,” Publishers Weekly reports. “One of my primary jobs will be to reaffirm our forward fight in support of librarians, library workers, and libraries themselves,” Montgomery is quoted as saying. “You don’t do that by signaling. You have to help libraries navigate budget fights, book bans, and attacks on public institutions.”

Rice University in Houston is launching a new MFA program in creative writing. The three-year graduate program, developed by faculty Lacy M. Johnson, Tomás Q. Morín, Kiese Laymon, Amber Dermont, Andrea Bajani, Ian Schimmel, and Justin Cronin “to nurture emerging voices in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, translation and hybrid forms while connecting students to Houston’s rich literary and cultural landscape,” will welcome its first cohort in fall 2026.

After more than two centuries of annual publication, the Farmers’ Almanac has published its final edition, USA Today reports. While the Farmers’ Almanac is not a literary publication—it is known “for its weather predictions, astronomy, and full moon and gardening calendars”—its demise is another reminder of the challenges facing periodicals. “The Almanac’s decision ‘reflects the growing financial challenges of producing and distributing the Almanac in today’s chaotic media environment,’ according to the news release.” However, it’s not all bad news: The Old Farmers’ Almanac, founded in 1792, twenty-six years before the Farmers’ Almanac, and also known for publishing weather forecasts, gardening tips, and so on, “announced that it will continue publishing on its website and a physical version of its annual publication.”

A library in South Molton, England, has collected dozens of bookmarks left inside returned books to create a Museum of Lost Bookmarks, according to the BBC. “Emma Ward, library assistant, said: ‘We think we will need a bit more room for it to grow as there are always more bookmarks coming into the library. ... We’ll do what we can to reunite them with people but if not, we will honour them by putting them on display,’ she said.” The Museum of Lost Bookmarks containts receipts, shopping lists, photos, and postcards as well as more formal bookmarks. 

Katy Hershberger of Publishers Lunch reports on a third-party law firm that is soliciting authors to opt out of the class-action Anthropic settlement. “ClaimsHero, an Arizona law firm with no connection to the case, purports to handle class action lawsuit claims on behalf of class members. They launched a page specifically for the Anthropic case, which plaintiffs argue does the opposite in a ‘bait-and-switch scheme’: anyone who signs up with ClaimsHero authorizes the company to opt them–and any copyright co-owner–out of the settlement and relinquish the right to any funds.” The ClaimsHero page states that anyone who opts out of the settlement could receive more than the agreed-upon settlement of $3,000 per book, though how exactly that would be accomplished is unclear.

The Maryland Board of Education has reversed a decision by Harford County schools to ban Mike Curato’s 2020 illustrated novel Flamer from its libraries, CBS News reports. “The state Board of Education also recommended that Harford County schools revise its evaluation procedures to ensure transparency, provide opportunities for public participation and handle future reconsideration matters. The decision comes after the county school board voted to ban the book during a closed-door session in June, sparking protests from some community members.”

The New York Times takes a final look at the finalists for this year’s Booker Prize, the winner of which will be announced on Monday in London. “Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is the favorite, but books by Andrew Miller, Katie Kitamura and Susan Choi are also in the running for the prestigious award.”

Publishers Weekly unpacks a new study, commissioned by the Gotham Ghostwriters and Bernoff.com, showing that “while most professional writers are embracing AI tools, authors, specifically fiction authors, are much more wary.” The study contains responses from 1,481 working writers, including 291 fiction authors; it reveals that nearly half (49 percent) of those fiction authors never use AI. “The report found that the heaviest AI users are thought leadership writers (84 percent), PR/comms professionals (73 percent), and content marketing writers (73 percent). Excluding fiction authors, the writing professionals least likely to use AI in their work are copy editors (33 percent), journalists (44 percent), and technical writers (52 percent).”

The British edition of GQ looks into the fashion industry’s supposed embrace of literature, with reading series serving as “the institutional glue” via which London’s “arty, cool, young(ish) community networks, parties, and hunts for romantic partners.” Josiah Gogarty writes: “As a lifelong book nerd, I would of course argue literature has always been cool, in a way. Certain guys and girls have always had hearts that do somersaults when they see someone cute tucking into Virginia Woolf or Martin Amis. But the boundaries of literature’s status have, in recent years, extended out of corduroy trouser land and deep into the more straightforwardly glamorous world of fashion and celebrity.”

The New York Times looks at bookstores as places of refuge and important sources of community in Russia, where censorship and restrictions on publishers and booksellers have grown more severe.

Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian, an all-volunteer project to document everything on display at the Smithsonian’s twenty-one museums, the National Zoo, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, plans to make the archive’s photos and videos accessible to the media and the public, according to Library Journal. “The initiative is a response to an August letter sent by the Trump administration to the Smithsonian Institution secretary stating that exhibits were subject to review and revision in an effort to ‘reflect the unity, progress, and enduring values that define the American story.’”

Fantagraphics will launch an imprint dedicated to East Asian comics and graphic novels next spring, Publishers Weekly reports. “Takumigraphics will put out 16 titles per year beginning next spring, with Fantagraphics editor Conrad Groth, president Eric Reynolds, and associate publisher Gary Groth leading acquisitions.”