Two lawsuits to prevent the dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services have met with mixed results in the courts. However, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office quoted at length from both cases in a new report that finds the gutting of the IMLS to be unlawful.
Five years after "retiring" BookCon and BookExpo, ReedPop has announced—to the surprise of many in the book business—that it plans to revive BookCon. The new iteration of the consumer-facing show is slated for April 18-19, 2026, returning to its former home in New York City's Javits Center.
The American Library Association has announced that Carla Hayden, who was fired from her job as the Librarian of Congress by the Trump administration May 8, will participate in a one-on-one conversation with bestselling author Kwame Alexander June 28 at this year's ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition, set to take place June 26–30 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.
In a decision that may prove catastrophic for the American library community, a federal judge has denied a preliminary injunction in American Library Association v. Sonderling, a case seeking to halt the demolition of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
A new tool to quickly identify books that are poisonous to humans has been developed by the University of St Andrews.
Historically, publishers used arsenic mixed with copper to achieve a vivid emerald green color for book covers.
Edmund White, the American writer, playwright and essayist who attracted acclaim for his semi-autobiographical novels such as A Boy's Own Story – and literally wrote the book on gay sex, with the pioneering The Joy of Gay Sex – has died aged 85.
Last month the National Endowment for the Arts canceled grants already awarded to hundreds of nonprofits, including a total of $1.2 million promised to 51 independent presses and literary organizations.
The Book Manufacturers Institute, a trade association for book printers and their suppliers in North America, is joining the industry's fight against book bans. Through the "BMI Challenge," the association is encouraging its 110 members donate to We Are Stronger Than Censorship, an initiative cosponsored by the Independent Book Publishers Association and EveryLibrary Institute; if members raise $16,000, BMI will match that sum with its own $16,000 donation.
On May 14, Eksmo, Russia's largest publisher—accounting for approximately 20% of the market—sent a letter to "all interested organizations," which included booksellers and other partners of the publisher, with a list of 50 titles to be "disposed of on site or returned if unsold." The letter, PW has learned, was intended as a preemptive self-censorship move to shield the publishing house's bookselling partners and others from a government crackdown that came came a day later, resulting in the arrest of eleven current and former employees of Eksmo. All were interrogated, and three have been accused of disseminating "LGBT propaganda"—a criminal act under Russian law. The three accused remain under house arrest.
The Kenyan writer Ngugi wa, who was censored, imprisoned and forced into exile by the dictator Daniel arap Moi, a perennial contender for the Nobel prize for literature and one of few writers working in an indigenous African language, has died aged 87.