Tomorrow the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City will host its sixth annual literary festival, with author talks, readings, a marketplace, and more. Also tomorrow, the city’s Strand Book Store will be hosting its ninety-seventh anniversary celebration, with author events, a documentary screening, and more.

In the New York Review of Books Isabella Hammed considers why so many writers have “treated pro-Palestine speech as a threat.”

The New York Times reports from inside High Valley Books, a vintage bookshop with more than fifty thousand books and magazines located in Bill Hall’s home in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.

Harper’s Bazaar profiles Joyce Carol Oates, who at eighty-six has published more than sixty novels.

The Lambda Literary Awards ceremony took place this week. The organization, which supports LGBTQ literature, awarded authors in twenty-six categories, including Catherine Lacey for Biography of X in Lesbian Fiction, Myriam Gurba for Creep: Accusations and Confessions in Bisexual Nonfiction, and Teeter by Kimberly Alidio in Lesbian Poetry. Read the full list in People.

Authors Equity, a new publishing company run by former Big Five publishing executives that promises to send more profits to writers, has announced its first ten titles, including a novel by James Frey, a self-help book by Rachel Hollis, and an anthology of short fiction contributors to Kweli Journal, among others. The startup has been criticized by those in the literary community who see the company’s structure as a symptom of the gig economy that undercompensates part-time workers.

The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) has announced the retirement of executive director Cynthia Sherman after twelve years in the role. AWP has launched a national search for Sherman’s successor.

Axios explores “a new Latin American literary boom” and the role of women translators in the phenomenon.

In Harper’s Bazaar novelist Kaitlyn Greenidge interviews Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of The 1619 Project, about the expansion of a Black literary salon Hannah-Jones runs in Brooklyn, New York.

Author Emily Gould, the Cut’s advice columnist, considers whether a writer’s family should be warned about the sex scenes in their book.

NPR considers the nuances of the term book ban; its meaning “depends on who you ask.”

UNESCO has named Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as the World Book Capital for 2025. The designation reflects the city’s “clearly defined vision and action plan to promote literature, sustainable publishing and reading among young people tapping into digital technologies,” according to a statement. This year’s World Book Capital is Strasbourg, France, where the New York Times recently reported on the local literary scene.

After establishing itself as a literary hotspot in the City of Brotherly Love, hosting more than one hundred author and book events a year, the Free Library of Philadelphia has fired its entire author-events team, leading to the cancellation of book launches and other scheduled dates this month, reports Publishers Weekly.

The New York Times reports on the rise of worker-owned bookstores with social-justice missions.

The Boston Globe reports on U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s signature project, You Are Here: Poetry in Parks. The project will launch Friday in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where Limón will unveil a picnic table at the trailhead of the Beech Forest Trail that has been overlaid with Mary Oliver’s poem “Can You Imagine?” The Beech Forest Trail picnic table will be one of seven tables nationwide transformed into public art installations emblazoned with poetry.

The Guardian reports on the work of Fossil Free Books, a U.K. organization that has been advocating for literary-festival organizers to pressure a major financial supporter—Baillie Gifford, an asset-management company—to terminate investments in fossil fuels and companies with ties to Israel, due to the nation’s war in Gaza that has reportedly killed nearly thirty-five thousand Palestinians. “Despite its role in bringing the asset manager’s sponsorships to an end, the activist group has faced criticism that ‘not a dime has been divested from fossil fuels’.”

In the New Republic, author Emma Copley Eisenberg considers the ubiquity of fatphobia in American fiction.

The Cut reports on the vibes at last week’s twentieth anniversary gala for the literary magazine n+1, ranking elements from atmosphere to celebrity esteem.

The three-story house in Portland, Oregon, where Ursula K. Le Guin wrote some of her most beloved books will become the Ursula K. Le Guin Writers Residency, reports the Associated Press. The house was donated to the Portland nonprofit Literary Arts by the family of Le Guin, who died in 2018 at age eighty-eight. Le Guin “had a clear vision for her home to become a creative space for writers and a beacon for the broader literary community,” says Andrew Proctor, director of Literary Arts, which will manage the residency.

The New York Times explores how TikTok is contributing to more English books selling in Europe.