Sarah Wolberg

Tommy Orange’s Wandering Stars wins the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Denene Millner’s One Blood wins Georgia’s top literary award, the Townsend Prize. A coalition of literary advocates are opposing Florida House Bill 1539, which would require schools to remove any book deemed harmful to minors within five days of a challenge. People explores how a Department of Education shutdown could impact book bans. Plus, Page to Screen and where to start with the works of Terry Pratchett.

Shortlists for the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Jhalak Prize, and the Donner Prize are announced. The U.S. Supreme Court seems likely to rule that parents can opt out of LGBTQIA+ stories in their children’s classrooms. The state of Iowa has appealed a U.S. District Court judge’s injunction against the 2023 law that has removed hundreds of books from school libraries. Attorneys for IMLS acting director Keith Sonderling have responded to the lawsuit filed earlier this month by the ALA. Plus, new title bestsellers and an interview with sisters and coauthors Anne and Claire Berest.

Winners of the Publishing Triangle Awards for LGBTQIA+ books are revealed. NYPL announces the finalists for the Young Lions Fiction Award. A lawsuit filed against the Rutherford County Board of Education by the ACLU of Tennessee aims to stop book bans in the county’s school libraries. Mystery writer Peter Lovesey has died at age 88. Plus, Page to Screen and new books from Dolly Parton and Scorsese collaborator Robbie Robertson.

Nominees for the Aurora Awards, for SFF and horror works by Canadian authors, are revealed. A number of authors are named to Time’s list of the 100 most influential people of 2025. The Libertarian Futurist Society announces the finalists for the Best Novel category of the Prometheus Awards. The 2025 Writers’ Trust of Canada Rising Stars are announced. Publishers Weekly talks to IMLS staffers who are worried about the cuts to the agency. Book subscription services are moving into publishing their own titles as well. Plus new title bestsellers and forthcoming books from Priscilla Presley and Zosia Mamet.

Winners are announced for the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards for works that deepen understanding of race and diversity. Finalists are selected for the Independent Book Publishers Association Awards and the Stella Prize. The Great Gatsby turns 100. Former Facebook executive Sarah Wynn-Williams, author of Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, testifies in front of Congress. Andrews McMeel launches a religious book imprint, Amen Editions. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Katie Kitamura, Eric Rickstad, and Don Winslow.

Winners of the Whiting Awards for emerging talents are announced. The Horror Writers Association has announced David Cronenberg, Dame Susan Elizabeth Hill, and Del and Sue Howison as recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award. Thomas Pynchon will publish his first novel since 2013, and Patti Smith has written a new memoir. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Edna Bonhomme, Peter Godwin, and Belinda Bauer.

Shortlists for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and the Charles Tyrwhitt Sports Book Awards are announced, as are winners of the Association of American Publishers PROSE Awards and the Christopher Awards. Publishers ask Congress to defend libraries as federal library grant funding ends. Picador will reissue more than 100 novels by Georges Simenon. Books are forthcoming from former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Plus, Page to Screen and Anthony Horowitz’s favorite books.

The National Book Foundation announces its 5 Under 35 honorees: Stacie Shannon Denetsosie, Megan Howell, Maggie Millner, Alexander Sammartino, and Jemimah Wei. Nicola Griffith wins the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association’s Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. The finalists are revealed for the Al & Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize for established Canadian poets. Reese Witherspoon’s April book club pick is All That Life Can Afford by Emily Everett. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Mark Hoppus, Maria Shriver, and Reginald Dwayne Betts.

The shortlist is announced for the EBRD Literature Prize for European literary fiction translated to English. After an Alabama board voted to defund the Fairhope Public Library over teen books, Read Freely Alabama raised over $40,000 to keep the library open. French Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal has been sentenced to prison in Algeria, allegedly for criticizing the country. Salman Rushdie will publish a new collection of stories, The Eleventh Hour, due out in November. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with John Green, Sigrid Nunez, and Cynthia Ozick.