In an interview with the BBC’s Big Boss Interview podcast, James Daunt, founder of the British bookstore chain Waterstones and current CEO of Barnes & Noble, spoke to the place of AI-authored titles on a bookshop’s shelf. “Do I think that our booksellers are likely to put those kind of books front and centre? I would be surprised,” Daunt said, but noted that Waterstones would stock “what publishers publish” so long as books using artificial intelligence were clearly labeled, and so long as readers want them, the BBC reports. 

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) will reinstate grants that had been terminated earlier this year by the Trump administration, NPR reports. The turn comes after attorneys general in twenty-one states filed lawsuit against the executive order that led to the termination of the grants; in November, a Rhode Island District Court judge ruled this action unlawful, releasing funds “that had been stuck in a months-long limbo.” Sam Helmick, president of the American Library Association, called the development a “massive win” for libraries in all states, but noted that “the fight is not finished,” as the administration may appeal the ruling and IMLS funding remains subject to congressional approval.

Spotify Wrapped is now offering audiobook listening hours and other personalized data, USA Today reports. “It’s been two years since Spotify began offering fifteen monthly audiobook listening hours under its Premium Plan. Last year, the streaming giant released the top global titles and authors. This year, you can see your reading analyzed alongside your music in Wrapped.”

Porter Anderson, the editor in chief of Publishing Perspectives, has died. Anderson led Publishing Perspectives since 2016. In 2019 he was awarded International Trade Press Journalist of the Year at the London Book Fair. He also cofounded the Hot Sheet newsletter, now known as the Bottom Line, with Jane Friedman.

For the Los Angeles Times, six writers remember Joan Didion for what would have been her 91st birthday. “The more I read Joan, the more I understand that without realizing it, perhaps, she was a philosopher of sorts—largely about the American arrival myth, and what that dream looks like, or doesn’t look like,” Hilton Als says.

Wyatt Williams writes in the New York Times Magazine about the new film adaptation of Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams, which arrives just as a new biography of the writer, Ted Geltner’s Flagrant, Self-Destructive Gestures, is published by the University of Iowa Press. “The biography shines an uncomfortably bright spotlight on an author who often chose to remain half in the shadow. Geltner’s reporting demystifies the troubled period of Johnson’s life that shaped Jesus’ Son and leaves the reader with, among other things, a set of damning facts. They present a portrait of a man who...had good reason to be haunted by what he had done. That understanding may even change how we read Johnson’s last, enigmatic novella.”

PEN America will honor best-selling author Ann Patchett with the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award at its annual gala on May 14, 2026. The organization will also honor Oscar-nominated film producer Jason Blum, founder and CEO of Blumhouse, with the Business Visionary award.

The British Ukrainian writer Marina Lewycka was posthumously awarded the Vintage Bollinger prize, a special award marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction, the Guardian reports. Lewycka, who died last month at the age of 79, won the award for her 2005 novel, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. 

Sam Kriss writes in the New York Times Magazine about what is becoming a familiar “literary voice” as AI-generated writing appears seemingly everywhere. “And as A.I. writing becomes more ubiquitous, it only underscores the question — what does it mean for creativity, authenticity or simply being human when so many people prefer to delve into the bizarre prose of the machine?”

The 2025 PW Salary and Jobs Report, an annual survey of publishing professionals conducted by Publishers Weekly, offers a snapshot of the demographics, job satisfaction, salary, and feelings about artificial intelligence among those working in publishing. Among the findings from the 726 respondents: 76 percent identified as white, down from 80 percent last year; most are generally happy with their chosen profession, median pay rose rose $5,000 last year, to $80,000; and 63 percent said their companies use AI. “But the more familiar people become with the technology, the less they seem to like it.”

Oxford University Press has revealed its Word of the Year, USA Today reports. The term “rage bait,” or online content that is intentionally meant to elicit anger, has tripled in usage over the last year.

For the New Yorker, Brady Brickner-Wood looks at the curious trend of “performative reading,” or treating a book like an accessory and reading in public while most others scroll on their phones and retreat under noise-cancelling headphones. “This way of perceiving social reality—and particularly a person’s reading life—may seem inane, even deranged. But performative reading has firmly implanted itself into the popular imagination, becoming a meme for a generation of people who, by all accounts, aren’t reading a whole lot of books.”

The novelist Daniel Woodrell, celebrated for prose “as rugged and elemental as the igneous rock of the Ozark Mountains,” has died, the New York Times reports. Best known for his 2006 novel Winter’s Bone, “he was an artist admired by close observers of contemporary fiction as a master storyteller of rural America.”

The Prison and Justice Writing Program at PEN America has launched the Incarcerated Writers Bureau, a digital resource to help make professional and creative opportunities more accessible to writers in U.S. prisons. “The website features information for publishers, literary agents, and  journalists seeking to work with incarcerated writers, a searchable roster of featured writers, and a database for publishers and media platforms to submit opportunities for writers working from prison.”

Pepe Montero has been named the new executive director of literary arts center Hugo House, Capitol Hill Seattle reports. The announcement comes nearly two years after Diane Delgado resigned from the position after less than a year on the job. Delgado was Hugo House’s first permanent executive director since Tree Swenson resigned in February 2021.

Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon, has hired a new CEO, according to Portland Business Journal. David Maquera takes over from Patrick Bassett who stepped down in September after five years in the position. “The leadership change comes two months after Powell’s laid off employees and secured a $4.5M capital infusion.”

More travelers are drawing inspiration for their trips from their favorite stories and books, USA Today reports. According to the global travel search engine Skyscanner, “55 percent of travelers have booked their trips based on literature, with 14 percent of them wanting to go on a writing or reading retreat and 33 percent hoping to visit a destination mentioned in a book.”

In an essay for the New York Times Magazine, Carlo Rotella, who teaches English courses at Boston College, writes about how some humanities teachers have approached their work using “more purposeful approaches to writing and reading, less reliance on technology and a renewed focus on face-to-face community.” According to Rotella, an English class that resists AI has three main elements: “pen-and-paper and oral testing; teaching the process of writing rather than just assigning papers; and greater emphasis on what happens in the classroom.”

James Patterson and Bookshop.org have partnered to launch a new literary award called the James Patterson and Bookshop.org Prize, Shelf Awareness reports. A grand prize of $15,000 will go to a debut author chosen by independent booksellers; a runner-up will receive $10,000. Full-length debut books originally written in English and first published in the U.S. between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025, are eligible for the prize. “Indie booksellers from qualifying bookstores will be able to nominate titles and vote for the longlist, shortlist, and final winners. Nominations will open on January 5, 2026, with the 10-book longlist scheduled to be announced on February 9. The five-book shortlist will be announced on March 16, and the winner on April 6.”

Kelly Jensen of Book Riot examines U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell’s ruling in favor of twenty-one state attorneys general who sued Donald Trump over the dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and several other small federal agencies. “This permanent injunction means that the Trump administration cannot do further harm to the IMLS.”