The Mississippi Library Commission, which offers specialized research assistance to libraries in the state, has ordered the deletion of two research collections: the race relations database and the gender studies database, the Guardian reports. “The collections were stored in what’s called the Magnolia database, which is used by publicly funded schools, libraries, universities, and state agencies in Mississippi.” The commission’s executive director, Hulen Bivins, confirmed that the deletions were in response to the Trump administration’s recent actions against the Institute of Library and Museum Services. “We may lose a lot of materials,” Bivins told the Guardian.

Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Andrea Long Chu, author of the new essay collection Authority (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), talks with Brittany Luse of NPR’s It’s Been a Minute about “what kind of authority critics have, and why we might need to rethink what criticism should do for us.”

At a ceremony in New York City last night the Whiting Foundation announced the ten winners of the 2025 Whiting Awards. The $50,000 prizes are designed “to recognize excellence and promise in a spectrum of emerging talent, giving most winners the chance to devote themselves full time to their own writing, or to take bold new risks in their work.” The winners in poetry are Karisma Price and Annie Wenstrup; the winners in fiction are Elwin Cotman, Emil Ferris, Samuel Kọ́láwọlé, Claire Luchette, and Shubha Sunder; the winners in nonfiction are Aisha Sabatini Sloan and Sofi Thanhauser; and the winner in drama is Liza Birkenmeier. “These writers demonstrate astounding range; each has invented the tools they needed to carve out their narratives and worlds,” said Courtney Hodell, Whiting’s Director of Literary Programs. “Taken as a whole, their work shows a sharply honed sensitivity to our history, both individual and collective, and a passionate curiosity as to where a deeper understanding of that history can take us.” The Whiting Awards, established in 1985 by the Whiting Foundation, remain one of the most esteemed and largest monetary gifts for emerging writers.

A new Thomas Pynchon novel, Shadow Ticket, will be published later this year, the New York Times reports. The novel is Pynchon’s first in more than a decade and is set in 1932 during the Great Depression. Shadow Ticket, which will be released on October 7 by Penguin Press, follows a private eye named Hicks McTaggart whose mission to find the heir to a Wisconsin cheese empire goes sideways when he ends up on a trans-Atlantic Ocean liner and then in Hungary.

The American Library Association and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, whose members include museum and library workers, have sued Keith Sonderling, the acting director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in addition to the IMLS itself; President Trump; and U.S. DOGE Service acting administrator Amy Gleason, in addition to DOGE itself, Publishers Weekly reports. The lawsuit argues that the Trump administration’s recent actions attempting to defund and shutter the IMLS are both illegal and unconstitutional.

Donovan Arthen, the interim executive director of Orion, has announced that Neal Thompson will be the magazine’s new publisher. Thompson is an author, journalist, editor, and literary arts funder. About his new appointment, Thompson said, “The work we do and the stories we tell are more important than ever. During challenging times—economically, politically, environmentally—we want readers to find comfort and inspiration in our pages, and we aspire to be an urgent and eloquent voice for the planet and all its creatures.”

Jeff O’Neal writes for Book Riot about Publishers Weekly’s decision to charge for review submissions. “[I]n this day and age of big tech platform media dominance, finding a new, sustainable, non-advertising revenue source is both clever and necessary.” He adds that the new policy “also has the secondary effect (perhaps primary?) of reducing the number of submissions.” Especially as AI-generated books flood the marketplace, he points out, the new guidelines will limit the number of books submitted for review consideration.

The shortlist for the International Booker Prize has been announced, the New York Times reports. The list includes On the Calculation of Volume: 1 (Faber) by Solvej Balle, translated from the Danish by Barbara J. Haveland; Perfection (Fitzcarraldo Editions) by Vincenzo Latronico, translated from the Italian by Sophie Hughes; Small Boat (Small Axes) by Vincent Delecroix, translated from the French by Helen Stevenson; Under the Eye of the Big Bird (Granta Books) by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from the Japanese by Asa Yoneda; Heart Lamp (And Other Stories) by Banu Mushtaq, translated from the Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi; and A Leopard-Skin Hat (Lolli Editions) by Anne Serre, translated from the French by Mark Hutchinson.

On April 3, a federal judge in Rhode Island denied a motion to block the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) from “prohibiting grant recipients from using grant funding to promote ‘gender ideology’ as defined by President Donald Trump in an executive order issued on January 20,” Publishers Weekly reports. The judge noted that following the filing of the lawsuit, the NEA retracted its implementation of the executive order, “pending further administrative review.” In a statement, ACLU senior staff attorney Vera Eidelman said that the opinion “makes clear that the NEA cannot lawfully reimpose its viewpoint-based eligibility bar.”

Boris Kachka writes for the Atlantic about the future of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) in Trump’s America. Though many universities, law firms, and corporations are capitulating to Trump’s demands, AWP’s executive director, Michelle Aielli, said that AWP will remain steadfast in its goals: “As of right now, the plan is not to scrub our website, not to change words, and, more importantly, not to change our mission,” she said. Anticipating the loss of a significant federal grant, the organization will focus on raising funding elsewhere.

Denise Lyons writes for Library Journal about the role libraries play in disaster preparedness and recovery. Because public libraries are often located in central areas, they are strategic partners during crises, offering shelter and other basic needs during severe weather, coordinating efforts to donate materials, and collecting information and resources to distribute to their communities.

Twelve U.S. copyright cases against OpenAI and Microsoft have been combined in New York, even though most of the authors and newspapers suing the tech companies were opposed to centralization, the Guardian reports. The U.S. judicial panel on multidistrict litigation said that centralization will “allow a single judge to coordinate discovery, streamline pretrial proceedings, and eliminate inconsistent rulings.” Authors Ta-Nehisi Coates, Michael Chabon, Junot Díaz, and the comedian Sarah Silverman are among the authors whose cases will be transferred from California to New York and joined with cases brought by the New York Times as well as other authors, including John Grisham, George Saunders, and Jonathan Franzen.

Eve Bridburg, the founder and executive director of GrubStreet, is stepping down from her role at the end of 2025. Bridburg served as executive director for fifteen years and founded GrubStreet twenty-eight years ago. In a statement posted to GrubStreet’s website she wrote, “Our mission and vision have never mattered more. In moments like this—when human and civil rights are under attack and polarization is deepening—we need writers to help us understand the world, frame and reframe the issues, and imagine new possibilities.”

The Trump administration is demanding enormous cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the New York Times reports. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is recommending that the NEH reduce its staff by 70 to 80 percent (approximately 180 people). Additionally, the DOGE recommendations could amount to a termination of all grants made under the Biden administration that have not been fully paid out. The NEH was founded in 1965 and has distributed more than $6 billion in grants to museums, historical sites, universities, libraries, and other cultural institutions since then.

The National Book Foundation has announced this year’s 5 Under 35 honorees: Stacie Shannon Denetsosie, Megan Howell, Maggie Millner, Alexander Sammartino, and Jemimah Wei. All the writers will receive $1,250 at a public ceremony in New York on June 4.

Niko Pfund has been named the new director of Yale University Press, Publishers Weekly reports. Pfund joins Yale from Oxford University Press, where he served as global academic publisher and president of its U.S. division. Pfund succeeds John Donatich, who has led Yale University Press since 2003, and is retiring on June 30.

The New York Public Library has published a list of the twenty-five best new poetry books for adults. The list includes Book of Kin (Autumn House Press) by Darius Atefat-Peckham, Forest of Noise (Knopf) by Mosab Abu Toha, and Yard Show (BOA Editions) by Janice N. Harrington, among other titles.

A group of authors including Richard Osman, Kazuo Ishiguro, Kate Mosse, and Val McDermid have signed an open letter calling on the UK government to hold Meta accountable over its use of copyrighted books to train artificial intelligence, the Guardian reports. The statement, written by the Society of Authors, was published on Change.org in the form of a petition, and has since garnered nearly 5,000 signatures.

Matthew Purdy writes in the New York Times Magazine about what George Orwell, author of the prescient novel 1984, might think about politics today. “In 1984, the ultimate power is the power to define truth,” Purdy writes. “And it remains so.”

In the New York Times, A.O. Scott reflects on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, which turns one hundred this year. Scott considers the afterlives and possible contexts for Jay Gatsby with subtitles including “Jazz Age Gatsby,” “Existential Gatsby,” “High-Low Gatsby,” and “Hip-Hop Gatsby.” Images from film, television, and other media are integrated into the article, reinforcing the novel’s enduring impact on popular culture.

The Rumpus has announced that Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman will be the magazine’s new owners. Gay and Millman will take over the Rumpus starting May 1, succeeding the magazine’s current publisher, Alyson Sinclair. Roxane Gay, a founding essays editor of the Rumpus, said, “It’s a truly full-circle moment,” and Debbie Millman, a celebrated designer, writer, and educator, plans to bring renewed attention to the way visual artists appear in the magazine.

The University of Georgia Press has announced a new series called African Language Literatures in Translation, a venue for both classic and contemporary literature originally written in indigenous African languages. The series editors will be Alexander Fyfe and Christopher Ernest Ouma, and the first titles are slated to be published in Spring 2026. Fyfe says, “With this series, we want to create a sustainable venue for translations of African-language writing that makes texts available to Anglophone readerships, while contributing positively and responsibly to the publishing and translation ecosystems that already support African writing.”

In the latest installment of the New York Times series By the Book, Maggie Smith discusses her new book, Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life (One Signal Publishers, April 2025), and “unlearning” her identity as a poet. “I’d thought of myself as a poet only for many years, and I’ve had to set that limiting belief aside, to unlearn it, in order to write other kinds of books without feeling like an interloper in other genres,” she says. Read an excerpt from Smith’s Dear Writer in the January/February 2025 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Fiona McFarlane has won this year’s Story Prize (which awards $20,000) for her short story collection Highway Thirteen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024).

Canadian booksellers have united to ask that Prime Minister Mark Carney exclude books from the 25 percent counter-tariffs scheduled to take effect on April 2 on $125 billion worth of goods imported from the U.S., Publishers Weekly reports. The executive director of the Canadian Independent Booksellers’ Association and the CEO of the bookstore chain Indigo Books & Music penned a joint letter stating that imposing tariffs on books would have “devastating consequences for Canadian readers, our businesses, and our cultural landscape.” Industry professionals are concerned that books printed and distributed through U.S. warehouses would be subject to the additional tariff, which would be catastrophic for Canadian bookstores and the livelihoods of thousands of Canadians.

Cat Zhang writes for New York magazine about how Simon & Schuster’s new publisher, Sean Manning, is innovating in the book business and seeking to establish brand loyalty with readers. Manning made headlines six months into his new role when he announced that the imprint would no longer require blurbs. He also “admits to taking cues” from other publishing companies who have brokered partnerships with retailers, hosted festivals, and produced multimedia content. “We’re essentially an entertainment company with books at the center. Every Tuesday, we have a new author who’s a cultural tastemaker,” he says.“Why aren’t we using them? Why are we so dependent on outside media?”

The Alabama Public Library Service Board of Trustees recently voted to defund the Fairhope Public Library after conservative parents complained about books in the teen section, the Guardian reports. The board chairperson, John Wahl, who is also the chair of the Alabama Republican Party, claimed that the library is in violation of state policies to protect youth from inappropriate materials. Read Freely Alabama has started a fundraiser to try to replace the $42,000 in state funding for the Fairhope library.

After releasing longlists for its annual awards, PEN America has been met with criticism for the second year, Publishers Lunch reports. At least two authors—Kaveh Akbar and Brandon Shimoda—have withdrawn their books from consideration for the $75,000 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, referring readers to Writers Against the War on Gaza for more information. Last year, one third of nominated authors withdrew their books from consideration for the awards and PEN America ended up donating the funds dedicated to the Jean Stein Award to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund at the direction of Stein’s estate.

Publishers Weekly reports on the ways book industry leaders are responding to the implications of generative AI. Organizations including the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Association of University Presses have responded to the White House’s request for public comment regarding the administration’s development of an Artificial Intelligence Action Plan. AAP emphasized the importance of copyright protections and noted that American publishers generate almost $30 billion a year in the U.S. alone. Several licensing platforms are also now appearing on the market to mediate the legal use of copyrighted material for AI training.

Monica Youn will serve as the next judge of the Yale Younger Poets Prize, the oldest annual literary award in the United States. Youn succeeds Rae Armantrout, who judged the prize from 2021–2025. The 2026 competition will open for submissions on October 1 and close on November 15.

The shortlist for this year’s Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize has been announced, the Guardian reports. The prize celebrates fiction in all its forms (including poetry, novels, short stories, and drama) written by authors aged thirty-nine or younger. The 2025 shortlist includes Seán Hewitt (Rapture’s Road), Ferdia Lennon (Glorious Exploits), Yael van der Wouden (The Safekeep), Rebecca Watson (I Will Crash), Eley Williams (Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good), and Yasmin Zaher (The Coin). The winner will be announced on May 15 and receive 20,000 pounds (approximately $25,934).

Claire Kirch writes for Publishers Weekly about how the indie bookstores in Washington D.C. are responding to government layoffs. Approximately 450,000 federal employees live, work, and shop in Washington D.C., and some indie booksellers have reported declines in traffic and sales. Others have reported customers buying more books, looking for “escapist” literature or sharing “that they’re out of work and so have more time to read.”

The shortlist for the inaugural Climate Fiction Prize has been announced, the Guardian reports. Sponsored by the global organization Climate Spring, the Climate Fiction Prize will be awarded annually to “the best novel-length work of fiction published in the UK engaging with the climate crisis.” The shortlist includes Orbital (Jonathan Cape, 2023) by Samantha Harvey and The Morningside (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2024) by Téa Obreht, among other titles. The winner will be announced on May 14 and receive 10,000 pounds (approximately $12,966).

Kate Millar interviews Pádraig Ó Tuama about religious trauma, desire, and poetry as prayer for Public Books. Ó Tuama discusses the limitations of the word “believe,” sharing, “I began to look for other verbs when it comes to my doubt and my rage and my yearning and my suspicion and my sadness, all gathered around the question of God—my politics of the question of God.” He adds, “The source of prayer, or yearning, or praise, or lament, or rage, needs to find an expression. Isn’t that what poetry is?”

PEN America has announced that its World Voices Festival and Literary Awards will return this year after being canceled in 2024 due to protests over the organization’s response to the war in Gaza, Publishers Weekly reports. The 2025 PEN World Voices Festival will run from April 30 to May 3, and the 2025 PEN America Literary Awards ceremony is set for May 8. In a statement, Summer Lopez, interim co-CEO and chief program officer of free expression, said: “Our work is not done to repair and regain the trust of not just Palestinian writers but all writers and members of our community.”

Library funding is targeted in another executive order by Trump, Kelly Jensen reports for Book Riot. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is the only federal agency that distributes funding to libraries, as well as library, museum, and archival grant programs. The order states that the IMLS must be reduced to “statutory functions” and that expenses must be cut as much as possible. In a statement the American Library Association said: “To dismiss some 75 committed workers and mission of an agency that advances opportunity and learning is to dismiss the aspirations and everyday needs of millions of Americans.” IMLS receives .0046 percent of the federal government’s overall budget, and the order gave the agency seven days to report back. Public libraries, including school and academic libraries, could see their budgets destroyed as soon as this Friday, March 21.