On CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, author Salman Rushie will offer his first televised interview since he was attacked at the Chautauqua Institution in New York in August 2022, the Guardian reports.

The New Yorker considers how smartphones have altered our reading practices.

PBS NewsHour reports on efforts by librarians to resist censorship and defend the right to read in the midst of an unprecedented movement to ban books from libraries nationwide.

The New York Times reports on a university program in Australia that seeks to create ties between the nation’s mainstream and Indigenous publishing industries.

Political leader Aleksei A. Navalny, who opposed Russian president Vladimir Putin before dying in prison in February, wrote a memoir. Titled Patriot, the memoir will be published in October by Knopf, reports the New York Times.

Literary Hub reports on trouble that continues to swirl around PEN America, which has received criticism for its response to the war in Gaza, where Israel’s offensive has reportedly killed more than thirty-three thousand Palestinians and induced “imminent” famine. Several writers have declined to have their books considered for PEN America’s historically prestigious awards, and more writers have declined to participate in the PEN World Voices Festival.

The winners of the 2024 Whiting Awards for emerging authors have been announced.  

The town of Princeton, New Jersey, has declared itself a book sanctuary, joining a growing movement to protect the right to read amid heated book-banning efforts nationwide. Read more about the book sanctuary movement in Poets & Writers Magazine.

The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) and the Seattle Public Library (SPL) have issued a report on the work of Books Unbanned, an initiative to counter efforts to ban books by offering borrowers nationwide digital access to titles through the libraries. The report includes data and testimonials about the impact of the program—launched in April 2022 by BPL and in April 2023 by SPL—which has reportedly increased access to books for readers facing a variety of challenges. Read more about Books Unbanned in Poets & Writers Magazine.

An investigation by the New York Times reveals how tech companies “cut corners” to train language-generative AI, including ChatGPT and other chatbots. Tech executives “discussed skirting copyright law,” and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, even considered buying Simon & Schuster to have access to longer works.

Goddard College in Vermont, which offered a low-residency MFA in creative writing, has announced that it will close in May due to financial challenges and low enrollment, reports Inside Higher Ed.

PEN America has announced its longlists of finalists for the free speech organization’s literary awards, the winners of which will be announced April 29.

The Associated Press reports on the stress librarians are feeling as conservative activists continue to ramp up efforts to ban books, primarily titles that deal with race and queer themes, from school and public libraries.

The New Yorker profiles author Maggie Nelson.

Literary activists are lobbying to appoint a poet laureate for the city of Austin, Texas, the only city in the Lone Star State without an official bard, reports news channel KXAN.

The shortlist of finalists for the International Booker Prize have been announced: Selva Almada for Not a River, translated from the Spanish by Annie McDermott; Jenny Erpenbeck for Kairos, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann; Ia Genberg for The Details, translated from the Swedish by Kira Josefsson; Itamar Vieira Junior for Crooked Plow, translated from the Portuguese by Johnny Lorenz; Jente Posthuma for What I’d Rather Not Think About, translated from the Dutch by Sarah Timmer Harvey; and Hwang Sok-yong for Mater 2-0, translated from Korean by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae.

Ingram Publisher Services has spurred panic among small presses after issuing deadlines for them to claim remaining book inventory after the closure of Small Press Distribution (SPD), an indie publishing distributor that was partnered with Ingram, reports Publishers Weekly. Small presses have reported not receiving final payments from SPD or clear directions about how to retrieve books that SPD was supposed to distribute for them.

Jina Moore has resigned from her role as Guernica’s editor in chief after the online literary magazine retracted an essay by Joanna Chen about living in Israel in the aftermath of the October 7 attack and the ensuing war in Gaza. Moore says she disagreed with the decision to retract the essay amid criticism that it “normalized the violence Israel has unleashed in Gaza,” she wrote in a statement on her personal website. “Guernica will continue, but I am no longer the right leader for its work.”

The New York Times offers a list of titles that were the most targeted by activists seeking to ban them from school and public libraries last year, which set a new record in book banning efforts nationwide. Gender Queer, an illustrated memoir by Maia Kobabe, is at the top of the list.

The Washington Post offers some tips for finding gems at used bookstores.