The progressive publisher Melville House has formed a partnership with Illuminating Media LLC to “recapitalize” the company, Publishers Weekly reports. Illuminating Media was launched in 2019 and publishes the CT Examiner, a Connecticut-focused online news publication, and Majuscule, an online journal for emerging writers. Illuminating Media owner David Kelsey, who “describes himself as a huge reader who was impressed by the quality of Melville House’s list. He told PW he is very interested in maintaining the company’s ethos and will not get involved in editorial decisions, noting that if [as a Republican] he wanted to publish right-leaning books, he would have invested in a different publisher.”

The National Book Foundation has announced the longlist for the 2026 National Book Award for Poetry. Four of the ten poets on the list have previously been honored for the award. “Publishers submitted a total of 285 books for the 2026 National Book Award for Poetry,” the organization wrote in its press release. “The judges for Poetry are Rob Arnold, Aracelis Girmay, Jon Pineda, Roger Reeves, and Rosanna Warren.” The titles on the longlist are: Tree of Knowledge (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) by Victoria Chang, Hide (Graywolf Press) by Carolina Ebeid, Still House in the Desert: An eco-contemplation (Wesleyan University Press) by Brenda Hillman, The Bronze Arms (Knopf) by Richie Hofmann, Exhibit G: Poems, Essays, and Photographs of Gaza (Milkweed Editions) by Fady Joudah, We (Graywolf Press) by Layli Long Soldier, Promise/Threat (Knopf) by Jonah Mixon-Webster, JOAN (University of Chicago Press) by Jake Rose, Horses (Milkweed Editions) by Jake Skeets, and Bramble (University of Chicago Press) by Susan Stewart.

The National Book Foundation has announced the longlist for the 2026 National Book Award for Translated Literature. The ten titles on the longlist were originally published in Arabic, Chinese, French, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, and Indonesian, which is appearing for the first time as a translated language in this category. “The list features nine novels and a work of nonfiction, and several of this year’s honored authors and translators have been previously recognized by the National Book Award for Translated Literature,” the organization wrote in its press release. The titles on the longlist are: My Dreadful Body (New Vessel Press) by Egana Djabbarova, translated by Lisa C. Hayden; Now I Surrender (Riverhead Books) by Álvaro Enrigue, translated by Natasha Wimmer; Eden at Dawn (Restless Books) by Karim Kattan, translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman; The School of Night (Penguin Press) by Karl Ove Knausgaard, translated by Martin Aitken; To the East of the East (World Editions) by Ping Lu, translated by Jeremy Tiang; Centroeuropa (Bellevue Literary Press) by Vicente Luis Mora, translated by Rahul Berry; Night of a Thousand Hells (Europa Editions) by Intan Paramaditha, translated by Stephen Epstein and Tiffany Tsao; Pure Men (Other Press) by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, translated by Lara Vergnaud; The Disappearing Act (New Directions) by Maria Stepanova, translated by Sasha Dugdale; and Your Presence is a Danger to Your Life: Voices of Survival and Witness in Gaza (Other Press) by Samar Yazbek, translated by Leri Price.

Annie Dillard, who won a Pulitzer Prize at 28 for her personal narrative Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (Harper’s Magazine Press, 1974), has died, the New York Times reports. Dillard’s debut garnered many comparisons to Thoreau, though she resisted the notion that she was a nature writer, choosing instead to think of herself as a kind of theologian. “I walk out; I see something, some event that otherwise would have been utterly missed and lost; or something sees me, some enormous power brushes me with its clean wing, and I resound like a beaten bell,” she wrote in her breakout work. Following her early success, she moved to Washington State to escape some of her newfound celebrity, though she continued to write. Dillard was last photographed in public in 2014, when she received the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama. In 2016, she was the subject of a profile in Poets & Writers Magazine, “Such Great Heights,” by John Freeman.

Substack is working to strengthen its crossover with the publishing industry, and publishers, in turn, are increasingly seeking out Substack writers, the Bookseller reports. Writers including journalist James Marriott and Damian Kerlin have had books emerge from their work on the platform; last year, writer Jess Pan sold her second book in an eight-way auction after starting a Substack in the wake of having work rejected by all of the Big Five. “What Substack offers all writers is speed to market, a direct relationship with their audience that they own, and creative confidence because we have millions of readers, and dare I say, this is a number that is fast-growing, who are willing to pay for work they believe in,” Farrah Storr, the head of international at Substack, is quoted saying. Storr herself recently signed a six-figure deal for a book that started as a post on the platform.

The Authors Guild has put out new resources for authors making Anthropic claims, Publishers Lunch writes. The updates follow the news that some authors received incorrect claims filings earlier this month, and include dedicated email addresses at four of the Big Five for authors reaching out with Anthropic claims challenges. The Guild also offered guidance for writers who worked with other publishers: “If your publisher does not have a central email address for issues around the settlement, you should reach out to your editor. If the editor is no longer with the publisher, try to find a contact for the general counsel or another contact identified on the publisher’s website. If you are unable to find a publisher contact, or you have reached out to the publisher contact without a response, please contact the settlement administrator and class counsel who can provide you with the publisher information.”

For WIRED, journalist Joel Khalili talks to some of the readers who have made a hobby of using AI to bring their story ideas to life. Recently, researchers took a look at this AI fiction fans and found that for some, the AI-authored nature of the work is part of the draw. Some of the people who craft these tales enjoy the obsessive iterating that AI can accomodate, while others like being able to read stories where they direct the action. “There are a lot of qualities of AI models that are different from what human writers have that are actually appealing to at least some segment of users,” Melanie Walsh,a professor at the University of Washington Information School and coauthor of the study, said. “These models are judgment-free; they can produce stories instantaneously; they are nearly inexhaustible.”

Graywolf Press has unveiled a new brand identity and logo, the third in the publisher’s fifty-two-year history. Its logo now features a sharp-toothed wolf in profile looking up towards the stars, an image the organization says matches the work it produces. “Graywolf seeks out ‘books with teeth’—perspectives deeply embedded in the world around us, but with a vision that looks upward and outward to map new possible futures,” the publisher’s press release reads. “As we look ahead, we’re excited to have a logo that speaks to our forward-thinking mission to keep literature wild.”

The National Book Foundation has announced the longlist for the 2025 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature (YPL). Four of the ten authors on this year’s longlist were previously finalists for the honor. “Through fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, and novels-in-verse, the protagonists of the 2025 YPL longlisted titles navigate historical circumstances, deconstruct societal expectations, and aspire to brighter futures,” the organization wrote in its press release. The titles on the longlist are: A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez (Roaring Brook Press) by María Dolores Águila, The Corruption of Hollis Brown (HarperCollins) by K. Ancrum, The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze (Viking Books for Young Readers) by Derrick Barnes, A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe (Crown Books for Young Readers) by Mahogany L. Browne, A World Worth Saving (Dial Books for Young Readers) by Kyle Lukoff, The Leaving Room (Feiwel & Friends) by Amber McBride, The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story (Levine Querido) by Daniel Nayeri, Truth Is (Amulet Books) by Hannah V. Sawyerr, Song of a Blackbird (First Second) by Maria van Lieshout, and (S)Kin (Versify) by Ibi Zoboi. All National Book Award finalists will be announced in the New York Times on October 7, and the winners will be announced at a ceremony on November 19.

For Publishers Weekly, Sam Spratford examines the ways in which AI technology is—and isn’t—impacting the work of translation. On one end of the spectrum, HarperCollins’ CEO said earlier this year that the publisher aims to automate overseas translations. Critics of this technology, meanwhile, have spoken about the importance of a human touch and the danger of turning translators into people who edit AI translations rather than interpret the original text themselves. “If we think of the literary translation of a book as a cover song, just imagine if Jimi Hendrix had been asked to post-edit an AI cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘All Along the Watchtower’ instead of creating his unique take on the song,” Katrine Øgaard Jensen, the executive director of the American Literary Translators Association, said. Others remain largely unconcerned; AI translations, they argue, still trail behind the best literary work by humans.

Last week the Poetry Foundation announced the recipients of its 2026 Pegasus Awards, a suite of prizes that recognize poetry craft, service, and criticism. These include the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, a lifetime achievement award that went to Robert Pinsky; the Pegasus Award for Service in Poetry, a $25,000 prize that was awarded to Luis J. Rodriguez whose wide-ranging career has included founding Tia Chucha Press; and the $50,000 prize for the Young People’s Poet Laureate, which acknowledges exceptional poetry written for young readers and went to Nikki Grimes. “This year is special because it marks four decades of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, twenty years of the Young People’s Poet Laureate, and the first year of the Pegasus Poetry Book Prize,” Michelle T. Boone, the president and CEO of the Poetry Foundation, said in a statement. The winners will receive their awards at a private ceremony in Chicago next month.

A new survey from Oxford University Press has found that 46 percent of scholars who published a book in the last year used AI in some capacity, but only 8 percent fully disclosed their AI use, according to Publishers Lunch. Academic publishers do tend to explicate their policies around AI use, though different publishers often have different expectations. “The most common uses of AI in books were ‘editing and writing assistance, finding relevant sources and literature, references and citation management, and translation.’ A quarter of respondents used AI in ‘narrative drafting,’ with 20 percent not disclosing their use of AI tools,” Katy Hershberger writes.

For Book Riot, Kelly Jensen surveys a recent string of legal cases involving librarians across the country who were fired for refusing to remove books from their shelves. Five librarians in four states who brought wrongful termination lawsuits after getting embroiled in book bans recently settled out of the courtroom. As Jensen explains, in our current legal and political moment it’s important to look at these settlements as victories. After all, “Each represents a librarian who did their job by defending the First Amendment rights of every person in their community. Each also represents something we simply have not seen play out well in the courts right now: decisive insight into whether public libraries exist to serve the will of the taxpayers or the political whims of whatever party is in charge.”

PBS Books and the Association of University Presses are teaming up on a yearlong digital series featuring authors publishing books with university presses around the country, Publishers Weekly reports. The series, Uncovered, will consist of one episode each month highlighting one author and a dozen recommended books all focused on a specific theme. The first episode will come out next week and will feature author Amaris Castillo and eleven other books on Hispanic and Latinx culture in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. “I’ve worked in the university press world for twenty years, and I started as a publicist,” Stephanie Williams, the president of the Association of University Presses, said. “I noticed a significant decrease in the amount of media coverage [for upcoming releases, and] as a member and president of the association, I wanted to do something to bring smaller university presses an opportunity to have that engagement.”

Last week, a district court judge denied Sarah Wynn-Williams’ motions for a preliminary injunction that would allow her to speak about her book, Careless People (Flatiron, 2025), according to Publishers Lunch. Wynn-Williams is a former Meta executive who signed a non-disclosure agreement along with a severance agreement when she left in 2017, and then went on to write about her experiences working at the company. Shortly after her book was published in March 2025, an arbitrator ruled that partaking in related publicity or appearances would violate the terms of her NDA. Wynn-Williams filed a lawsuit to overturn this gag order in June, but now the Court says that she must go back to arbitration. “Wynn-Williams’ participation was significant for over fifteen months, and she attempts to proceed here only after receiving multiple unfavorable rulings, particularly losing on her requests to have the interim award vacated,” the court filing states. “Moreover, she only recently filed this action seeking judicial intervention when the arbitration is approaching its climax—on May 7, 2026, the arbitrator rejected both sides’ requests to pursue dispositive motions and set the matter for merits hearing in October 2026.”

The National Book Foundation has announced that Salman Rushdie is the recipient of its 2026 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Rushdie is the author of fifteen novels and numerous works of nonfiction including the memoir Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder (Random House, 2024), which was a finalist for the 2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction. He was also the president of PEN America from 2004–2006, during which time he co-founded the PEN World Voices Festival, and has received numerous awards including the Booker Prize and the National Arts Award. “Salman Rushdie’s sweeping body of work is a celebration of literature’s power to shape narratives, build bridges, and form connections beyond borders, generations, and identities,” Ruth Dickey, the executive director of the National Book Foundation, said in a press release. “Rushdie’s novels and short story collections are set across real and imagined landscapes, and his writing thrives in its specificity—offering readers access to unflinchingly honest stories that are culturally, politically, and geographically varied.” Author Kiran Desai will present Rushdie with the medal at the National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner in November.

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) reported strong sales numbers for the first half of 2026, according to Publishers Weekly. June sales in particular were up 11 percent over a year ago; adult fiction sales in particular increased a whopping 19.3 percent, thanks in large part to the fact that Theo of Golden (Atria, 2025) by Allen Levi sold 55,000 copies. “Adult trade book sales in [the first six months of 2026] were driven by a huge increase in digital audio, where sales jumped 14.7 percent over a year ago,” Jim Milliot adds. “E-books did not fare as well, with six-month sales down 2.5 percent.”

The Independent Publishers Caucus has released the Independent Press Top 40 best-seller lists for the week ending September 6, 2026. The lists, in fiction and nonfiction, are compiled in partnership with the American Booksellers Association and identify “the top titles from independent presses as represented at independent bookstores across the U.S.” This week on the fiction list, The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett (Spiegel & Grau) once again retains the top spot, above Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey (Norton, 2017). New to the fiction list are The Birthing Tree (Catapult) by Amanda Peters, at no. 4; The Nudge (Podium Publishing) by Joseph Fink, at no. 22; and The Eye of Goliath (Pushkin Press) by Diego Muzzio, at no. 29.

The International Publishers Association (IPA) has announced the shortlist for its inaugural Freedom of Expression Defenders Award. The prize recognizes initiatives that are working to defend freedom of expression and the freedom to publish and read books. This year’s shortlist includes the Media Coalition, an American group that protects the media’s First Amendment rights; the Penguin Random House Intellectual Freedom Taskforce; Georgia’s Sovlab, or the Soviet Past Research Laboratory, which investigates the country’s Soviet totalitarian past and counters Russian misinformation; Germany’s StraightForward Foundation, which supports persecuted Russian artists; and the Turkish Journalists Association, the country’s first professional press organization. “With this initiative we really wanted to be able to bring hope and inspiration and our first ever shortlist does exactly that,” Gvantsa Jobava, the president of the IPA, said. “These are all initiatives showing how we can fight for freedom of expression, for the freedom to publish and for the freedom to read. Let us learn from them and use their experience.”

Audible says that it has “quadrupled” the number of books it has translated from European languages into English so far in 2026, according to Publishers Weekly. By the end of the year, European translations—notably those from Germany, France, Spain, and Italy—will make up nearly a quarter of the company’s original audiobooks. Audible confirms that all of the narration was done by humans, not AI. “The success of these titles has reinforced our belief that great storytelling transcends language and borders,” Aurelie de Troyer, the company’s head of international content, said in a statement. “As audio becomes increasingly global, we’re able to introduce English-speaking listeners to exceptional writers and creators through a new medium.”