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Shortlists for the Booker Prize and the Financial Times/Schroders Business Book of the Year are announced. Dream States: Smart Cities, Technology, and the Pursuit of Urban Utopias by John Lorinc has won the inaugural Pattis Family Foundation Global Cities Book Award. A new PEN America report finds a 33% jump in school book bans. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Aparna Nancherla, Jo Nesbø, Michael Wolff, and more.

A new Simon & Schuster program highlights the merits of books that have been subject to censorship and will provide resources for fighting book bans. The Academy of American Poets announces the winners of its annual poetry prizes. LeVar Burton will serve as the honorary chair of this year’s Banned Books Week. Amazon will require publishers on Kindle to disclose when any of their content is generated by artificial intelligence.

ALA’s data on 2023 book challenges shows a surge this year. Shortlists for the German Book Prize and BBC Young Writers’ Award are announced. The Mellon Foundation appoints historian and scholar Kelly Lytle Hernández as its 2023 Fellow in Residence. Prominent novelists, including John Grisham, Jonathan Franzen, Jodi Picoult and Elin Hilderbrand, sue OpenAI. The September LoanStars list is out, featuring top pick The Armor of Light by Ken Follett. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Richard Osman’s The Last Devil To Die. The Hunger Games, based on the book by Suzanne Collins, returns to select theaters in October.  Plus, a verdict is delivered on the “Bad Art Friend” case.

Oprah picks Wellness by Nathan Hill for her book club. Wayne Johnston wins the 2023 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour for his memoir, Jennie’s Boy: A Misfit Childhood on an Island of Eccentrics. The 2023 British Fantasy Awards winners are announced. Nihar Malaviya is officially named CEO of Penguin Random House. Russell Brand’s publisher has paused all new projects, including a self-help book that was slated to publish this December. NYT explores “How TikTok Is Reshaping the American Cookbook.”  Plus, Kate DiCamillo reflects on the 20th anniversary of her award-winning children’s book The Tale of Despereaux, at Washington Post.

The Last Devil To Die by Richard Osman leads holds this week. The National Book Awards announces its longlist for fiction. The 2023 winners of the McIlvanney Prize and the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize are announced. Rolling Stone cofounder Jann S. Wenner was removed from the Rock Hall of Fame board after an inflammatory interview with NYT while promoting his new book. People’s book of the week is Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll. Anderson Cooper discusses his new book, Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune, with CBS Sunday Morning. And American Fiction, based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett, wins the Toronto Film Festival’s top prize.

The National Book Awards announces its longlists for nonfiction and poetry. The Flow: Rivers, Waters and Wildness by Amy-Jane Beer and The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole win the Wainwright Prize for nature writing. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Leila Aboulela, John Manuel Arias, Kate Atkinson, and more.

The National Book Awards longlist for translated literature is announced; the longlists for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry will be announced later today and tomorrow. Finalists are announced for the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQIA+ emerging writers and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Plus new title best sellers and interviews with David Diop, Franklin Foer, Zakiya Dalila Harris, London Hughes, Daphne Kalotay, Angie Kim, Marisa Meltzer, Maggie O’Farrell, and Sarah Ogilvie.

The National Book Foundation rescinds Drew Barrymore’s invitation to host the 74th National Book Awards Ceremony host after her talk show resumes during the WGA strike. Sandra Cisneros wins the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. Kirsty Whatley wins the 2023 Nature Writing Prize for Working Class Writers. Earlyword’s September GalleyChat spreadsheet is out now, featuring early buzz for Alex Michaelides’s forthcoming novel, The Fury. The Pulitzer Prizes officially expand eligibility to noncitizens. Michael Chabon joins other writers to sue Meta AI platform for copyright infringement. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Code Red by Vince Flynn & Kyle Mills.

The 2023 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding announces a shortlist. The 2023 Whiting Literary Magazine Prizes are announced. PW rounds up September’s book club picks. Books by Lauren Groff, Walter Isaacson, Oprah Winfrey, and Arthur C. Brooks continue to buzz. Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing sequel, Iron Flame, will arrive November 7.  Water for Elephants musical, based on the novel by Sara Gruen, will open on Broadway this spring. Plus, a new Agatha Christie memorial statue is unveiled on a bench in Wallingford.

Code Red by Vince Flynn & Kyle Mills leads holds this week. Titles by James Patterson, Jill Duggar, Lauren Groff, Jennifer L. Armentrout, and Mick Herron also get attention. Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk arrives with buzz. The National Book Foundation will honor Rita Dove with a medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and LitHub announces the shortlist for 2023 American Library in Paris Book Award. People’s book of the week is Chenneville by Paulette Jiles. Oprah Winfrey and Arthur C. Brooks discuss their new book, Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier. Plus, Stephen King’s novel Christine and its film adaptation turn 40.

The Ned Kelly Award winners, celebrating the best in Australian crime writing, have been named. The winners of the Davitt Awards, recognizing the best crime and mystery books by Australian women, are announced. The same effort that promotes book bans is spurring some libraries to leave the ALA over its defense of books. Edith Grossman, eminent translator of Spanish literature by Cervantes and Gabriel García Márquez, dies at 87. Journalist and author Peter C. Newman, who chronicled Canada’s power brokers, has died at 94.

Reese Witherspoon chooses Nina Simon’s Mother-Daughter Murder Night as her latest book club pick. The winners of this year’s Anthony Awards, for outstanding mystery books, are announced. Winners are also out for the 2023 Dragon Awards, for SFF novels. The longlist has been announced for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize, honoring the best Canadian novel, graphic novel, or short story collection. SFF novelist Rich Larson wins the 2023 Eugie Foster Memorial Award for Short Fiction.

The Baillie Gifford Prize longlist is announced. The 2023 National Translation Awards longlist arrives, along with the 2023 Washington State Book Award nominees. Jenna Bush Hager picks Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood for her September book club. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Stephen King’s Holly. Author Carl Hiaasen pays tribute to Jimmy Buffet. Plus, WSJ reports that the FTC will file an antitrust suit against Amazon later this month.

Holly by Stephen King leads holds this week. The shortlist for the 2023 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award is announced. Audiofile announces the September 2023 Earphones Award winners. People releases its fall must-read preview. September’s Costco Connection is out, featuring an interview with Swedish author Karin Smirnoff, who continues Lisbeth Salander’s story in The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons. ShelfAwareness reports on strike news from Powell’s Books. Plus, Ernest Hemingway’s letter detailing a plane crash that he survived has sold for $237,055 at auction.

The finalists for the 2023 Kirkus Prizes are announced. The finalists for the 2022 Sidewise Award for alternate history are announced. NYT reports on YA novelist John Green’s involvement in ensuring access to books in Indiana libraries. 

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim is the new GMA Book Club pick for September. The 2023 Dream Foundry Contest winners are announced. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner. Esquire has a feature profile of author Chuck Palahniuk. LitHub pairs “10 Books for Taylor Swift’s 10 Eras.” Ibram X. Kendi celebrates a cancer-free milestone. Plus, Crime 101, based on a novella by Don Winslow, sparks a bidding war between Netflix and Amazon.

Fall booklists and previews arrive. The Readings New Australian Fiction Prize 2023 shortlist is announced. Ingram adds print-on-demand capability to its Chambersburg, PA, location. Interviews feature Zadie Smith, Bryan Washington, Safiya Sinclair, David Kennerley, Myriam Gurba, and Harold Rogers. The release date of Dune: Part Two has been moved to 2024, due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Plus, A Haunting in Venice, based on Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party, arrives in select theaters early.

The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner leads holds this week. Three LibraryReads and five Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Happiness Falls by Angie Kim. Washington Post reports that the Pulitzer Prizes will consider opening books and arts prizes to noncitizens. The Polari Prize’s 2023 longlists are announced. A new trailer arrives for Cat Person, based on viral New Yorker story by Kristen Roupenian, which premieres in theaters October 6. And Bob Barker, legendary game show host, animal activist, and author, has died at the age of 99.

Alice Winn wins 2023 Waterstones debut fiction prize for In Memoriam. The UK’s Ackerley Prize for Autobiography names its 2023 shortlist. SFF and horror novelist (and music composer and conductor) S.P. Somtow is honored by the Thai National Committee for Culture. 

A new PEN America report documents a surge in “educational intimidation” bills. Salon speaks with former NFLer Michael Oher about The Blind Side controversy and his new book, When Your Back’s Against the Wall: Fame, Football, and Lessons Learned Through a Lifetime of Adversity. Equipping Space Cadets: Primary Science Fiction for Young Children by Emily Midkiff wins the 2023 Science Fiction Research Association book award; the SFRA’s other awards are announced as well.

The 2023 American Book Award winners are announced, including Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, Edgar Gomez, Jamil Jan Kochai, Bojan Louis, Leila Mottley, and more; Maxine Hong Kingston will receive a lifetime achievement prize, and the late bell hooks will be awarded the Walter & Lillian Lowenfels Award for Criticism. The 2023 PEN Translates winners are announced. Fall book previews start to arrive, along with author interviews. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for After That Night by Karin Slaughter.

The longlist for the 2023 German Book Prize is announced. The 2023 Prix Rosny Aîné winners are announced. The Atlantic reports on the authors and books that are powering generative AI. Washington Post features the work of Yiddish writer Chava Rosenfarb. Interviews arrive with Lauren Beukes, Karin Slaughter, Amber Caron, Josh Cook, Prachi Gupta, and Kate Zernike. Valorie Lee Schaefer reflects on the 25th anniversary of her book The Care and Keeping of You, at Elle. Plus, the 12th season of American Horror Story, based on the novel Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine, gets a new trailer.

After That Night by Karin Slaughter leads holds this week. Bolu Babalola wins the 2023 TikTok Book of the Year award for Honey and Spice. Alice Oseman and Holly Parker also garner awards. People’s book of the week is A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power. September’s LibraryReads list is out, featuring top pick The September House by Carissa Orlando. Amy Winehouse: In Her Words publishes next week. Plus, Disney+’s Percy Jackson And The Olympians gets a trailer.

Author Michael Lewis, whose book inspired The Blind Side film, speaks out on the root cause of the family’s rift. Meanwhile, NYT examines Michael Oher’s version of the story, via his two memoirs. Plus book reviews, book news, and Page to Screen, which includes an animated version of a 16th-century Chinese novel, a spin-off of Frankenstein, and a true-crime thriller about an Irish Republican Army unit undercover in London.

Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman wins the 2023 Arthur C. Clarke Award. The longlist is released for the Laurel Prize, honoring the best collection of environmental or nature poetry. Authors call on Justice Dept. and FTC to investigate Amazon’s alleged monopoly in the bookselling industry. NYT profiles Skyhorse Publishing. Washington Post runs an obituary for the late scholar Nechama Tec, a Holocaust survivor who authored Defiance.

Penguin Random House launches a new banned-books resource. An Iowa school district uses AI to remove titles from library collections. Booklists highlight Women in Translation Month. None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell tops the August LoanStars list. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Lion & Lamb by James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski. Interviews arrive with Alice Hoffman, Pidgeon Pagonis, Kai Cheng Tho, Jenn Shapland, Karan Feder, Drew Gilpin Faust, Laura Meckler, and more. LA Times and Datebook take a critical look at The Blind Side.

Music labels sue the Internet Archive over copyright infringement. Former NFL tackle Michael Oher, whose story was the inspiration for Michael Lewis’s book The Blind Side and its film adaptation, sues to end conservatorship. Katy Turner wins the Romance Novelists Association’s Joan Hessayon Award. The 2023 Splatterpunk Awards winners are announced. NYT highlights the popularity of Brooklyn Public Library’s limited-edition cards featuring Jay-Z.

Lion & Lamb by James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski leads holds this week. Other buzzy books include titles by Alice Hoffman, James Rollins, T. Kingfisher, and Paul Murray. Five LibraryReads and four Indie Next picks publish this week; People’s book of the week is The English Experience by Julie Schumacher. Tess Gunty discusses her National Book Award–winning novel, The Rabbit Hutch, with CBS Sunday Morning. Award-winning poet Keith Waldrop has died at age 90.

The Wainwright Prize for nature and conservation writing has released its 2023 shortlist, and the Laurel Prize for best ecopoetry announces its 2023 longlist. Plus book reviews, book news, and Page to Screen, which includes a film about Stephen King, one spinning off of Dracula, and Red, White & Royal Blue, based on the novel by Casey McQuiston.

The longlist is announced for the Petrona Award for best Scandinavian crime novel. Finalists are announced for the Dragon Awards. Author Dmitry Glukovsky has been sentenced to prison in Russia for speaking out on Ukraine. Amazon removes books allegedly generated by AI that author Jane Friedman says were falsely attributed to her. The author of The Tetris Effect: The Game That Hypnotized the World sues filmmakers for copying his book for the 2023 Apple+ Tetris biopic. Alice K. Ladas, author of landmark book on female sexuality, dies at 102. Guitarist-songwriter-singer-memoirist Robbie Robertson, leader of ’60s and ’70s rock group the Band, has died at age 80.

Hallie Rich is named editor in chief of Library Journal. The 2023 Ned Kelly Awards announces its shortlist. CBC Books announces its Writers to Watch list. Earlyword’s August GalleyChatters rave about Jean Kwok’s forthcoming novel, The Leftover Woman, due out in October. LA Times explains what Simon & Schuster’s sale means for “authors, the industry—and you.” LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell. Pulitzer Prize winner Barbara Kingsolver leads a literary tour through Appalachia for NYT. Plus, Apple TV+ releases a new trailer for The Changeling, based on the best-selling book by Victor LaValle.

Simon and Schuster is sold for $1.62 billion to the private equity firm KKR, which also owns Overdrive. Masha Gessen wins Germany’s Hannah Arendt Prize. The 2023 Cundill History Prize longlist is announced. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex acquire rights to Carley Fortune’s Meet Me at the Lake. Brooke Shields announces a new book, to be published by Flatiron. Slate interviews James McBride about The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. Librarians suggest strategies for adults just getting into books for the first time, at Vox.

None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell leads holds this week. People’s book of the week is The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, which garners rave reviews as a “great American novel.” Paramount is close to an announcement on Simon & Schuster deal. The September 2023 Indie Next List Preview is out, featuring Lauren Groff’s The Vaster Wilds. The 2023 Ned Kelly Awards shortlists are announced. Lin-Manuel Miranda will adapt Sol Yurick’s cult novel The Warriors into a stage musical. Bloomsbury USA president Adrienne Vaughan died in a boating accident on Friday.

The longlist for the Diverse Book Awards, the longlist for the Toronto Book Awards, and the winners of the 2023 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award are announced. Otto Penzler announces a new true-crime imprint, Crime Ink. Seiichi Morimura, who exposed Japanese wartime atrocities in a widely read book in Japan, has died at age 90. Composer Carl Davis, best known for his scores for literary adaptations like the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice, has died at age 86. Cookbook writer Marlena Spieler has died at the age of 74.

Finalists have been named for the Leacock Medal for humor writing and the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award for books about thoroughbred horse racing. “A.I.’s Inroads in Publishing Touch Off Fear, and Creativity,” reports NYT. Bidding for Simon & Schuster draws to a close. A new novel by Emily Henry is coming in the spring. Faith-based groups and individuals are heading to libraries this Saturday to take part in a nationwide book reading event. There are obituaries for Lois Libien, Alan Roland, and Martin Walser.

Reese Witherspoon picks Tom Lake by Ann Patchett for her August book club. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for the novel, which is the top holds title of the week. Audiofile announces the August 2023 Earphones Award Winners. Fantasy Magazine will shutter after its October 2023 issue. The late Paul Reubens leaves behind an unfinished memoir. Billy Dee Williams’s forthcoming memoir, What Have We Here?, will publish in February. Interviews arrive with Tahir Hamut Izgil, Jamel Brinkley, Jake Tapper, Danielle Valentine, Richard E. Grant, and Ann Patchett. Imagine Entertainment acquires film rights to Daniel Kraus’s new novel, Whalefall. Barbara Hoffert will retire from Library Journal in September, after an esteemed career.

The Booker Prize longlist is announced, featuring new voices, including four debut authors. August book club picks arrive including Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake, Judy Blume’s The Summer Sisters, Elizabeth Acevedo’s Family Lore, and more. The Washington Post explores the exploding popularity of online book clubs and shares how to find the right one. August’s Costco Connection is out, with an author spotlight on Ann Patchett. Plus, plenty of summer booklists help to beat the heat.

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett leads holds this week. Other titles in demand include books by Sandra Brown, Kathy Reichs, Gillian McAllister, and Elizabeth Acevedo. Three LibraryReads and four Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Time’s Mouth by Edan Lepucki. A federal judge temporarily blocks an Arkansas state law banning librarians from giving minors materials deemed “harmful” to them.

The shortlists for the Alice Awards for illustrated books and the seventh annual Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award have been announced. There are remembrances of the late singer Sinead O’Connor and her memoir, Rememberings: Scenes from My Complicated Life.

The Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel Prize longlist is announced. The Digital Public Library of America’s app, The Banned Book Club, allows access to books banned by location. Singer Sinead O’Connor, author of the memoir Rememberings: Scenes from My Complicated Life, has died at age 56. Vulture’s new beach-read book club will start with Emma Cline’s The Guest. 

The Academy of American Poets announces its 2023 Poet Laureate Fellows. Caryl Lewis wins Wales Book of the Year award for Drift. The British Fantasy Awards shortlists and World Fantasy Awards finalists are announced. Drew Barrymore will host the National Book Awards on November 15, with special guest Oprah Winfrey. Booksellers sue Texas over “Sexual Rating” law. Adaptations of Evelyn Waugh’s and Langston Hughes’s works are on the way. Season 2 of Netflix’s Heartstopper, based on the graphic novels by Alice Oseman, has a new trailer. 

Shankari Chandran wins the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award for Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens. Eisner Comic Industry Awards are announced. George R.R. Martin updates fans on Winds of Winter, amid HBO deal suspension. Lee Rowland is named executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship. Trevor Noah previews his forthcoming graphic novel, Into the Uncut Grass, due in October. 

Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena leads holds this week. Four LibraryReads and four Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Somebody’s Fool by Richard Russo. A new translation of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov arrives. The 2023 Polari Prize longlists are announced. Tina Shaw wins the 2023 Michael Gifkins Prize. The Washington Post looks into the Smithsonian’s abrupt cancellation of the Asian American literary festival. Plus, EW recaps news from San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

Former president Barack Obama shares the books he’s reading this summer. The Roald Dahl Museum calls the author’s racism “undeniable and indelible.” Ta-Nehisi Coates attends a South Carolina school board meeting to support a teacher banned from using his book Between the World and Me in class. Javier Zamora, author of the memoir Solito, tells LA Times, “It’s time for the Pulitzer Prize for literature to accept noncitizens.” Toya Wolfe’s Last Summer on State Street wins the 2023 Pattis Award, The Botanist by M.W. Craven wins the 2023 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and the Australian National Biography Award shortlist is announced.

The inaugural TikTok Book Awards shortlist, the winners of the LeBlanc Award for Brazilian literature, and the second annual Trigon Award winners are announced. Novelist Elizabeth Crook wins the 2023 Texas Writer Award. The Guardian asks, “Does it really matter who wrote it?” about the rise of ghostwritten celebrity fiction. Snoop Dogg will team up with rapper E-40 for a forthcoming cookbook. James Reston Jr., a historian and novelist who had a hand in Richard Nixon’s apology, has died at age 82. Stephen M. Silverman, reporter and historian of popular culture, has died at age 71. 

The 2023 New England Book Awards finalists are announced. News and analysis arrives on the buyouts and layoffs at Penguin Random House. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for The Collector by Daniel Silva. Ben McKenzie discusses his new book, Easy Money. Kristin Hannah previews her forthcoming book, The Women, due out next February. There is a first-look at Hulu’s adaptation of Zakiya Dalila Harris’s The Other Black Girl. Plus, Academy of American Poets president Ricardo Alberto Maldonado discusses  his goals to expand the reach of poetry to Americans.

Barack Obama pens thank you letter to America’s librarians. The August LibraryReads list is out, featuring top pick Happiness Falls by Angie Kim. The 2023 Imadjinn Awards winners and the 2023 Sunday Times Literary Awards longlist are announced. Top editors at Penguin Random House take buyouts, with layoffs underway. Colson Whitehead’s Crook Manifesto and Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Silver Nitrate get reviewed. Interviews arrive with Andrew Leland, J. Randy Taraborrelli, Dina Gachman, Sara Flannery Murphy, Emily Monosson, and Ann Beattie.

The Collector by Daniel Silva leads holds this week. The Shirley Jackson Awards are announced, with Best Novel going to The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias and Where I End by Sophie White, in a tie. The New American Voices Award longlist is announced. Thousands of authors, including Nora Roberts and Margaret Atwood, sign an open letter to AI companies. People’s book of the week is Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead.

Minnie Bruce Pratt, celebrated poet of lesbian life, dies at 76. Former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson will publish a book. Kirkus rounds up the 45 Emmy nominations received by book adaptations. Plus Page to Screen and book reviews.

Waterstones has announced the shortlist for its 2023 Debut Fiction Prize. Britain’s Royal Society of Literature aims to broaden representation as it announces 62 new fellows. July’s EarlyWord GalleyChat spreadsheet is available now. The NYPL blog rounds up its reading lists inspired by Emmy-nominated shows, as well as the books that inspired Emmy-nominated shows. And Publishers Weekly reports that Christian publishers are adding more faith-based sci-fi/fantasy titles.

The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize announces its 2023 shortlist. The 2023 Eugie Award finalists are announced. Britney Spears announces her new memoir, The Woman in Me, which will publish October 24. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Hello Stranger by Katherine Center. Emmy Awards nominations are announced today. Wonka, which premieres December 15, releases a new trailer. Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, has died at the age of 94.

Authors, including Sarah Silverman, sue Meta and OpenAI for copyright infringement. The Booker Prize winners announcement will move to the end of November. The Caine Prize announces its 2023 shortlist. Publishers Lunch will host a virtual Buzz Books Romance Editors Panel tomorrow. Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS is an instant best seller. Time catches up with Colleen Hoover at Book Bonanza, and interviews arrive with Sarah Rose Etter, Maggie Smith, and Elizabeth Winder. A new animated film inspired by Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time” series is in the works. Plus, Rolling Stones drummer and bibliophile Charlie Watts’s rare-book collection will be up for auction at Christie’s.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center leads holds this week. The CWA Dagger Award Winners are announced and the 2023 Hugo Award finalists are announced. Audiofile announces the July 2023 Earphones Award Winners. The Millions releases its “Most Anticipated: The Great 2023B Book Preview.”  People’s book of the week is Fireworks Every Night by Beth Raymer. July’s Costco Connection features the new paperback edition of Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait and book club pick The Block Party by Jamie Day. August’s Indie Next List preview features #1 pick, Shark Heart by Emily Habeck. 

Booklists highlight summer beach reads. The 2023 Deutsche Science Fiction Preis finalists are announced. The ACT Notable Book Awards 2023 winners are announced. PRH launches a new pop-comics imprint. R.K. Russell's The Yards Between Us: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Football will be adapted for TV. Leslye Headland will direct the adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid's The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo for Netflix. Dune: Part Two gets a new trailer. Plus, page to screen and streaming recommendations from LitHub. 

CrimeReads lists the best crime novels of the year (so far). The Society of Authors’ Awards 2023 are announced. New title Bestsellers include Ruth Ware's Zero Days, Riley Sager's The Only One Left, and Chris Paul's Sixty-One: Life Lessons from Papa, On and Off the Court. Jada Pinkett Smith's memoir, Worthy, will publish in October. Brigittte Bardot is featured in a new photo book, Being Bardot. NYT features a roundtable of translators in conversation, and an essay by Emily Wilson, whose new translation of Homer’s The Iliad publishes in September. The new literary documentary, In the Company of Rose, about Rose Styron, earns good marks from the LA Times. 

USA Today’s Best-selling booklist returns after a hiatus. Michael Rosen wins 2023 PEN Pinter prize. Kwame McPherson wins the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. The Museum of Pop Culture announces the 2023 Science Fiction + Fantasy Hall of Fame Inductees, including N.K. Jemisin and John Carpenter. Elizabeth Castellano's Save What’s Left is the new GMA book club pick, and Adrienne Brodeur’s Little Monsters is the B&N selection. Plus, The Chicago Tribune reports from the ALA Conference. 

Critics share their summer book recommendations. James Patterson speaks about libraries, librarians, and book bans at the ALA Annual Conference. Winners of the 2023 Premios Kelvin and the 2022 Kitschies are announced. Slate explores Lessons in Chemistry. There is adaptation news for Alex Dahl’s Playdate and David Michael Slater's novel The Vanishing.

Hundreds of authors including Salman Rushdie, Cheryl Strayed, Carl Hiaasen, and Ibram X. Kendi support the 70th anniversary reissue of the Freedom to Read Statement. Palazzo by Danielle Steel leads this week's holds. Titles by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, Ashley Poston, and Thao Thai are also buzzing. Banyan Moon by Thao Thai is the new Read with Jenna book club pick. Six LibraryReads and seven Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue. 

The Shirley Jackson Award nominees are announced. Robert Macfarlane has won the inaugural Weston International Award. The Orwell Prize goes to Peter Apps and Tom Crewe. A Maurice Sendak story is headed to the shelves. Author Henry Petroski has died.

The U.S. Postal Service honors Civil Rights icon and author John Lewis with a new stamp. The 2023 Yoto Carnegie Medals winners are announced. The Academy of American Poets names Ricardo Alberto Maldonado its next executive director and president. Formerly shuttered literary magazine Bookforum announces its return. A new bid is made for Simon & Schuster. New title bestsellers feature books by Elin Hilderbrand, Paul McCartney, Hadley Vlahos, Jennifer Ackerman, and Christian Cooper. Plus, readers respond to Fabio's criticism of modern romance novels.  

Summer booklists highlight the most anticipated books of the season. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Zero Days by Ruth Ware. LJ’s galley and signing guide for the 2023 American Library Association conference is now available. USA Today has a new crossword puzzle editor. Interviews arrive with Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, Keziah Weir, Christian Cooper, Andrea Bartz, Natalie Beach, E.L. James, Molly Lynch, Helen Elaine Lee, Tom Papa, and more. BBC explores a recent wave of Korean literature. Netflix premieres a trailer for its live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series, set to arrive next year. Plus, NYT asks: Why are we so afraid of reading?

The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias wins the top prize at the Bram Stoker Awards. Salman Rushdie is awarded the prestigious German Peace Prize. Zain Khalid wins the  Young Lions Fiction Award. Edwidge Danticat wins the 2023 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. Lucy Caldwell wins Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. The Miles Franklin Literary Award 2023 shortlist is announced. Zero Days by Ruth Ware leads holds this week. People’s book of the week is Lorrie Moore’s I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home. The July LibraryReads list arrives, featuring top pick, Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena. And mystery writer Carol Higgins Clark has died at the age of 66. 

Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead, wins the Women’s Prize for Fiction. It is her second win. The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest by Edward Chancellor wins the 2023 Hayek Book Prize. A longlist is released for the 2023 Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award. Twelve new fellows are announced for PEN America’s project to shape publishing equity. Eminent book editor Robert Gottlieb, author of Avid Reader: A Life and the biography Garbo, dies at 92. Marvel artist John Romita Sr. dies at 93. There are more appraisals and remembrances of the late Cormac McCarthy. Plus new title best sellers.

Pulitzer Prize–winning author Cormac McCarthy has died at the age of 89. Fan-favorite romance author Julie Garwood has died at the age of 78. Storytel partners with ElevenLabs, planning to develop AI voices in audiobooks. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand, who discusses her retirement from writing with CBS Mornings. Interviews arrive with Ali Hazelwood, Peter Turchin, Kenan Orhan, Nathan Go, Ken Jennings, Sunny Hostin, Samantha Leach, Mattie Lubchansky, Uzma Jalaluddin, and Martinus Evans. 

The 2023 Colorado Book Awards winners are announced. Previews for the 2023 ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago arrive. Elizabeth Gilbert’s decision to pull her forthcoming novel, set in Russia, from publication garners significant coverage. A new Illinois law will outlaw book bans in public and school libraries. Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan steps down after nine years. Plus, Paul McCartney’s new book of unseen photographs, 1964: Eyes of the Storm, publishes this week.

The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand leads holds this week. Other buzzy books include titles by Ali Hazelwood, James Patterson, Jill Shalvis, and Fiona Davis. Five LibraryReads and four Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is You Can Trust Me by Wendy Heard. Norton celebrates 100 years. Plus, Elizabeth Gilbert pulls her previously announced forthcoming novel, The Snow Forest, from its publication schedule. 

President Biden is appointing a book ban coordinator for the Department of Education, to make schools aware that book bans can violate federal civil rights laws. Holly Smale’s Cassandra in Reverse is the latest Reese Witherspoon book club pick. Roger Reeves wins the Griffin Poetry Prize for Best Barbarian. Lambda Literary announces Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars, and Aaron Hamburger, Hotel Cuba, as the winners of the 2023 Jim Duggins, PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize. The Royal Society of Literature Christopher Bland Prize winner for is Paterson Joseph for The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho.

The Lambda Literary Foundation announces that Eboni J. Dunbar wins the Randall Kenan Prize for Black LGBTQ Fiction; Naseem Jamnia, author of The Bruising of Qilwa, and Maya Salameh, author of the poetry collection How To Make an Algorithm in the Microwave, win the Markowitz Award for Exceptional New LGBTQ Writers; and Jaquira Díaz, author of Ordinary Girls: A Memoir, wins the Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction. Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng and Stay True: A Memoir by Hua Hsu win Chinese American Librarians Association Best Book Awards. Shortlists for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and Michael Knost Wings Award are released. Vulture selects the best books of 2023 so far. A new statue of Willa Cather has been unveiled at the U.S. Capitol. 

Abraham Verghese wins the 2023 Writer in the World Prize. The James Beard Media Award winners are announced. Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century by Jennifer Homans wins the 2023 BIO Plutarch Award. The 2023 Roswell Award Winners are announced, as are shortlists for the Rachel Funari Prize, Taste Canada Awards, and Sturgeon Award. The June 2023 Loanstars Adult List is out, featuring top pick Zero Days by Ruth Ware. S.A. Cosby’s All the Sinners Bleed gets reviewed, and Elliot Page’s memoir continues to buzz. 

LitHub releases its Ultimate Summer 2023 Reading List. Canada’s International Cundill History Prize names its 2023 jury. A Utah school district has banned the Bible from primary schools. Filmmaker Noah Baumbach will publish a memoir with Knopf. Actress Elizabeth Banks is starting a wine-drinking book club. Interviews arrive with Lisa See, Ocean Vuong, Keith Ellison, David Von Drehle, Robert Waldinger, Alan Philps, Barbara Kingsolver, and Amelia Possanza. Plus, Robert Thorogood will adapt his novel The Marlow Murder Club for PBS Masterpiece.

Cross Down by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois leads holds this week. Other buzzy books include: Unfortunately Yours by Tessa Bailey, Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan, The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel, and Pageboy by Elliot Page. AudioFile announces the June 2023 Earphones Award Winners. The 2022 Aurealis Awards winners are announced, along with the 37th Annual Asimov’s Readers’ Award winners. Seven LibraryReads and 10 Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea. The June Costco Connection features Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See and The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand. Plus, a poem written by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón will travel to a moon of Jupiter.  

A new national NPR/Ipsos poll reveals that 52% of Republicans are opposed to banning books from schools, whereas book bans are supported by 5% of Democrats, 16% of Independents, and 35% of Republicans. Paige Cowan-Hall has won the Women’s Prize Trust 2023 Discoveries Prize for her yet-to-be-published historical fiction novel Marooned. The Society of Authors announced this year’s Authors’ Awards shortlists across 11 categories. Donna Tartt’s agent has debunked the rumor that she is releasing a new novel in June 2023.

USA Today’s June Book Club pick is T.J. Newman’s Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421. The July Indie Next List is out; the top pick is The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel. Crime Writers’ Association appoints Vaseem Khan as its first non-white chair. The 2023 Premios Kelvin finalists are announced. Jasmine Sealy’s The Island of Forgetting wins the Amazon First Novel Award, honoring the best debut Canadian novel. The Royal Society of Literature has released a shortlist for the 2023 Encore Award, celebrating outstanding achievements in second novels. Plus new title best sellers.

June book club picks are out, including the top hold title of the week, The Celebrants by Steven Rowley (Read with Jenna), Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs (GMA), and Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea (B&N). More summer booklists arrive, along with interviews with Megan Abbott, Amelia Possanza, Dr. Ian K. Smith, Emerson Whitney, Camille T. Dungy, James Comey, and Brandon Taylor.

Steven Rowley’s The Celebrants leads holds this week. Other titles in demand include new books by Martha Wells, Jo Nesbo, Megan Abbott, and T.J. Newman. The James Tait Black Prize shortlist is announced. ALA’s Freedom to Read Foundation joins publishers and bookstores in a lawsuit over Arkansas SB 81. Three LibraryReads and seven Indie Next picks publish this week. Summer reading previews arrive, including People’s must-read picks for summer. NYT explores the staying power of Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. Plus, The Guardian has a guide for “where to start with Kazuo Ishiguro.”

The 2023 Ignyte Awards finalists are announced. Starting their runs at the top of best seller lists are Only the Dead by Jack Carr, Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, King: A Life by Jonathan Eig, and The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings To Amass Power and Undermine the Republic by Stephen Vladeck. There are author interviews with Gene Luen Yang, Luis Alberto Urrea, Laura Tillman, and Suzannah Lessard.

Georgi Gospodinov wins the International Booker Prize for Time Shelter. Haruki Murakami wins Spain’s Princess of Asturias Award. Amanda Gorman’s poem “The Hill We Climb” has been banned from a Florida K–8 school. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Identity by Nora Roberts. Knopf will publish Gabriel García Márquez’s final novel, Until August, in 2024. Plus, summer booklists arrive. 

Biographers International Organization receives $1 million gift from famed biographer Kitty Kelley. Ryan Manucha wins the 2022 Donner Prize for Booze, Cigarettes, and Constitutional Dust-Ups. Mazin Lateef Ali Wins IPA’s Prix Voltaire. The TikTok Book Awards launch in the U.K. and Ireland. Mahmud El Sayed wins 2023 Future Worlds Prize for Fantasy. Andy Serkis narrates a new unabridged audiobook of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. A new Folio Society edition of Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy arrives in time for Towel Day on Thursday. The Color Purple gets a trailer, and Japanese Breakfast posts a casting call. Plus, PW has full coverage from this week’s U.S. Book Show.

Identity by Nora Roberts leads holds this week. Also popular are The Senator’s Wife by Liv Constantine and Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum, which is also People’s book of the week. One LibraryReads and three Indie Next picks publish this week. The Water Diviner by Zahran Alqasmi (Rashm) wins $50,000 2023 International Prize for Arabic Fiction. The Washington Post previews this season’s best baseball books. Plus, tributes pour in for British author Martin Amis who died at the age of 73.

There are announcements for the 2023 Mythopoeic Awards finalists and Eisner Awards nominees. Walter Isaacson’s forthcoming biography of Elon Musk will arrive September 12. Author interviews feature conversations with the likes of Nicole Cuffy, Emma Cline, Brittany Snow, R.F. Kuang, Jenny Fran Davis, Julia Quinn, and Samantha Irby. Benedict Cumberbatch will star in the adaptation of Max Porter’s Grief Is the Thing With Feathers.

PEN America and Penguin Random House sue a Florida school district over book bans. Debuting at the top of the best-seller lists are The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks, Queen Charlotte by Julia Quinn, written with Shonda Rhimes, The Daddy Diaries: The Year I Grew Up by Andy Cohen, and Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain by Andrew McCarthy. There are conversations with authors Alex Pappademas, Polly Stewart, Andrea Bartz, Matthew Dallek, Juliet and Kelly Starrett, Stephen Vladeck, and David Fleming. There is adaptation news for Ernest Hemingway’s Across the River and into the Trees.

Salman Rushdie warns that free speech is under threat in a new public speech. Journalist Masha Gessen resigns from the PEN America board. Storytel Group acquires rights to Finnish Koskinen crime series. A new survey finds that Tiktok users report reading 50% more because of Booktok. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren. Interviews arrive with Andrew McCarthy, Samantha Irby, Dina Gachman, Laura Hankin, Emmanuel Iduma, R.F. Kuang, Max Porter, Kwame Alexander, Thom Shanker, and Andy Cohen. Elliot Page unboxes his forthcoming memoir, Pageboy. Plus, Roxane Gay, Carrie Brownstein, Roberta Colindrez, and Jane Lynch will star in an adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s comic strip, Dykes To Watch Out For.

The British Book Awards are announced; Menopausing by Davina McCall and Dr. Naomi Potter wins Overall Book of the Year, Bonnie Garmus is Author of the Year, and R.F. Kuang’s Babel wins Fiction Book of the Year. Salman Rushdie is also honored. WA Premier’s Book Awards shortlists are announced. The June LibraryReads list is out, featuring top pick The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon. Michael Lewis’s new book, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, about about FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried, arrives in October. Plus, the U.S. Book Show’s “Libraries Are Essential” virtual program is on May 22. 

The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren leads library holds this week. The Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Award winners are announced. The 2022 Nebula Awards Winners are announced, including R.F. Kuang for her novel Babel. Kuang’s new novel Yellowface arrives this week with reviews and lots of buzz. Charles E. Stanley Jr. wins the 2023 William E. Colby Military Writers’ Award for Lost Airmen. Entertainment Weekly releases its 2023 Summer Preview, including the 27 best books of the summer. People’s book of the week is The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks.

Arinze Ifeakandu wins the 2023 Dylan Thomas Prize with God’s Children Are Little Broken Things: Stories. The Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist is announced. Chris Turner wins the 2023 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing with How To Be a Climate Optimist: Blueprints for a Better World. Other awards announcements include the 2023 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize longlist and the 2023 Orwell Prizes shortlists. Urban historian Fred Siegel is remembered upon his death at 78. Interviews feature Rachel Cargle, Tembe Denton-Hurst, Sunny Hostin, Carl Sferrazza Anthony, Lisa Brideau, Christina Sharpe, Judy Blume, Kerri Arsenault, Isabella Hammad, Stephen Marche, and Felix Salmon. Plus, adaptation news for Chelene Knight’s Junie and Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo.

The Christian Book Awards winners are announced. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, The 23rd Midnight by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro, The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese, Look for Me There: Grieving My Father, Finding Myself by Luke Russert, and Lessons Learned and Cherished: The Teacher Who Changed My Life by Deborah Roberts are new to the bestseller lists. Interviews arrive with Mona Gables, Edan Lepucki, Julia Argy, James C. Jackson, Mariana Alessandri, Emma Nadler, Landon Jones, and Dave Eggers.

Finalists for the 2023 Anthony Awards, 2023 Indigenous Voices Award, and the 2023 Trillium Book Awards are announced. May’s EarlyWord GalleyChat spreadsheet is available. Speculation about 4C Untitled Flatiron Nonfiction Summer 2023 heats up. The Guest by Emma Cline gets reviews and buzz. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks. Penguin Random House Acquires Callisto Media. Plus, Tomie dePaola’s Strega Nona is featured on a USPS Forever stamp. 

The 2023 Pulitzer Prizes are awarded with Trust by Hernan Diaz and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, sharing the top prize for fiction. His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century by Beverly Gage, Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power by Jefferson Cowie, and Stay True by Hua Hsu also win prizes. The 2023–2024 Steinbeck Fellows are announced. Coverage continues for the ongoing WGA strike. Plus, the AAP discusses AI and the book business. 

The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks, leads holds this week. One Indie Next pick publishes this week. People’s book of the week is Swamp Story by Dave Barry. Also getting buzz is Andrew McCarthy’s Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain. A number of awards shortlists are announced. Plus, the Pulitzer Prizes will be announced today.

Fatimah Asghar wins the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction with When We Were Sisters. News sources covers more on Writers Guild of America strike, an Illinois law on anti–book banning policy for libraries. Authors Wolfgang Schivelbusch and Peter Robinson are remembered. Conversations feature author interviews with the likes of Camille T. Dungy, Hannah Matthews, Sunny Hostin, Gretchen Rubin, Kobe Campbell, Christina Wong, Alexandra Auder, Dave Eggers, Hugh Howey, Paul Kix, Brendan Ballou, Jaime Green, and Priscilla Gilman.

The June 2023 Indie Next List Preview is out, featuring #1 pick Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. The Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2023 winners are announced. Multiple sources cover the targeting of journalists worldwide and the repercussions of Writers Guild of America’s strike. Starting their run as best sellers are Happy Place by Emily Henry, In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune, Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane, Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You by Lucinda Williams, and Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding) by Laura Dern and Diane Ladd. 

May Book Club picks arrive: The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Oprah), Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith (Reese Witherspoon), Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Read with Jenna), The Nigerwife by Vanessa Walters (GMA), and The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry (B&N). The Reading the West Book Awards announces its shortlist. The Tony Award nominees are announced. Variety reports on the WGA strike. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for The 23rd Midnight by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown). Plus, Taika Waititi is in talks to direct an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun.

The 2023 RSL Ondaatje shortlist is announced. Madeleine Dale wins the 2023 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize. Booklists arrive for AANHPI Heritage Month. Eleanor Wachtel, longtime host of Canada’s Writers & Company, is moving on after 33 years, and Laurie Hertzel is retiring as books editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Plus, a new novel from Gabriel García Márquez will be published in 2024. 

The 23rd Midnight by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro leads holds this week. Audiofile announces the May Earphones Award winners. Jenna Bush Hager picks Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah for her May book club. B&N selects The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry. Seven LibraryReads and twelve Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is You Are Here by Karin Lin-Greenberg. The May Costco Connection features new books by Danielle Steel, Emily Henry, and Tom Hanks. Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian will be adapted for film. USA Today looks at new Vietnamese voices in literature. 

The Edgar Award winners are announced; Best Novel goes to Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka, while Eli Cranor wins Best First Novel for Don’t Know Tough. Ebony highlights “5 Black Male Poets Whose Words Enthrall Us.” The NYT romance column is out. There are new efforts to pass the Right To Read Act. Nora Robert faces censorship in Florida. Killers of the Flower Moon makes news. Plus, Page to Screen.

The James Beard 2023 Media Award nominees are announced. Sarah Holland-Batt wins the 2023 Stella Prize for The Jaguar. The 77th Edgar Awards ceremony will be held tonight. The 2023 RBC Bronwen Wallace Awards shortlist is announced. The 2023 Seiun Awards nominees are announced. The Russell Prize for Humour Writing 2023 shortlists are announced. The 2023 Roswell finalists are announced. Simply Lies by David Baldacci and The Wager by David Grann land atop the NYT bestsellers lists. Interviews arrive with Lucinda Williams, Sarah Cypher, Sara Petersen, Claire Dederer, Terese Svoboda, Judy Blume, Gretchen Morgenson, Matika Wilbur, Neil Gaiman, and David Grann. Plus, Grady Hendrix’s How To Sell a Haunted House will be adapted for film. 

The Women’s Prize for Fiction announces its shortlist. Kaliane Bradley wins the V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize. Shortlists for the League of Canadian Poets, the BC and Yukon Book Prizes, the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing, and the Atlantic Book Awards are announced. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Happy Place by Emily Henry. Interviews arrive with Dennis Lehane, Abraham Verghese, and more. Stephen L. Carter’s The Emperor of Ocean Park will get a series adaptation. 

U.S. poet laureate Ada Limón has been appointed to a historic second two-year term. The 2023 Gotham Book Prize is shared by two winners: Sidik Fofana for Stories from the Tenants Downstairs and John Wood Sweet for The Sewing Girl’s Tale. The 2023 O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction winners are announced. The winners of the 2023–2024 Rome Prize in literature are announced, including Elif Batuman, Erica Hunt, Katie Kitamura, and Shruti Swamy. Coverage continues for ALA’s report on the rise in book bans. Claire Dederer’s Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma garners buzz. Apple TV+ releases a first-look trailer for Lessons in Chemistry, based on the novel by Bonnie Garmus. And Mo Willems’s “The Pigeon” makes his operatic debut at Washington’s Kennedy Center.

Happy Place by Emily Henry leads holds this week. It is also People’s book of the week and Indie Next’s #1 pick. Other titles getting buzz include Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane and The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths. The LA Times Book Prize winners are announced, as is the IPA Prix Voltaire shortlist. Five LibraryReads and six Indie Next picks publish this week. The Guardian has an excerpt from an unpublished Hillary Mantell work. A new report from PEN American details the rise of censorship. Plus, the Library of Congress celebrates a birthday.

Jamil Jan Kochai wins the 2023 Aspen Words Literary Prize for The Haunting of Hajji Hotak And Other Stories. More award news arrives from the Writers’ Trust Rising Stars and the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize shortlist. Several interviews feature the voices of authors such as Melissa Coss Aquino, Genevieve Wheeler, Tove Danovich and Neil King. There is adaptation news for Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.