Daily News

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.

OpenAI has declared the AI race with China will be “over” if training AI on copyrighted works is not considered fair use, Ars Technica reports. While rights holders say AI models trained on creative works threaten their value in markets and weaken humanity’s creative output, AI companies are arguing that AI transforms the copyrighted works it trains on. OpenAI is now appealing to Trump, requesting legal protection from the hundreds of state laws attempting to regulate AI, and asking the president to support the AI industry’s “freedom to learn.”

The 2025 David Ruggles Prize, established to support young book collectors of color, is open for entries until June 8, Fine Books & Collections reports. The international prize is open to any collector aged thirty-five or younger. Collections need not consist of only traditional books—comic books, graphic novels, zines, contemporary book art, and handwritten manuscripts all count. The grand prize is $1,000, the second prize is $500, and the third prize is $250. The award is named for David Ruggles, an American abolitionist, publisher, and Underground Railroad conductor, who opened the country’s first Black-owned bookstore.

Alissa Quart writes for Time magazine about why she is replacing the endless scroll of depressing news with poetry. In poetry, she writes, “I have…found a reprieve from my anxious inattention.” “More specifically,” she has sought out “the poetry of survival—verse written in the shadow of political extremity.” Poems, Quart adds, “can ultimately offer us some moral direction.”

Author Jesmyn Ward discusses the rewards of reading laborious novels with the New Yorker and recommends some of her favorites. Ward’s list includes books written in a range of styles and time periods, such as the 1923 novel Cane by Jean Toomer, Toni Morrison’s 1987 classic, Beloved, and Bunny (Viking, 2019) by Mona Awad. Ward says, “Sometimes being bewildered is just part of reading,” adding, “Anytime that a story asks you to do a lot of work to understand the world and the characters being constructed, there’s something to be learned.”

The majority of books banned during the 2023–2024 school year featured characters of color and LGBTQ+ characters and subjects, USA Today reports (via PEN America). Of all the history and biography titles banned, 44 percent featured people of color. The states with the most book bans were Florida and Iowa.

A new report released at the London Book Fair showed that fiction sales are growing in global book markets, while nonfiction sales are struggling, Publishers Weekly reports. According to an analysis of eighteen territories, sixteen markets showed significant revenue for fiction, whereas only six regions showed growth in nonfiction, and at mostly lower rates than fiction. The report also identified social media, and particularly BookTok, as a major engine behind romance and fantasy sales.

Apple Original Films will develop Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead novels with Martin Scorsese writing, directing, and producing alongside filmmaker Todd Field, Publishers Weekly reports. Scorsese will start with Home (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008), the second of four novels in the Gilead series, and Leonardo DiCaprio is set to star in the feature film.

Netgalley is launching a consumer marketing platform called Booktrovert, Publishers Lunch reports. According to its press release, Booktrovert will help readers “celebrate their love of books by participating in digital giveaways, special promotions, and fun bookish activities.” Publishers, writers, and publicists will be able to start setting up book giveaways in early April. Netgalley has reorganized its staff in anticipation of the launch.

Zando will acquire Tin House Books, Katy Hershberger reports for Publishers Lunch. The announcement states, “Zando plans to elevate the impact of Tin House’s existing, illustrious backlist, activating Zando’s own robust publishing infrastructure to enhance sales, marketing, and distribution efficiencies for Tin House titles.” Tin House founder Win McCormack will continue “his association with the list” as chair of Tin House and Tin House editorial director Masie Cochran will become an editorial leader at Zando. Hershberger writes: “The company plans to release new Tin House titles, retaining the publisher’s name, starting in 2026. Tin House’s workshops and podcast aren’t included in the acquisition, and will remain separate, though still with the Tin House moniker.”

Marc Weingarten writes for the Los Angeles Times about a new book by Alissa Wilkinson that explores Joan Didion’s open fascination with Hollywood and John Wayne, even though the author was otherwise famously reserved. Preoccupied with the line between mythmaking and truth-telling, Didion had a “creeping cynicism toward politics and its appropriation of movie style,” but didn’t lose “her ardor for film,” Weingarten writes.