"I love the way an audiobook brings me one step closer to a story, removing the middleman of paper or a screen. I’m not just hovering over the action, I’m in it. Channeling it. Bonus: No trees are harmed in the recording." —Elisabeth Egan www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...

"I hold passionately to the importance of long-form nonfiction in helping us understand the world." —Caroline Sanderson, associate editor, The Bookseller @thebookseller.com www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...

Tomorrow, December 19 at 11:59 p.m. ET, is the deadline for the Literary Arts Fund’s 2026 general operating grants. U.S.-based literary arts nonprofits that directly support creative writers are invited to review the fund’s eligibility requirements and apply: literaryartsfund.org/grants/

"Kevin engaged the Bay Area poetry scene like Warhol did his Factory – but unlike Warhol, it wasn’t centered around him or his work.” —Evan Kennedy www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...

There’s one week left to apply for the Literary Arts Fund’s 2026 general operating grants. U.S.-based literary arts nonprofits directly serving creative writers are invited to review the eligibility requirements and apply by December 19 at 11:59 p.m. EST. Learn more: literaryartsfund.org/grants.

"In American high schools, the age of the book may be fading." —Dana Goldstein www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/u...

"She was a world builder." A beautiful tribute to DéLana R.A. Dameron. May she rest in peace. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/b...

"What writing does do for me is allow me to ask the kind of question that matters to me and there is something so joyful and meaningful...in the making of room in your life to sit with what matters to you even if those questions are difficult..." —@meghamaj.bsky.social lithub.com/megha-majumd...

The Atlantic’s editors pick their favorite books of the year—10 titles that distinguish themselves as worth reading and remembering. See the full list: theatln.tc/gaJVrZ7O

The Literary Arts Fund’s 2026 general operating grant application window is open though December 19, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Literary arts nonprofits that directly support creative writers and their artistic work are invited to apply. Learn more: literaryartsfund.org/grants/

Looking for a book to gift or read this upcoming holiday season? Here's a great list from the well-read folks @literaryhub.bsky.social.

If you love a small press, check out these 100 notable small press books from 2025!

Journalism and fiction are both essential to a thriving democracy, George Packer argues. He explores how his experience writing a political novel revealed similarities between imagined worlds and reality:

“When other generations look back to see how and whether we were sufficient to the demands our times will have made of us, they will look at what we wrote and published and read.” —Marilynne Robinson lithub.com/the-voice-of...

Today, PEN America introduces the Incarcerated Writers Bureau, a digital resource for professionals seeking to work with writers and journalists in US prisons. The website features a database of best practices, a submission hub, and writer profiles. Read more here: pen.org/press-releas...

Attorneys general for 21 states sued to prevent the federal government from gutting the Institute of Museum and Library Services and other agencies, and on November 21, Judge John J. McConnell Jr. upheld an earlier preliminary injunction.

"James Patterson has been a huge ally of independent bookstores for years, for good reason — he understands how badly we need their enthusiastic work to support reading, authors and community.” —Andy Hunter, founder and CEO, Bookshop.org people.com/james-patter...

"Poetry helps us to say, oh, there are things I know that I haven’t learned. There are instincts or intuitions that arise for me that prove to be quite practical and useful." —Tracy K. Smith lithub.com/tracy-k-smit...

"However we read — by eye, by ear or both — it all counts. What matters is that the words get in, the brain makes meaning and the identity of being a reader takes hold. We need more readers, however they get there." —Brian Bannon, The New York Public Library www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...

“There are numerous benefits to a regular reading practice, experts say…Studies have found that reading fiction specifically can make people more empathetic, strengthen their social-cognitive abilities and increase psychological richness.” www.theguardian.com/wellness/202...

"There is room for all of our voices..." —Roxane Gay www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/b...

"Yes, the past is gone, but the past is how we learn. The past is how we got here. It’s worth a celebration. Even when it all went wrong. Especially when it did not." —Jeanette Winterson lithub.com/an-anniversa...

"Perhaps this is where literature and art can help: by bringing forth perspectives and experiences we might otherwise never encounter, by turning abstract phenomena such as extinction and climate change into experiences and stories we can live through." —Iida Turpeinen lithub.com/iida-turpein...

"He was a poet of the particular." —Bob Holman www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/n...

"Fiction is an alchemical art, a way of knowing not only the worlds that exist today but hypothetical worlds, vanished pasts and imaginary futures. Why read or write fiction at all, if you don’t want to go beyond the mind you have?" —Karen Russell lithub.com/meet-the-202...

During the government shutdown, booksellers are collecting food for Americans who receive federal aid to buy groceries.

"Every word matters; the spaces between the words matter. The book is about living, and the strangeness of living and, as we read, as we turn the pages, we’re glad we’re alive and reading..." —Roddy Doyle @thebookerprizes.com thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-l...

"Always the same story: two people, one tree, not enough land or light or love." —Philip Metres @philipmetres.bsky.social thelandcle.org/stories/a-li...

The Literary Arts Fund’s 2026 general operating grant application window is now open. U.S.-based literary arts nonprofits whose primary mission is presenting, publishing, and/or otherwise directly supporting creative writers are invited to apply: literaryartsfund.org/grants/

"A hunger that feels distinctly of our time: to follow thought as it unfolds, to see the forces that shape it, to watch meaning being made instead of delivered." —Laura Moore electricliterature.com/nonfiction-i...

"Art can’t save us from anything, but we need it as a reminder of something better." —A.O. Scott www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

"The AI boom not only normalizes plagiarism, but it also entirely ignores the work it takes to produce great writing." —Maris Kreizman lithub.com/when-we-deva...

Citing a chronic shortage of financial backing for independent publishers & nonprofits dedicated to writing and reading, a coalition of seven charitable foundations has established a Literary Arts Fund that will distribute a minimum of $50 million over the next five years. https://to.pbs.org/4o6lqua

"American philanthropy can and must play a bigger role in strengthening the financial infrastructure of the literary organizations and nonprofits that serve these literary artists." —Elizabeth Alexander, poet and President of the Mellon Foundation lithub.com/good-news-a-...

Happy to help share the news of the Literary Arts Fund launch today and to serve as its executive director. More here: literaryartsfund.org

"To let it be—that is the crux of the poet’s task: 'Leave this little echo to haunt the poem…It has the shape of your own soul as you write.'" —Elisa Gonzalez @parisreview.bsky.social www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/09...

"As laureate I feel a great responsibility to promote the ways poetry, especially poetry in translation, can impact our daily lives." —Arthur Sze, the new US Poet Laureate www.npr.org/2025/09/15/n...

Praise the mutilated world and the gray feather a thrush lost, and the gentle light that strays and vanishes and returns. —Adam Zagajewski www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57095/...

"By taking the brave leap of participating in challenging conversations, we allow ourselves to be seen more truly and honestly; we may even become better listeners, too, and gain compassion for differing opinions." —Linda-Marie Barrett lithub.com/why-everyone...

"There are unbelievably dedicated artists, makers, thinkers and doers working away in rural communities, in their little cabin in the woods next to the river, just like Lorine. How important those voices are." —Clara Wolfe pbswisconsin.org/article/arch...

"Poems are still showing me who I am, what has shaped me, and what I care about, and I love (Stanley) Kunitz’s 'every stone on the road / precious to me.'" —Joan Larkin brooklynrail.org/2025/09/book...

"You have to change it up, you have to experiment, you have to insist that your work is not just a reaction to what’s happening to you. Your work is a thing in and of itself, a way of positing another vision of the world." —Arundhati Roy www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/m...

“Writing is, then, for me, an act and a process of mindfulness, which is as difficult in writing as it is in life, but which, for me, often only happens because of writing.” —Brandon Shimoda coloradosun.com/2025/08/31/s...

"A great book review can be just as rich, entertaining, and insightful as a great short story." —@thefrontlist.org worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...

“What’s the most important thing humanity has engineered?...It was the creation of the systemic and institutional trust that was required for us to build societies. And a lot of that engineering was actually collective stories..." —Daniel Kwan www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

We’re hiring—for two full-time positions! Los Angeles Review of Books is seeking a Membership & Development Manager and an Audience Engagement Editor to support our team. Based in LA, listings and info below:

“Reading has historically been a low-barrier, high-impact way to engage creatively and improve quality of life. When we lose one of the simplest tools in our public health toolkit, it’s a serious loss.” —Jill Sonke www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Living, being in the world, was a much greater and stranger thing than she had ever dreamed.

“I think it is important to grant people the right to be saved by the stories they need.” —Federico Pianzola www.publicbooks.org/our-golden-a...