Bookbrowse News About Books, Authors, and Book-Related Topics

PEN America has canceled its 2024 Literary Awards ceremony, which was previously scheduled to be held at the Town Hall in New York City on April 29, although some awards will still be conferred. The move follows months of steadily mounting criticism of the organization over its response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which culminated last week in 28 authors withdrawing books from consideration for the awards, including nine of the 10 authors nominated for the organization's top prize, the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award.

"We greatly respect that writers have followed their consciences, whether they chose to remain as nominees in their respective categories or not," PEN America literary programming chief officer Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf said in a statement. "We regret that this unprecedented situation has taken away the spotlight from the extraordinary work selected by esteemed, insightful and hard-working judges across all categories. As an organization dedicated to freedom of expression and writers, our commitment to recognizing and honoring outstanding authors and the literary community is steadfast."

Following the adoption of the new Hong Kong Security Law on March 19, the European & International Booksellers Federation and the International Publishers Association expressed concerns about the limits this law will create on the freedom to publish and on bookselling in Hong Kong. At issue are the bill's sweeping provisions and broad definitions. The Guardian recently reported that the impact of the new law on publishers and booksellers has been immediate.

"The steady deterioration of the freedom of expression in Hong Kong is alarming and disheartening," said EIBF co-president Jean-Luc Treutenaere. "The book publishing and bookselling communities are under threat by repressive security laws, which are resulting in vibrant and beloved bookshops shutting down. Any closure, and particularly in current times, is a massive loss to the book world."

Five publishers have joined the lawsuit filed last November 30 against Iowa over its book banning and anti-GLBQT law, meaning that plaintiffs now include all the Big Five U.S. publishers. The Iowa law would forbid school libraries and classrooms from carrying books describing or showing a "sex act," with the exception of religious texts like the Bible; prohibit educators from discussing "gender identity" and "sexual orientation" with students from kindergarten through sixth grade; and require school administrators to notify parents when students ask to change anything relating to their gender identity, such as their names or pronouns.

The five additional publishers are Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Sourcebooks. Plaintiffs who filed the original lawsuit were Penguin Random House, authors Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, Malindo Lo, and Jodi Picoult, the Iowa State Education Association, a high school student, her parent, and three educators; that suit focused on the book-banning aspects of the law. Another suit focusing on the anti-GLBQT aspects of the law was filed by seven students and the GLBT Youth in Iowa Schools Task Force, supported by the ACLU and Lambda Legal.

Navalny began writing Patriot shortly after his poisoning in 2020 and completed it just before his death in 2024. The book recounts the story of his life, including his youth, marriage, activism, political career, assassination attempts, and imprisonment, including never-before-seen correspondence from prison.

The American Library Association condemns censorship and works to defend each person's right to read under the First Amendment and to ensure free access to information. Every year, ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles a list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books in order to inform the public about censorship in libraries and schools. The lists are based on information from reports filed by library professionals and community members, as well as news stories published throughout the United States.

Lynne Reid Banks, a versatile British author who began her writing career with the best-selling feminist novel "The L-Shaped Room" but found her biggest success with the popular children's book "The Indian in the Cupboard," died on Thursday in Surrey, England. She was 94.

Former clients of Small Press Distribution are still scrambling to find viable options to replace the services provided by SPD before the distributor abruptly shut down last Thursday. SPD provided distribution to about 400 publishers, including a large number of literary presses.

As you're racing through a thriller or romance novel, you're not thinking about the fonts or layout on each page. But a designer has spent hours poring over each element on the page to create the most delightful reading experience. Just ask Leah Carlson-Stanisic, associate director of design at HarperCollins, one of the four biggest publishing houses in the the world. When a manuscript comes across her desk, she considers what font best expresses the content. Historical fiction might warrant a font created in the 1800s. A book about technology might require a more recent sans serif. "It's 30% experience and 70% intuition," she says. But over the past three years, HarperCollins's designers have put their skills toward a new mission: saving paper. In an effort to reduce the carbon footprint of each book, they're tweaking fonts, layout, and even the ink used. The goal is to pack more into each page, while ensuring that the pages are as readable as ever. And so far, these subtle, imperceptible tweaks have saved 245.6 million pages, equivalent to 5,618 trees.

Workers at America's largest chain of bookstores are gearing up for a nationwide union drive after six Barnes & Noble outlets voted to organize over the past year. "Many more" stores will unionize, according to booksellers demanding better pay and conditions. At locations that already have, employees accuse the chain's management of dragging their heels during contract negotiations. James Daunt, the CEO, is said to have embarked upon a months-long campaign to dissuade employees from voting in favor.

Psychologist and bestselling author Daniel Kahneman, whose research on how decision-making and biases can impact economics earned him a Nobel Prize, died on March 27. He was 90. Kahneman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, on March 5, 1934, and was raised in Paris until his family fled Nazi-occupied France. He graduated from Hebrew University in 1954 and received a doctorate in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1961. In 1993, he joined the faculty of Princeton University, where he spent much of his career. He went on to receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.