"Change me, drastically if possible. Transform me. Make me other. That’s what I ask of books—both when I read them and when I write them." —Cristina Rivera Garza lithub.com/cristina-riv...

"We believe that everyone in our country deserves meaningful access to the veracity, beauty, imagination, and continual revelation that the arts and humanities provide." —Elizabeth Alexander, President of @mellon.org, a co-founder of the Literary Arts Fund

Writers George Saunders, Roxane Gay, and Jodi Picoult, among others, have joined the Human Artistry Campaign's "Stealing Isn't Innovation" effort to protest tech companies using copyrighted creative work without permission to build AI language models. www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...

then let us believe the product of our lives is greater than the sum of us —Elaine Mintzer www.scientificamerican.com/article/poem...

Rachel Eliza Griffiths is releasing her memoir, "The Flower Bearers," after enduring profound personal tragedies.

“Writing, which is a kind of paying attention, can be an act of love, an illumination...” —Larissa Pham @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/writing-towa...

"Words can empower or break a person, a community, a nation. But when we share stories with one another, we are reminded of our shared humanity." —Shugri Salh www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

"We don't survive if we don't figure out how to hear, respect and see each other. And I think that literature has superpowers to do that." —Elizabeth Alexander, poet and President of the @mellon.org Foundation on the new @literaryartsfund.bsky.social www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

"The benefit of reading more than one book at a time is that no matter how different the two books are, they always end up speaking to each other in ways I couldn’t have imagined." —Laura Dave time.com/7344842/read...

"Poetry is alive; it celebrates our human experience with language, voice and reflection." —Laura Tohe, newly appointed Poet Laureate of Arizona news.asu.edu/20260114-uni...

What indy titles are indy bookstore shoppers reading? Launching today: a new and alternative best-sellers book list from the Independent Publishers Caucus and @americanbookseller.bsky.social... www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Today's Feature: Alyse Knorr and Kate Partridge Remember Mel Nichols Read here: poems.com/features/wha...

“I’m interested in writing my way through, around, above, and below my life, as a way to navigate life’s joys, beauties, and sadnesses all at once.” —@victoriachang.bsky.social www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...

"It feels like, to me, creativity is...this sort of vast collective consciousness, and I am, you know, a guy with a radio, turning the dial, tuning into it and trying to tune into it day after day." —Benjamin Wood lithub.com/benjamin-woo...

"I hope with every book I write that it heals something in someone." —Tayari Jones @tayari.bsky.social on her new book, "Kin." #LiteraryArts

"If you’re still looking for a New Year’s resolution, 'read more books' could well be good for national morale." —Brittany Allen, @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/in-2025-most...

“A joy that wears down the rock of no." —Cornelius Eady m.youtube.com/watch?v=cjYQ...

"“Poets and artists can speak in a language that is different from the language of politicians. They can say things that politicians can’t say. They are there to capture an essence.” —Elizabeth Alexander www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/n...

"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...