The New York Book Festival

06/08/2026

"While the number of independent bookshops in the UK is momentarily healthy, there is a tsunami heading our way with the advent of almost-convincing AI-generated writing. The literary landscape is about to change, and bookshops will be the lighthouses in the storm. Choosing to support bookshops and human-based publishing is going to become more important than ever."

What sort of book browser are you? Katie Clapham, the owner of an independent bookshop in Lancashire, has come across every type of customer imaginable – and she definitely has her favourites

06/08/2026

"Jill Biden wrote in the memoir, published Tuesday, that addiction wasn’t something she and her husband talked about. “I think we were partly in denial,” she acknowledged, adding that she wondered why someone who had a family that loved him, a good education and a lucrative career would turn to drugs."

In her new memoir, “View from the East Wing,” Jill Biden reflects on Hunter Biden’s addiction, Joe Biden’s cancer battle and the loss of privacy as first lady.

06/05/2026

French-Iranian artist, author and women’s rights activist Marjane Satrapi, the illustrator behind the graphic novel memoir “Persepolis,” has died at 56.

06/05/2026

It’s time to start thinking about what book dad’s going to enjoy this summer in his favorite lounge chair.

06/02/2026

"I don’t really have a writing routine. I just write whenever I can. When I was in my 20s and living alone, I was a binge writer. If I was obsessed with a project, I’d work around the clock, barely go anywhere, and sleep when I was tired but work the rest of the time until it was done.
When my daughters were born—they’re now 21 and 17—I wrote when they were sleeping, and when they were in school, I wrote around drop-off and pick-up times and then a bit after they went to bed.
I would tell beginning writers, don’t try to match anyone else’s routine; write around the life you have. That’s what I’ve always tried to do."

The novelist says to “write around the life you have”

06/02/2026

"The Commonwealth Prize isn’t the first AI scandal in the literary world. Earlier this year, the Hachette Book Group withdrew horror novel "Shy Girl" after allegations that its author used artificial intelligence. Even Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk recently faced backlash after she admitted to using AI for research and drafting."

One of the winners of this year's prestigious Commonwealth Short Story Prize has been accused of using artificial intelligence to write his entry "Serpent in the Grove". Does the controversy signal a…

05/29/2026

A Tennessee librarian said she isn't caving to an order she described as a clear violation of the First Amendment.

05/29/2026

"Indeed, there have been over 100 books published on HIV/AIDS since 2020, coinciding with the start of the COVID pandemic. This breadth of work likely is not a direct result of the pandemic, but it certainly spurred on a wider revisiting of the AIDS epidemic, from both medical and cultural perspectives. In many ways, the U.S. government’s response to COVID mirrored the frequently negligent response to AIDS, and, as a result, marginalized communities often suffered the greatest losses."

There are countless testimonies, books, poetry collections, plays, visual works and films from q***r people amid the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 90s, surviving in the midst of so much death. Many …

05/24/2026

"In this special episode, Kate Wolf, Medaya Ocher, and Eric Newman discuss the “honesty crisis” facing contemporary culture. Using a recent book by the philosopher Christian Miller for reference, the hosts examine the internet as an engine for dishonesty, fueling everything from deepfakes to infidelity, AI cheating, political manipulation, and influencer peddling.
Is dishonesty just part of the human condition, and perhaps even the social contract? What would a culture of radical honesty—or radical transparency— look like, and is that what we want?"

The LARB Radio Hour examines the internet as an engine for dishonesty, fueling everything from deepfakes to infidelity, AI cheating, political manipulation, and influencer peddling

05/24/2026

Literati has spent years rebuilding the elementary school book fair into something closer to an art installation. Now, with an acquisition by private equity, it's ready to scale fast.