The new budget released by the government of Canada last week permanently increased the Canada Book Fund by CDN $5 million annually. This increase, the first since 2001, will bring the Canada Book Fund’s total annual budget to approximately CDN $43.4 million starting in 2027–28. - Publishers Weekly
“Eighty-one-year-old M John Harrison has won the Booker Prize for The End of Everything, a postapocalyptic novel set on a near-future Kent coast, becoming the oldest winner in the award’s history." Booker Prize Foundation CEO Gaby Wood called it "the first Booker winner to have emerged from the bona fide SF world.” - The Guardian
In short: "The New York Times has terminated their contract with author Olivia Waite, their romance columnist, after she reposted Mark Jacob’s repost of Marisa Kabas’ criticism of the Times’ coverage of new rape allegations about Trump." - Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
"Unfortunately, it’s part of the world that we live in right now. So the Queens Public Library is a victim of the type of world that we’re living in, where people are launching cyber attacks against various types of entities, large corporations, and now Queens Public Library." - LitHub
The Guardian asks them, with some decent results. "Iris Murdoch once said, 'One should sit quietly and let the thing invent itself,' and I took that as a mantra, letting the book emerge. It turns out that can be quite messy." - The Guardian (UK)
You know what often comes after years of (hot) sex, at least for some couples? That's right: Babies. But do they, and their needs, belong in the hottest book series on the market? - Slate
The century-old Strand Bookstore has agreed to pay the federal government nearly $1.5 million to resolve a claim that it was not eligible for a pandemic-relief loan it obtained because the store’s owner is married to a member of Congress. - The New York Times
It is something of a truism in the library world that, when economic conditions worsen, people use libraries more. Patrons and librarians across the U.S. tell NPR they're seeing that pan out now. - NPR
"Philippe Jaenada, who won the Prix Goncourt on Tuesday for L’Inconnue du quai de Javel (The Unknown Woman of the Quai de Javel), told France Inter radio on Wednesday that he had turned to AI ‘three times’ while writing it.” - The Guardian
The “immersive” biography of Alexander the Great, which includes Richardson’s translations of source material from 12 different languages, is the first work about ancient history to win the £50,000 ($67,000) award. - AP
The win of the £10,000 award makes The Rouse the longest novel to take the prize since it was launched in 2013 for fiction that “breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form.” - The Guardian
“Houdini, whose real name was Eric Weisz, was a prolific author, with more than two dozen books, short stories and plays to his name. One of them, an article titled ‘An Interesting Scrapbook,’ ... appears for the first time in print on Saturday” — the centennial of his death — “in Strand magazine.” - The Guardian
While AI translations are very fluent, fluency doesn’t equal accuracy. Even proficient bilinguals can overlook errors hidden under the surface. - The Conversation
“’We have been killed,’ reads a statement from the editorial team behind the Russian independent news outlet Novaya Gazeta, as it announced on Friday that it would be ceasing operations. … ‘The newspaper no longer exists. The Russian authorities and the Russian security services have forced our editorial team to cease its operations.’” - Euronews
