On August 10, a twenty-first century update on the traditonal roving library, the Digital Bookmobile will make its debut in New York City's Central Park, hosted by the New York Public Library.

The Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh's culturally vibrant Oakland neighborhood was hit with a bit of bookish graffiti early Monday morning, much to the chagrin of library staff.

The judges for this year's Man Booker Prize for Fiction yesterday announced the longlist of finalists. The list features thirteen books, including titles by five first-time authors as well as perennial favorite Salman Rushdie, who earlier this month was awarded the Best of the Booker Award for Midnight's Children (Jonathan Cape, 1981). 

On Sunday, the eve of the tenth anniversary of the death of celebrated Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert, an open-air performance of the play The Reconstruction of a Poet was held in Warsaw. The play, originally written as a radio drama, is one of five the poet produced in his life. The event also featured a multimedia installation on three giant video screens, including a selection of poems from Herbert's 1974 book Mr. Cogito, Chris Niedenthal's photos of Poland in the 1970s, and a television interview the poet gave in 1972.

On Saturday, novelist Toni Morrison gathered with a crowd of supporters on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, to dedicate a “bench by the road” celebrating the lives and legacy of millions of slaves.

The man who attacked Holocaust survivor and novelist Elie Wiesel in a hotel elevator last year was found guilty of a felony hate crime charge of false imprisonment by a San Francisco jury on Monday. Twenty-four-year-old Eric Hunt was also found guilty of misdemeanor battery and elder abuse; he was cleared of five other felony charges, including kidnapping.

On Tuesday, the administrators of the Man Asian Literary Prize released their longlist of twenty-one semifinalists for the 2008 award, given for a novel by an Asian author that has not yet been published in English.

The Los Angeles Times is laying off two of its book editors and ending its standalone Sunday book review section on July 27, Publishers Weekly reported yesterday. Although Nancy Sullivan, executive director of corporate communications at the newspaper would not comment on the future of its book coverage, four former editors of the section wrote a joint letter complaining about the cuts.

The staff of Cadillac Cicatrix, a two-year-old literary magazine based in Carmel Valley, California, recently was forced to evacuate the magazine's office in the face of encroaching wildfires.

Kay Ryan has been named the sixteenth poet laureate of the United States, the Library of Congress announced today.