Audiobook industry sales revenue grew nine percent in 2025, a 43 percent increase from 2024, Publishers Weekly reports. These numbers come from the Audio Publishers Association’s annual sales survey, which also found that general fiction accounted for the largest share of audiobook revenue, while the fastest growing genres were humor, general fiction, and children’s books. “Convenience remains the primary driver of audiobook consumption,” Publishers Weekly writes. “Among listeners, 86 percent cited the ability to multitask while listening, and 84 percent cited the ability to listen on the go as the top benefit, with 70 percent describing audiobooks as an alternative to screen time.” AI-narrated audiobooks don’t seem to be holding listeners’ interests; only sixteen percent of listeners said they had listened to a title voiced by AI.

An unfinished and never before published short story by Edith Wharton has been printed in the most recent issue of the Strand Magazine, the Associated Press writes. The piece, titled “The Men Who Saved the World,” tells the story of a young American nurse who finds herself seated next to a war hero at a dinner party, and animates the strange divide between civilian and military life that Wharton witnessed during World War I. As Strand managing editor Andrew Gulli writes in his introduction, “Wharton asks a question that is as relevant today as it was over a century ago: What is the cost of refusing to see the horrors beyond the softly curtained windows—and who pays for it?”

Pamela Drucker Mann, a former chief executive at Condé Nast, is spearheading a new media startup that aims to monetize short stories, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company, called Run-A-Muck, has launched an ad-supported Substack called Drafting where it will publish short stories to see what readers respond to and potentially then pursue other ventures like films and podcasts. The company is hoping that younger generations who grew up with short-form videos and Instagram posts will take to short fiction. “Rather than starting with a medium and searching for an audience, we start with the story we want to tell and then determine the format that best serves that story,” Drucker Mann said.

In the Yale Review, writing professor Sheila Liming reflects on some universities’ decision to deaccession many of the books in their libraries. Liming draws on her own research into Edith Wharton’s book collection—half of which was destroyed after her death—to make an argument for the library as a crucial step in making text accessible to all manner of readers. “The speed of the digital world connives to make us feel ashamed of certain sorts of slowly won knowledge. But to persist in caring about books, and to do so in the face of those who tell us not to, is to fight for a world that takes knowledge seriously,” she writes. “That fight will have to happen on many fronts; preserving the library alone will not rescue reading. But it is a good place to begin. After all, it is easier to preserve than it is to create.”

HarperCollins announced yesterday that it will be reorganizing its U.S. trade division into seven groups, according to Publishers Lunch. Dey Street and Avon will now each be their own groups rather than part of Morrow; the other groups will be Harper, HarperCollins Children’s, Harper One, and Mariner. “This new alignment will allow each group to operate with greater autonomy, deeper category expertise, and a strategic focus on author development, positioning the imprints for continued growth,” CEO and president of the trade division Liate Stehlik said in a release.

In the wake of last month’s allegations that a prize-winning short story published in Granta was written using an LLM, New York reports on how literary magazines are dealing with AI-written submissions. It seems that many are not yet on high alert about having to weed out AI writing. The editors interviewed pointed out that they can take their time reviewing submissions and expressed reservations about relying on AI detectors or adding more to editors’ workloads by asking them to build familiarity with AI-generated style. More importantly, they reinforced that using AI to write runs counter to the goals of most writers. “I think we’d be having a different conversation if the technology could do the things we like and want,” said Samuel Rutter, editor in chief of Kismet. “We’re still working with a lot of writers for whom the ideating and the writing is almost the more exciting part than the publishing.”

Kevin Young has been named winner of the 2026 international Griffin Poetry Prize for Night Watch (Knopf, 2025). The prize was established in 2000 to “encourage and celebrate excellence in poetry,” and books of poetry written in or translated into English and submitted from anywhere in the world are eligible. The winner receives $130,000 Canadian (approximately $93,527) and finalists each receive $10,000 Canadian (approximately $7,194).

The Literary Arts Fund has announced that it will distribute $7.7 million in grant funding to forty organizations across nineteen states, the Associated Press reports. The fund was started by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and six other philanthropies. This year’s grants range from $40,000 to $500,000 and recipients include the National Book Foundation, Graywolf Press, Copper Canyon Press, and the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. For a full list of funded organizations, visit the Literary Arts Fund's website. (Read more about the fund in “A Lifelife From Literary Arts Fund” by Adrienne Raphel, from the March/April 2026 issue.)

The office of President Emmanuel Macron of France announced today that Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian French author of Persepolis, has died at 56, the New York Times reports. Satrapi was born in Iran in 1969 and lived through the rise of the clerics and the Iran-Iraq war before moving to Austria for school at fourteen. She later moved to Paris and published the first Persepolis book in French in 2000 to wide acclaim. Her books were subsequently translated into English and turned into an Academy Award-nominated animated film. “Her passing marks the loss of a leading figure in French culture and a freedom-loving artist whose work carried a universal message and earned her immense international acclaim,” Macron’s office said in a statement.

The Independent Publishers Caucus has released the Independent Press Top 40 best-seller list for the week ending May 31, 2026. The list is compiled in partnership with the American Booksellers Association and identifies “the top titles from independent presses as represented at independent bookstores across the U.S.” New to the list this week are Homer's The Illiad (Norton), translated by Emily Wilson, at no. 17; Son of Nobody (Norton) by Yann Martel at no. 21; Losers: Part Two: Deluxe Limited Edition (Kensington) by Harley Laroux at no. 24; Birds of a Feather: The Secrets of a Knight (Ravenhood Legacy #3) (Kensington) by Kate Stewart at no. 28; Playground (Norton) by Richard Powers at no. 31; Just My Luck: Deluxe Limited Edition (The Kings #2) (Kensington) by Lena Hendrix at no. 33; and Wings of Life: Deluxe Limited Edition (Dragonbound Chronicles #1) (Page & Vine) by Meghan Le Fay at no. 40.

Applications for the National Book Critics Circle’s Emerging Critics Fellowship are open until Friday, June 5, at midnight Pacific Time. The fellowship is open to critics of all experience levels who want to review and write about books, though they need not have published book reviews already. Over the course of the fellowship year, fellows will have access to one-on-one mentorship, professional development and craft lectures over Zoom, and dues-free NBCC membership, among other things. “As a published author of fiction and nonfiction, my time as an NBCC Emerging Critics Fellow has been immensely valuable—giving me a comfortable and inclusive forum to learn how to partake in the national conversation about books, publishing, and prizes in America,” 2021–2022 fellow Rishi Reddi said of the program. “I got to spend a year ‘inside’ the erudite and necessary field of literary criticism and for me—for whom books have always been a lifeline and an immense pleasure—the experience has been priceless.”

Ten cultural organizations sent a letter to Congress calling for expanded funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in the run-up to meetings about the 2027 fiscal year later this week, according to Publishers Weekly. The White House tried to dismantle the IMLS last year and has once again proposed eliminating it in 2027. In their letter, the organizations emphasized the importance of museums, libraries, and archives in American cultural life. “For many, the library is the only no-fee access to information, education, and career development,” Sem Helmick, president of the American Library Association, which was one of the letter’s signatories, emphasized in a statement.

Julia Elliott has been named this year’s winner of the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction for her short story collection Hellions, published by Tin House in 2025, NPR reports. The $150,000 award is given each year to a novel, short story collection, or graphic novel by a woman or nonbinary author in the United States or Canada. Elliott is known for writing fiction that blends Southern gothic horror, surrealism, and fairytales, and her latest collection is no exception. “This eerie, eclectic, genre-leaping collection takes no half-measures; every sentence of Hellions crackles or crawls,” the prize jury wrote in a statement. “But for all its wildness, there is tremendous control.”

Netflix has launched a hub for “book-inspired storytelling,” Publishers Lunch reports. The hub, called Watch Your Favorite Books, will recommend content based on books on the Netflix homepage. “The experience is organized around reader ‘types,’” according to the streaming service, “think: plot-twist lovers, romance enthusiasts, nonfiction fans, and more, making it easy for members to find adaptations that match how they like to read and watch.”

Lately publishers have been moving away from printing hardcover books at 6-by-9 inches, choosing instead to make them the slightly smaller 5-by-8 inches, Adam Messinger writes for the Los Angeles Times. Some attribute this shift to the fact that smaller books are more Instagram-friendly, easier to carry around, and generally more approachable. “It’s a tone,” offered Gretchen Achilles, the director of interior design at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. “Smaller trim sizes have an intimacy…. You want to echo what’s going on in the text as an experience for the reader.”

The UK’s Publishers Association has reported that it is seeing growing numbers of AI-narrated pirated audiobooks online, according to the Bookseller. This discovery comes on the heels of a recent New York Times article about the spread of pirated audiobooks on platforms like YouTube. “For the past few years, a key part of our content protection and enforcement strategy has been working directly with online platforms to tackle piracy and wider content protection issues. This includes working with YouTube and Spotify to improve detection and takedown processes,” said Jack Newton, head of content protection and enforcement for the Publishers Association. Spotify, for instance, “has a recent track record of tackling music piracy, and we are applying that same collaborative approach to protect the rights of authors and publishers.”

Last week the American Booksellers Association held a virtual community forum in which some members pushed back against the move away from in-person meetings, Publishers Weekly reports. After tumultuous forums the previous two years, this year the ABA switched to the virtual format. During the Q&A portion of the meeting many of the questions that participants asked the organization’s CEO and board president pertained to this switch. “This community forum was meant to be more democratic, but for a democratic outcome people have to show up,” Lucy Kogler, manager of Talking Leaves...Books in Buffalo, New York, told Publishers Weekly. “Given that out of more than 3,500 possible attendees, only 137 at its peak attended—and that number includes about two dozen who are ABA board and staff and media—proves that membership is not being served as a cohesive unit.... Ideas and concerns need to be vocalized and heard in physical proximity.”

The Library of Virginia has announced the twelve finalists for its annual People’s Choice Awards. The prize, which was established in 2004, honors the most-requested fiction and nonfiction books by Virginia authors or about the Commonwealth published during the previous year. This year’s finalists in fiction are Strangers in Time (Grand Central) by David Baldacci, King of Ashes (Flatiron) by S.A. Cosby, The Correspondent (Crown) by Virginia Evans, Culpability (Spiegel & Grau) by Bruce Holsinger, All Too Well (Sourcebooks) by Corinne Michaels, and The View From Lake Como (Dutton) by Adriana Trigiani. The finalists in nonfiction are Mailman (Simon & Schuster) by Stephen Starring Grant, Women of the Fairy Tale Resistance (Black Dog & Leventhal) by Jane Harrington, A Perfect Frenzy (Atlantic Monthly Press) by Andrew Lawler, The Determined Spy (Dutton) by Douglas Waller, Bad Naturalist (Timber Press) by Paula Whyman, and Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster (Harper) by Gerri Willis. Members of the public can vote any time between June 1 and July 15 at: lvafoundation.org/peopleschoiceawards. The winners will be announced at the 29th annual Virginia Literary Awards Celebration on September 19.

In the wake of revelations that Steven Rosenbaum’s new book, The Future of Truth, contains quotes made up by AI, WIRED spoke to Rosenbaum to learn more about how he uses AI. Over the course of the interview, Rosenbaum denied using AI explicitly to write or edit passages in the book, but also maintained that he finds it a valuable writing partner and continues to use the technology today. “If the only way for me to not end up with a mistake ever again is to literally stop using AI, that’s just not realistic. If the answer is to stop writing, that’s not out of the realm of possibility,” he is quoted saying.

The Ink Book Prize, an annual award that aims to celebrate “unique voices and compelling storytelling while promoting the spirit of independent publishing,” announced last week that it was removing a title from this year's shortlist after discovering that AI was used in parts of the illustration design, according to the Bookseller. In a statement, the team behind the prize said that they received two e-mails after the shortlist was announced expressing concerns about the use of AI to create the cover of one of the selected titles. The author’s representative subsequently chose to pull out of the shortlist. In a social media post, Kirsten McNeil, who published another book on the shortlist, also announced that she would be withdrawing from the prize. “AI imagery is created using large language models which use copyrighted human-created art to generate images. It is a huge threat to our creative industry, especially in children’s picture books,” she wrote. “Although it is always an honor to be recognized for our book, we believe in putting human-created stories first and do not want to risk being associated alongside any AI-generated publications.”